The execution of the Royal family

On the night of July 16-17, 1918 executing the resolution of the Presidium of the Ural Regional Soviet of Workers, Peasants and Soldiers' Deputies the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, members of his family (Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatyana, Maria, Anastasia, Grand Duke Tsarevich Alexei) as well as members of the Royal suite (physician Ye. Botkin, chef I. Kharitonov, maid A. Demidova and valet, colonel A. Troopp) were shot in the basement of Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg.

The imperial family – Nicholas II, Alexandra Feodorovna and Maria Nikolaevna – arrived in Yekaterinburg on April 30, 1918. Before that they had stayed in Tobolsk, however in early April the All-Russian Central Executive Committee took the decision to transfer the family. Initially it was planned to move the family to Moscow, but the Ural officials insisted on Yekaterinburg. Alexei, who was ill, stayed in Tobolsk with Olga, Tatyana, Anastasia and the suite. On May 23 they were transferred to Yekaterinburg. According to some sources, the move was allegedly caused by a threat of the monarchial plot which aimed to liberate the former Emperor, according to others – by the plans of the Bolsheviks to initiate the legal process or prepare for the execution of the tsar and his family. The relocation was organized and performed by V. Yakovlev (Myachin) - a special authorized representative of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

During the move of Nicholas II, Alexandra Feodorovna and Maria Nikolaevna to the Urals V. Yakovlev came into conflict with the Ural authorities. The special representative of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee figured out the plot of the Ural regional officials to assassinate the Romanov family along the way. For this reason, after the arrival in Tyumen from Tobolsk V. Yakovlev ordered to move to Omsk instead of Yekaterinburg. The Ural Soviet protested to V. Lenin and Ya. Sverdlov, qualified his actions as treacherous and called for his arrest. As a result of the Soviet officials’ correspondence with both parties and the assurance given by Ya. Sverdlov to V. Yakovlev that the Ural authorities would not harm the royal family, on April 30 the train arrived in Yekaterinburg.

The royal family was imprisoned in the requisitioned house of the military engineer N. Ipatiev under the control of the commandant A. Avdeev. The detention conditions compared to those in Tobolsk were toughened. On July 4 Ya. Yurovsky – member of the board of the Ural Regional Emergency Commission was appointed the commandant of the house.

The history of taking the decision of killing the royal family has been not thoroughly investigated. According to the official Soviet historiography, the decision was made by the executive committee of the Ural Regional Soviet while the Soviet leadership learned about this after the incident. In the 1990s another version appeared that the decision was made by the leadership, while the local authorities assumed the responsibility for providing a political alibi for the Moscow leaders. The first version about the unauthorized decision of the Ural Regional Soviet appears to be more reasonable than the second one. It has been found out that the Bolshevik leadership indeed discussed the fate of Nicholas II and planned a trial in Moscow, however, there was no official evidence of plans to kill the rest of the family. Along with this, the Ural party organizations, which feared the chance of liberation of Nicholas II, called for his immediate execution, as well as “the murder of the whole family and relatives of the former tsar”. The idea was supported by F. Goloschyokin – the Ural military commissar who arrived in Moscow on July 4, 1918. Failing to obtain the orders for assassination, upon returning to the Urals on the night of July 14, F. Goloschyokin and other members of the executive committee of the Ural Soviet decided that it was impossible to wait for the former emperor’s  trial, and reported this to Moscow. No response to this telegram from the central leadership has been found in the archives. On the night of July 16-17 the royal family was awakened under the pretext of an alarming situation in the city, taken to the basement room where it was shot.

Officially the news of the murder of the former emperor was announced by Ya. Sverdlov on July 18 at the meeting of the Presidium of the 5th All-Russian Central Executive Committee. It was noted that the central committee “represented by the Presidium approved of the decision of the Ural Regional Soviet”. The general public learned about this on July 19 when Izvestiya newspaper published the news about the execution of Nicholas Romanov. The reason for the execution was a threat of conspiracy of counterrevolutionaries who were allegedly preparing an escape of the former tsar. The news read about the murder of Nicholas II only, the family was said to have been sent to a safe place.

The investigation into the murder of the royal family in Russia, led by Admiral A.V. Kolchak in February 1919, was conducted by N.A. Sokolov, a renowned investigator from the Omsk District Court. The results of this investigation were first published in Paris in 1924 under the title "Investigative Materials on the Murder of the Russian Imperial Family". After the death of Sokolov in 1924, his book "The Murder of the Royal Family: From the Notes of the Judicial Investigator N.A. Sokolov" was published in Russia.The remains of five members of the Imperial family, as well as those of their servants, were discovered near Yekaterinburg in 1979. However, they were not extracted until July 1991, when they were identified during an investigation into a criminal case opened by the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation. On the 80th anniversary of the execution, on July 17, 1998, the remains were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

In July 2007, the remains of Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria were also found. Despite the Russian Orthodox Church having canonized the Emperor, Empress, and their children as "passion-bearers" in 2000, it has yet to recognize the authenticity of these remains. As a result, the remains of Tsarevich Alexey and Grand Duchess Maria have not been buried alongside the rest of the Imperial Family in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

In 2003, to commemorate the family of the last Russian emperor, a church was built on the site of the Ipatiev House, which was demolished in 1977.

 

Lit.: Преступление века. Материалы следствия: документально-архивная хронология событий, связанных с гибелью Российского императора Николая II, его семьи и их приближённых: в 3 т. М.: Следственный комитет Российской Федерации, 2021 [Электронный ресурс]. URL: https://sledcom.ru/Proekty/isbookcrime1#section_1618838; Сборник документов, относящихся к убийству Императора Николая II и его семьи [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://rus-sky.com/history/library/docs.htm; Хрусталёв В. М. Романовы. Последние дни великой династии. М., 2013; Лученко К. Что мешает РПЦ признать царские останки // Ведомости [Электронный ресурс]. URL: https://www.vedomosti.ru/opinion/articles/2018/07/17/775674-meshaet-priznat-ostanki.

 

Based on:

Murder of members of the Imperial House of Romanov near Alapaevsk // 1918 [digital collection]

The execution of the Royal family // 1918: [digital collection]

Individual and Mass Terror during the Civil War // 1918: [digital collection]