The Romanov family was numerous; there were no problems with the successors to the throne. In 1918, after the Bolsheviks shot the emperor, his wife and children, a large number of impostors. Rumors spread that that very night in Yekaterinburg, one of them still survived.

And today many believe that one of the children could have been saved and that their offspring could live among us.

Anastasia was youngest daughter Nicholas. In 1918, when the Romanovs were executed, Anastasia’s remains were not found in the family’s burial place and rumors spread that the young princess had survived.

People all over the world have been reincarnated as Anastasia. One of the most prominent impostors was Anna Anderson. I think she was from Poland.

Anna imitated Anastasia in her behavior, and rumors that Anastasia was alive spread quite quickly. Many also tried to imitate her sisters and brother. People all over the world tried to cheat, but Russia had the most doppelgängers.

Many believed that the children of Nicholas II survived. But even after the burial of the Romanov family was found, scientists were unable to identify the remains of Anastasia. Most historians still cannot confirm that the Bolsheviks killed Anastasia.

Later, a secret burial was found, in which the remains of the young princess were discovered, and forensic experts were able to prove that she died along with the rest of the family in 1918. Her remains were reburied in 1998.

Many people believed that the Bolsheviks buried the Romanovs in various places in the Sverdlovsk region. In addition, many were convinced that two of the children were able to escape.

There was a theory that Tsarevich Alexei and Princess Maria were able to escape from the scene of the terrible execution. In 1976, scientists picked up a trail with the remains of the Romanovs. In 1991, when the era of communism was over, researchers were able to obtain government permission to open the burial site of the Romanovs, the same one left by the Bolsheviks.

But scientists needed DNA analysis to confirm the theory. They asked Prince Philip and Prince Michael of Kent to provide DNA samples to compare with those of the royal couple. Forensic experts confirmed that the DNA did indeed belong to the Romanovs. As a result of this research, it was possible to confirm that the Bolsheviks buried Tsarevich Alexei and Princess Maria separately from the rest.

In 2007, Sergei Plotnikov, one of the founders of an amateur historical group, made an amazing discovery. His group was searching for any facts related to the royal family.

In his free time, Sergei was engaged in searching for the remains of the Romanovs at the supposed site of the first burial. And one day he was lucky, he came across something solid and started digging.

To his surprise, he found several fragments of pelvic and skull bones. After an examination, it was established that these bones belong to the children of Nicholas II.

After an analysis of the bones of Alexei and Maria, it was found that the bones were severely damaged, but differently than the bones of the emperor himself.

Traces of bullets were found on Nikolai's remains, which means the children were killed in a different way. The rest of the family also suffered in their own ways.

Scientists were able to establish that Alexei and Maria were doused with acid and died from burns. Despite the fact that these two children were buried separately from the rest of the family, they suffered no less.

Archaeologists discovered 9 skulls, teeth, bullets of various calibers, fabric from clothes and wires from a wooden box. The remains were determined to be those of a boy and a woman, with approximate ages ranging from 10 to 23 years.

The likelihood that the boy was Tsarevich Alexei, and the girl Princess Maria, is quite high. In addition, there were theories that the government managed to discover the location where the Romanov bones were kept. There were rumors that the remains had been found back in 1979, but the government kept this information secret.

In 1990, another group of archaeologists decided to start excavations, in the hope that they would be able to discover some more traces of the location of the remains of the Romanovs.

After several days or even weeks, they dug up an area the size of a football field, but never completed the study because they ran out of money. Surprisingly, Sergei Plotnikov found bone fragments in this very territory.

The Russian Orthodox Church refused to accept the fact that the bones actually belonged to the Romanov family. The Church demanded more evidence that these same remains were actually found in the burial of the royal family in Yekaterinburg.

The successors of the Romanov family supported the Russian Orthodox Church, demanding additional research and confirmation that the bones really belong to the children of Nicholas II.

The reburial of the family was postponed many times, as the Russian Orthodox Church each time questioned the correctness of the DNA analysis and the belonging of the bones to the Romanov family. The church asked forensic experts to conduct an additional examination. After scientists finally managed to convince the church that the remains really belonged to the royal family, the Russian Orthodox Church planned a reburial.

The successors of the family tree of the Romanov dynasty live among us. One of the heirs to the royal genes is Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and he provided his DNA for research. Prince Philip is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, grandniece of Princess Alexandra, and the great-great-great-grandson of Nicholas I.

Another relative who helped with DNA identification is Prince Michael of Kent. His grandmother was a cousin of Nicholas II.

There are eight more successors of this family: Hugh Grosvenor, Constantine II, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna Romanova, Grand Duke George Mikhailovich, Olga Andreevna Romanova, Francis Alexander Matthew, Nicoletta Romanova, Rostislav Romanov. But these relatives did not provide their DNA for analysis, since Prince Philip and Prince Michael of Kent were recognized as the closest relatives.

The Bolsheviks executed the royal family in Yekaterinburg, and they needed to somehow hide the evidence of the crime.

There are two theories about how the Bolsheviks killed children. According to the first version, they first shot Nikolai, and then put his daughters in a mine where no one could find them. The Bolsheviks tried to blow up the mine, but their plan failed, so they decided to pour acid on the children and burn them.

According to the second version, the Bolsheviks wanted to cremate the bodies of the murdered Alexei and Maria. After several studies, scientists and forensic experts concluded that it was not possible to cremate the bodies.

To cremate a human body, it takes a lot of heat, and the Bolsheviks were in the forest, and they did not have the opportunity to create the necessary conditions. After unsuccessful attempts at cremation, they finally decided to bury the bodies, but divided the family into two graves.

The fact that the family was not buried together explains why not all family members were initially found. This also disproves the theory that Alexei and Maria managed to escape.

The mystery of the Romanov dynasty rests with their remains in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg. After numerous studies, scientists still agreed that the remains belong to Nikolai and his family.

The last farewell ceremony took place in Orthodox Church and lasted three days. During the funeral procession, many still questioned the authenticity of the remains. But scientists say the bones are 97% identical to the members' DNA royal family.

In Russia, this ceremony was given special significance. Residents of fifty countries around the world watched as the Romanov family retired. It took more than 80 years to debunk the myths about the family of the last emperor of the Russian Empire. With the completion of the funeral procession, an entire era passed into the past.

Almost a hundred years have passed since that terrible night when the Russian Empire ceased to exist forever. Until now, no historian can state unequivocally what happened that night and whether any of the family members survived. Most likely, the secret of this family will remain unsolved and we can only guess what really happened.

One of the most interesting historical topics for me is the high-profile murders of famous personalities. In almost all of these murders and investigations that were subsequently carried out, there are many incomprehensible, contradictory facts. Often the murderer was not found, or only the perpetrator, the scapegoat, was found. Main characters, the motives and circumstances of these crimes remained behind the scenes and gave historians the opportunity to put forward hundreds of different hypotheses, constantly interpret known evidence in new and different ways and write interesting books that I love so much.

In the execution of the royal family in Yekaterinburg on the night of July 16-17, 1918, there are more secrets and inconsistencies in the regime that approved this execution and then carefully hid its details. In this article I will just give a few facts that prove that Nicholas II was not killed on that summer day. Although, I assure you, there are many more of them, and many professional historians still do not agree with the official statement that the remains of the entire crowned family have been found, identified and buried.

Let me very briefly recall the circumstances as a result of which Nicholas II and his family found themselves under the rule of the Bolsheviks and under the threat of execution. For the third year in a row, Russia was drawn into war, the economy was in decline, and popular anger was fueled by scandals related to Rasputin's antics and the German origin of the emperor's wife. Unrest begins in Petrograd.

Nicholas II at this time was traveling to Tsarskoe Selo; due to the riots, he was forced to make a detour through the Dno station and Pskov. It was in Pskov that the tsar received telegrams asking the commanders-in-chief to abdicate and signed two manifestos that legitimized his abdication. After this turning point for the empire and the event itself, Nikolai lives for some time under the protection of the Provisional Government, then falls into the hands of the Bolsheviks and dies in the basement of Ipatiev’s house in July 1918... Or not? Let's look at the facts.

Fact No. 1. Contradictory, and in some places simply fabulous, testimonies from the participants in the execution.

For example, the commandant of the Ipatiev house and the leader of the execution Ya.M. Yurovsky, in his note compiled for the historian Pokrovsky, claims that during the execution, bullets ricocheted from the victims and flew around the room like hail, as the women sewed up gems into their corsages. How many stones are needed for the corsage to provide the same protection as cast chain mail?!

Another alleged participant in the execution, M.A. Medvedev, recalled not only a hail of ricochets, but also stone pillars that came from nowhere in the room in the basement, as well as powder fog, because of which the executioners almost shot each other! And this, considering that smokeless gunpowder was invented more than thirty years before the events described.

Another killer, Pyotr Ermakov, argued that he single-handedly shot all the Romanovs and their servants.

The same room in Ipatiev’s house where, according to both the Bolsheviks and the main White Guard investigators, the execution of the family of Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov took place. It is quite possible that completely different people were shot here. More on this in future articles.

Fact No. 2. There is a lot of evidence that the entire family of Nicholas II or some of its members were alive after the day of the execution.

The railway conductor Samoilov, who lived in the apartment of one of the Tsar's guards, Alexander Varakushev, assured the White Guards interrogating him that Nicholas II and his wife were alive on the morning of July 17. Varakushev convinced Samoilov that he saw them after the “execution” on train station. Samoilov himself saw only a mysterious carriage, the windows of which were painted over with black paint.

There are documented testimonies of Captain Malinovsky, and several other witnesses who heard from the Bolsheviks themselves (in particular from Commissar Goloshchekin) that only the Tsar was shot, the rest of the family was simply taken out (most likely to Perm).

The same “Anastasia” who had a striking resemblance to one of the daughters of Nicholas II. It is worth noting, however, that there were many facts indicating that she was an impostor, for example, she knew almost no Russian.

There is a lot of evidence that Anastasia, one of the Grand Duchesses, escaped execution, was able to escape from prison and ended up in Germany. For example, she was recognized by the children of the court physician Botkin. She knew many details from the life of the imperial family, which were later confirmed. And the most important thing: an examination was carried out and the similarity of the structure of her auricle with Anastasia’s shell was established (after all, photographs and even videotapes of this daughter of Nikolai were preserved) according to 17 parameters (according to German law, only 12 are sufficient).

The whole world (at least the world of historians) knows about the notes of the grandmother of the Prince of Anjou, which were made public only after her death. In it, she claimed that she was Maria, the daughter of the last Russian emperor, and that the death of the royal family was an invention of the Bolsheviks. Nicholas II accepted certain conditions of his enemies and saved his family (even though it was later separated). The story of the grandmother of the Prince of Anjou is confirmed by documents from the archives of the Vatican and Germany.

Fact No. 3. The king's life was more profitable than death.

On the one hand, the masses demanded the execution of the Tsar and, as you know, the Bolsheviks did not hesitate much with executions. But the execution of the royal family is not an execution; one must be sentenced to death and have a trial. Here there was a murder without a trial (at least a formal, demonstrative one) and investigation. And even if the former autocrat was killed, why didn’t they present the corpse and prove to the people that they had fulfilled their wish?

On the one hand, why should the Reds leave Nicholas II alive? He could become the banner of the counter-revolution. On the other hand, being dead is also of little use. And he could, for example, be exchanged alive for freedom for the German communist Karl Liebknecht (according to one version, the Bolsheviks did just that). There is also a version that the Germans, without whom the communists would have had a very hard time at that time, needed the signature of the former tsar on the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and his life as a guarantee of the fulfillment of the treaty. They wanted to protect themselves in case the Bolsheviks did not remain in power.

Also, do not forget that Wilhelm II was Nicholas's cousin. It is difficult to imagine that after almost four years of war, the German Kaiser experienced any warm feelings towards the Russian Tsar. But some researchers believe that it was the Kaiser who saved the crowned family, since he did not want the death of his relatives, even yesterday’s enemies.

Nicholas II with his children. I would like to believe that they all survived that terrible summer night.

I don’t know if this article was able to convince anyone that the last Russian emperor was not killed in July 1918. But I hope that many have doubts about this, which prompted them to dig deeper and consider other evidence that contradicts the official version. Much more facts, indicating that the official version of the death of Nicholas II is false, you can find, for example, in the book by L.M. Sonin “The Mystery of the Death of the Royal Family.” I took most of the material for this article from this book.

Moscow. July 17.. in Yekaterinburg, the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II and all members of his family were shot. Almost a hundred years later, the tragedy has been studied far and wide by Russian and foreign researchers. Below are the 10 most important facts about what happened in July 1917 in the Ipatiev House.

1. The Romanov family and their retinue were placed in Yekaterinburg on April 30, in the house of retired military engineer N.N. Ipatieva. Doctor E. S. Botkin, chamberlain A. E. Trupp, the Empress's maid A. S. Demidova, cook I. M. Kharitonov and cook Leonid Sednev lived in the house with the royal family. Everyone except the cook was killed along with the Romanovs.

2. In June 1917, Nicholas II received several letters allegedly from a White Russian officer. The anonymous author of the letters told the Tsar that supporters of the crown intended to kidnap the prisoners of the Ipatiev House and asked Nicholas to provide assistance - to draw plans of the rooms, inform the sleep schedule of family members, etc. The Tsar, however, in his response stated: “We do not want and cannot escape. We can only be kidnapped by force, just as we were brought from Tobolsk by force. Therefore, do not count on any of our active help," thereby refusing to assist the "kidnappers," but not giving up the very idea of ​​being kidnapped.

It subsequently turned out that the letters were written by the Bolsheviks in order to test the royal family's readiness to escape. The author of the texts of the letters was P. Voikov.

3. Rumors about the murder of Nicholas II appeared back in June 1917 after the assassination of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich. The official version of the disappearance of Mikhail Alexandrovich was an escape; at the same time, the tsar was allegedly killed by a Red Army soldier who broke into the Ipatiev house.

4. Exact text of the verdict, which the Bolsheviks brought out and read to the Tsar and his family, is unknown. At approximately 2 o'clock in the morning from July 16 to July 17, the guards woke up the doctor Botkin so that he would wake up the royal family, order them to get ready and go down to the basement. According to various sources, it took from half an hour to an hour to get ready. After the Romanovs and their servants came down, security officer Yankel Yurovsky informed them that they would be killed.

According to various recollections, he said:

“Nikolai Alexandrovich, your relatives tried to save you, but they didn’t have to. And we are forced to shoot you ourselves.”(based on materials from investigator N. Sokolov)

“Nikolai Alexandrovich! The attempts of your like-minded people to save you were not crowned with success! And now, in a difficult time for the Soviet Republic ... - Yakov Mikhailovich raises his voice and chopping the air with his hand: - ... we have been entrusted with the mission of putting an end to the house of the Romanovs.”(according to the memoirs of M. Medvedev (Kudrin))

"Your friends are advancing on Yekaterinburg, and therefore you are sentenced to death"(according to the recollections of Yurovsky’s assistant G. Nikulin.)

Yurovsky himself later said that he did not remember the exact words he said. “...I immediately, as far as I remember, told Nikolai something like the following: that his royal relatives and friends both in the country and abroad tried to free him, and that the Council of Workers’ Deputies decided to shoot them.”

5. Emperor Nicholas, having heard the verdict, asked again:"Oh my God, what is this?" According to other sources, he only managed to say: “What?”

6. Three Latvians refused to carry out the sentence and left the basement shortly before the Romanovs went down there. The weapons of the refuseniks were distributed among those who remained. According to the recollections of the participants themselves, 8 people took part in the execution. “In fact, there were 8 of us performers: Yurovsky, Nikulin, Mikhail Medvedev, four Pavel Medvedev, five Peter Ermakov, but I’m not sure that Ivan Kabanov is six. And I don’t remember the names of two more,” writes G. in his memoirs .Nikulin.

7. It is still unknown whether the execution of the royal family was sanctioned by the highest authority. According to the official version, the decision to “execute” was made by the executive committee of the Ural Regional Council, while the central Soviet leadership learned about what happened only after. By the beginning of the 90s. A version was formed according to which the Ural authorities could not make such a decision without a directive from the Kremlin and agreed to take responsibility for the unauthorized execution in order to provide the central government with a political alibi.

The fact that the Ural Regional Council was not a judicial or other body that had the authority to pass a sentence, execution of the Romanovs for a long time was considered not as political repression, but as murder, which prevented the posthumous rehabilitation of the royal family.

8. After the execution, the bodies of the dead were taken out of town and burned, pre-watering with sulfuric acid to render the remains unrecognizable. The sanction for the release of large quantities of sulfuric acid was issued by the Commissioner of Supply of the Urals P. Voikov.

9. Information about the murder of the royal family became known to society several years later; Initially, the Soviet authorities reported that only Nicholas II was killed; Alexander Fedorovna and her children were allegedly transported to a safe place in Perm. The truth about the fate of the entire royal family was reported in the article " Last days the last tsar" by P. M. Bykov.

The Kremlin acknowledged the fact of the execution of all members of the royal family when the results of N. Sokolov’s investigation became known in the West in 1925.

10. The remains of five members of the imperial family and four of their servants were found in July 1991. not far from Yekaterinburg under the embankment of the Old Koptyakovskaya road. On July 17, 1998, the remains of members of the imperial family were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. In July 2007, the remains of Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria were found.

Tsar Nicholas II and King George V. 1913

Historian-researcher, publisher of diaries of the imperial family about betrayal, passions and the execution of a family on the scale of European geopolitics

What is History like? The story is similar to a huge communal apartment. We are all registered in it - all residents, all participants. Some of the rooms are occupied. You can come in, introduce yourself, ask questions. Others are empty and sealed, there is no one to ask, and only by what people left behind can one understand what they were like. For what? Yes, because we live together! Shared owners of common housing.

What is time? A category of reason, that is, a part of ourselves. The way we want it, that’s how we see it. If it really is a single space of rooms-epochs, then we cannot be divided into “we” and “they” - we are one. And who knows if our ancestors live behind the wall, if they hear our fuss, and if they are not ashamed of us. Most the right way to get there, behind the wall, - documents, letters and diaries. Once you immerse yourself in them, you are in History. The line between times is blurred, as if you wrote it all down yourself. Extreme events are rare. In the diaries, everyday, repetitive actions are performed. You are imperceptibly drawn in and live them yourself, in the first person, and you can no longer say - I another.

The publishing house "PROZAIK" published "The Diary of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich (K.R.) 1911-1915." This is the third and final part of a large publishing project "To the 400th anniversary of the House of Romanov." It included the two-volume “Diaries of Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna 1917-1918”, as well as “Diaries and Letters of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich 1915-1918.” Previously, only imperial archives were published. The documents of the Grand Dukes are published in full for the first time.

The editor of the series is Vladimir Khrustalev, Candidate of Historical Sciences and employee of the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF). He has been studying the Romanovs all his life. He suffered with them, he died with them, he saved them. He also has questions.

You have been working on the royal family for a long time; you have dozens of publications on this topic. How did she come into your life?

— As a child, I wanted to be a criminologist, then an archaeologist, which in my mind was also associated with investigation. But due to health reasons I could not do either one or the other and went to the historical and archival department. I did it and didn’t regret it. The library is gorgeous, closed collections (you can look at them, but you can’t use them). And there I came across Nikolai Sokolov’s book “The Murder of the Royal Family.” And my grandmother is also Sokolova. Aren't they relatives? I became interested in the topic and little by little began to collect information. During a student internship at the Central State Administration of the RSFSR in the personal pensioners fund, I came across the confession of Nikolai Zhuzhgov, one of the murderers of Mikhail Romanov, the brother of Nicholas II.

Were there many murderers?

- Yes. I took note of everyone and began to slowly track them.

What are their further fate?

- Their lives turned out differently, but their conscience did not torment them, and fate did not pursue them. They were proud to take part in the executions. Several people received a personal pension. Although the commandant of the Ipatiev House, a member of the Yekaterinburg Cheka, Yakov Yurovsky (Yankel Yurovskikh), was dying of a stomach ulcer in terrible agony in the Kremlin hospital.

My father still has a tape recording of one of these people. He was at our house. I didn’t see him, I don’t remember his name, and I know some of the details of his confessions only from the words of his parents. He said that the girls, the Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, remained alive for a long time during the execution, because their corsets were stuffed with diamonds, and the bullets bounced off. They were told that they were being taken out of Yekaterinburg. They were probably preparing to leave, hoping that they would be able to escape. Who could it be?

- Possibly Pyotr Ermakov. He was called "Comrade Mauser". Recently a story about him was published under the same title. Ermakov took part in the execution, finishing off the princesses with a bayonet. When they were executed, they started a truck engine in the courtyard of the house to muffle the shots. At the end of the execution they saw that some were alive. But the engine was turned off, they heard the shooting, and stabbed with a bayonet. But Ermakov died in the early 1950s.

So it's not him. My father conducted that interview in the 1970s. Do you support the version of the miraculous salvation of the youngest Grand Duchess, Anastasia?

“When it was all over, they began to carry the bodies into the truck. They picked up Anastasia - she screamed, and Ermakov stabbed her. Hence the rumors and a whole series of impostors. The most famous is Polish Anna Anderson. In the 1920s, during a trial, she tried to prove that she belonged to the royal family. Even some of the Romanovs recognized her, because she knew things known only to her inner circle. Most likely, someone advised her. Next to her, by the way, was the son of Nicholas II’s physician, Gleb Botkin, who testified that she was the Tsar’s daughter. Then she married an American and moved to the USA. MGIMO professor Vladlen Sirotkin and Baltic investigator Anatoly Gryannik, both non-professional historians, found a certain Georgian lady and passed her off as Anastasia. She wrote a book, “I am Anastasia Romanova,” and the two began preparing a presentation. The lady had died by that time, but they continued to pass her off as alive. Strange story. Further, this same Gryannik published the monograph “The Testament of Nicholas II” and claimed that the royal family under the name Berezkins lived in the Caucasus and that Elizaveta Fedorovna (who was killed in Alapaevsk and whose remains lie in Jerusalem), and Mikhail Romanov (who was killed in Perm and whose remains have not yet been found). According to this version, they all lived a long life and died safely not far from Sukhumi. Some kind of schizophrenia.

Such myths are not born just like that. How long did there remain hope in Russia and among the emigrants associated with the restoration of the monarchy?

— The memories of Tatyana Melnik-Botkina, daughter of the physician of Nicholas II, have been preserved. She wrote how they were transported from Yekaterinburg to Tyumen. There was no railway there, it was winter, and the ships did not go. They were transported on carts. When they passed through the villages, changed horses, the peasants took them for a royal motorcade and said: “Thank God, the Tsar-Father is returning! Soon there will be order." But Nicholas II was then killed so that this order would never return. On the other hand, the White Guard movement during the Civil War needed a common idea, and that idea was the return of the monarchy. This was not their official slogan: most of the whites rejected the monarchy, were Cadets, Socialist Revolutionaries, Octobrists... But it was important for them to maintain a united anti-Bolshevik front, and therefore they secretly relied on the tsar: that he had not died, that he was hiding somewhere and would soon return and will reconcile everyone. For this reason, many did not believe in the research of Nikolai Sokolov, who represented the version of the white movement, or in other investigations into the murder of the Romanovs, which multiplied since the end of 1918, for fear of losing this idea. White Guard newspapers often published reports that the brother of Nicholas II, V.K. Mikhail first appeared in Omsk, then with Wrangel in Crimea, then in Indochina, in Laos, then somewhere else. Such “ducks” flew for a long time. Partly the Bolsheviks themselves started these rumors. After all, according to the official version, only the tsar was killed, and the royal family was taken away, including Anastasia among others. She was specifically mentioned that she was saved. They even found someone who was passed off as her. But it turned out that she was almost some kind of thief, and she was quickly exposed. And about Mikhail, when he was shot, they officially wrote that he fled and allegedly showed up in Omsk and called for the liberation of Russia from the Bolsheviks. Moreover, months after his death, a report was prepared that he had been detained and was being investigated by the Cheka. They had already typed this text at the printing house, but at the last moment they gave the command to cancel it so as not to attract attention once again. And there were empty spaces in the newspapers. But they didn’t have time to take down one of the county papers, and it got into print that Mikhail was arrested along with his secretary, the Englishman Johnson.

— Before the revolution, he lived in Penza and was a forensic investigator, and when the Civil War began, he changed into a peasant dress, went over to the side of the whites and eventually ended up with Kolchak. Although the investigation into the murder of Nicholas II was already underway, he decided that he would do it better and took on it himself. But he started only in February 1919, that is, six months after the execution. By this time, much evidence had been lost.

Chief of Staff

In the days of the great struggle with an external enemy, striving for almost three

years to enslave our Motherland, the Lord God was pleased to send

Russia faces a new ordeal. The beginning of internal folk

unrest threatens to have a disastrous effect on further conduct

stubborn war. The fate of Russia, the honor of our heroic army, the good

people, the entire future of our dear Fatherland requires bringing

war at all costs to a victorious end. Cruel enemy

strains her last strength, and the hour is already approaching when the valiant

our army, together with our glorious allies, will be able

finally break the enemy. In these decisive days in the life of Russia

We considered it a duty of conscience to facilitate close unity for our people and

rallying all the people's forces to achieve victory as quickly as possible and

agreement with State Duma we recognized it as good to renounce

throne of the Russian state and resign as supreme

power. Not wanting to part with our beloved son, we convey

our legacy to our brother Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich

and we bless him for his accession to the throne of the state

Russian. We command our brother to rule affairs

state in complete and inviolable unity with

representatives of the people in legislative institutions at those

principles that will be established by them, bringing in that inviolable 123

oath. In the name of our beloved Motherland, we call on all faithful sons

Fatherland to fulfill his sacred duty to him

obedience to the king in difficult times of national trials and help

he, together with the representatives of the people, should withdraw the state

Russian on the path of victory, prosperity and glory. Yes it will help

Lord God of Russia.

Signed: Nikolay

Minister of the Imperial Household Adjutant General Count Fredericks

To the grave

If we try to determine the role of the last tsar in Russian history, what is it? Isn't this the role of the slain lamb, the victim? His entire journey, starting from his coronation on Khodynka and ending with his execution in Yekaterinburg, was a continuous sacrifice, blood.

“Not everyone thought so.” Some saw sin and horror in the February revolution: a change of regime, the anointed of God was thrown off the throne. For them, Nicholas was the king-lamb. And others believed that in this way they had freed themselves from tsarism and now a bright future awaited them. And in different eras the perception also changes. It is impossible to answer this question unambiguously.

Grand Duchesses Tatiana and Anastasia are carrying water for the garden. Summer 1917

In August 1915, the sovereign replaced his cousin, V.K., as commander-in-chief. Nikolai Nikolaevich, Nikolasha. Isn't this a sacrifice? After all, he understood that the opposition would peck him. Why did he do this?

“From the very beginning of the war, he wanted to take this position, but he was dissuaded, and he appointed Nikolai Nikolaevich. Temporarily, because I always dreamed of leading the army myself. Meanwhile, by the end of 1914 the situation at the front had changed. At first we attacked, Lvov and Galich were taken...

...“original Russian cities”, as Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich writes...

- Yes, although they changed hands and eventually ended up in Austria. But already in August-September 1914 ours were defeated by the Germans. Two armies almost died, commander-in-chief of the 2nd Army. In 1915, the Germans entered the Baltic states, drove us out of Galicia, and panic began among the Russians. It became clear: something urgently needed to be done. Meanwhile, Nikolai Nikolaevich played his own game. He attributed the failures at the front to War Minister Sukhomlinov, who did not provide weapons supplies. Through his efforts, this minister was removed and put on trial. Following Sukhomlinov, he tried to reappoint other ministers, replacing them with democrats close to the Duma. Nicholas II listened to him at first, but Alexandra Feodorovna did not like it, and neither did Rasputin. And they began to convince the sovereign that Nikolai Nikolaevich was taking power. And then rumors began that Nikolai Nikolaevich said:

Rasputin comes to Headquarters - I will hang him on a bitch, and I will send the queen to a monastery so that she does not interfere in business.

And the king, seeing that things were not important at the front, and that there was a conspiracy in the rear, sent away Nikolasha to the Caucasus and himself stood at the head of the army. It was the right decision. In this way he suppressed criticism of the military authorities. Because it’s one thing to criticize Nikolai Nikolaevich, and another to criticize the Tsar. And everyone immediately stopped talking. So considerations of state necessity prevail here, and not at all sacrifice. He sacrificed, yes. His reputation, if the war had reached Moscow. But, with a change in military leadership, the course of hostilities stabilized, and the military industry began to gain momentum. Supplies of equipment began to arrive from abroad, control over military orders in the country tightened, the army again went on the offensive and again almost reached Lvov. By heading Headquarters, the Tsar saved the situation

In the latest all-Russian census, in the column “occupation” NikolaiII wrote: owner of the Russian land. He defined himself this way: not a warrior - master. And his rank was colonel . He received it even before he was crowned king and remained in it, taking over the supreme command. How much did the status of commander-in-chief correspond to his sense of self?

“The post of commander-in-chief was for him tantamount to the title of king. He understood both as his sacred duty. He is God’s anointed, swore an oath on the Bible to remain faithful to Russia and the autocracy. And just as he was not free to choose whether to be king or not, he could not deviate from the post of commander-in-chief. And he received a colonel even before his marriage, when he commanded a company of the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment. Myself Alexander III By the way, he became a general at the age of 18, and Nikolai followed all the steps and reached the rank of colonel. He truly served. I was in the camps and commanded a battalion. And when Alexander III died, he believed that since his father gave him this title, he would keep it. But in any case, he is the supreme commander in chief by status. Like President Putin today: not a general by rank, but still commander in chief. The children of the Romanov dynasty were specially prepared for both the university and military programs. Every Romanov man was considered a military man.

Not just men. Both Empress Alexandra and the Grand Duchesses-daughters were colonels.

— Women's military ranks are honorary. Tatyana and Olga were considered colonels, but did not serve, but were chiefs of hussar regiments. As for whether Nicholas II considered himself a military man, there are memories of how, even before the war, the sovereign tested his uniform during the exercises of an infantry regiment. At the end of the training, he filled out the soldier’s honor book: Rank - Soldier. Service life - Until death.

Big Bolshevik secret

You investigated the “Romanov case”, but was it an investigation into the background?

— Unofficially, I collected materials not so much on the royal family, but on the great princes, who were also shot. And my official candidate’s dissertation was called “History of the creation of the system state reserves Russian Federation" My father was a military man, first in Far East served on Lake Khanka, then in Central Asia and Ukraine. He was a hunter, a mushroom picker, he was fond of fishing and he took me with him. I loved these trips.

Do you remember the first time you realized that all family destroyed? This was our big Soviet secret. It was still known about Nikolai Alexandrovich and the queen, but few knew that the children, doctor Botkin, sisters and brothers were killed.

“I heard about children when I was very little, and this impression stuck with me. My grandmother Zhenya was born the same year as the Tsarevich, in 1904. She often repeated that she was the same age as him. It was strange for me to hear this. At school they say one thing, grandma says another. It seemed that those times were terrible, life was difficult for people - what should they remember? But she didn’t say that the children were also killed. I learned about this later when I read Sokolov in 1967.

And how did you take it?

- How... Terrible! My boarding school friend and I marched and sang “God Save the Tsar.” Here’s something else that outraged me: there is tsarist history, and there is Soviet history. And one thing often does not coincide with the other. I was fascinated by the Russo-Japanese War, the 1st and 2nd Pacific Squadrons. And so, I ask the teacher about the cruiser Aurora, about its participation in hostilities. And she said, “I don’t know whether he was there or not.” But I read Stepanov’s Novikov-Priboy in Tsushima and Port Arthur - I was!

Now it has been established precisely whose order it was to shoot the Romanovs?

— They are still arguing, although in the note of the commandant of the Ipatiev House, Yurovsky, we read: “An order came from Moscow via Perm on conventional language» (telegrams then did not go directly, but through Perm) . So, about the execution. Because there was an agreement on a signal from above in a conventional language.

The names of those who gave the order?

- They are not in any document, but it is implied that these are Lenin and Sverdlov. There is an opinion that the local authorities are to blame for everything - the Petrograd Soviet, the Urals Soviet. But it is known that the military commissar, secretary of the Ural Regional Committee Philip Goloshchekin (real name Shaya Itsovich-Isakovich, party nickname Philip), went to Moscow in June-July 1918 before the Left Socialist-Revolutionary rebellion and asked what to do with the tsar. By the way, he was friends with Yakov Sverdlov and lived in his house during this trip. But he returned with nothing. They did not give permission either to take them to the rear or to Moscow, where it would be more convenient to organize a trial. No, they ordered us to stay on the front line, although the White Czechs and the Siberian Army were advancing. Apparently they were already afraid. If you bring it to Moscow, the Germans will say: at least give us the queen back. But perhaps they came to an agreement with the Germans. We received carte blanche for the fate of the Romanovs. Shortly before the execution, Goloshchekin turned to Uritsky and Zinoviev in Petrograd, since they seemed to be going to try the tsar. And where to judge, if the Whites are advancing, then they’ll take Yekaterinburg? They sent a dispatch to Moscow: "Philip asks what to do". In the end, Yurovsky wrote down that the order had been received from Moscow. But this is indirect evidence, because there are a lot of encrypted telegrams that no one has read.

The sovereign with children and servants in the Tsarskoye Selo garden. Spring 1917

What did Trotsky have to do with the execution?

— In his emigrant diaries, he denies his participation in these events—the diaries have been published. He claims that in June 1918 he was at the front. But in reality, when the decision was made to execute him, he was in Moscow. He writes that he asked Sverdlov: “ Did they shoot the whole family?” — "Yes". “Who made the decision?” - "We are here". "We"- this is Sverdlov, Zinoviev and the Politburo as a whole.

And Voikov?

— His name is associated with the execution of the royal family. But this is a myth. It is believed that it was he who left the German inscription in the room of the Ipatiev house where the execution took place. They say that Yurovsky is illiterate, but Voikov lived abroad, spoke languages ​​and could write this. In reality, he did not participate in the execution. This is a small fry. He was a supply commissar in Yekaterinburg.

What kind of inscription?

— BelsatzarwarinselbigerNachtvonseinenKnechtenumgebracht - That night Belshazzar was killed by his slaves. This is a quote from Heine's poem about the biblical king Belshazzar. She was discovered by white officers when they entered Yekaterinburg. Written on the wallpaper. This piece was cut out, it ended up in Sokolov’s archive, was taken abroad and eventually appeared at auction. Now a fragment of this inscription has returned to Russia. Perhaps the White Czechs wrote this. By the time the whites arrived, a lot of people were already in the Ipatiev House.

You are an eyewitness and participant in the process of revealing the truth about the Yekaterinburg and Alapaevsk executions. How did he walk?

— It began with the arrival of Yeltsin, who brought his team, historians, and professors from Sverdlovsk University to Moscow. In the early 1990s, Rudolf Germanovich Pihoya arrived and headed Main archive. Professor Yuri Alekseevich Buranov arrived. His topic was the history of metallurgy in the Urals. But there, willy-nilly, when you collect material, you will come up with it. Buranov worked in the Central Party Archive, but went to work with documents on the Romanovs at the TsGAOR (Central state archive October Revolution, now GARF), and I was invited to advise him. This was in the late 1980s, and in the early 1990s we already had publications in “Top Secret” by Artyom Borovik.

Are these the first publications of the archives of the royal family?

- Yes. Buranov and I prepared two materials: “Blue Blood” - about the execution of the great princes and their entourage in Alapaevsk in 1918 and “The unknown diary of Mikhail Romanov - these are the last notes of Mikhail Alexandrovich for 1918, a fragment of his diaries from the Perm archive. Then we found the same fragment from 1918 in Moscow. Documents from the courts of the imperial family were mainly kept in St. Petersburg. If you are going to study this topic, then you need to know all the archives, including regional ones. Of course, most of the materials ended up in the archives of the FSB (formerly the KGB) and party archives. They are more difficult to access, and again you need to know where to look. In the West, documents of those who managed to escape have been preserved. This is the foundation of Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna, the sister of Nicholas II. Partially - the Alexander Mikhailovich Foundation ( Sandro), second cousin and friend of the king. Their documents ended up mainly in the libraries of American universities.

Which of the Romanovs managed to leave?

— 18 members of the imperial family were killed. Those who ended up in Crimea fled: the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, Alexander Mikhailovich, Nikolai Nikolaevich - commander-in-chief of the Russian army in 1914-1915 and 1917 and the tsar's cousin, his brother Pyotr Nikolaevich. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk contains a paragraph stating that Germans and immigrants from Germany have the right to freely leave Russia for 10 years. German princesses, wives of grand dukes and their children fell under this article. Let's say Konstantinovichi(children of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich , K.R. - Note edit.) not only fell under, because their mother, Elizaveta Mavrikievna, Mavra, was German, but they weren’t even in the line of succession to the throne! They were not even great princes, but only princes of imperial blood. In total there were almost 50 people - members of the imperial family. Gabriel Konstantinovich with tuberculosis was kept in prison in St. Petersburg, and only thanks to Gorky, he was allowed to move to a hospital, and then to Finland. On the other hand, everyone was under arrest, but V.K. Vladimir Kirillovich, and then Kerensky managed to escape to Finland. There was a list of the imperial family, and arrests were made using it. Immediately after the revolution, this was done by the Petrograd Soviet. But the same decree was issued under the Provisional Government. Moreover, officially it only ordered the arrest of the royal family - i.e. Nicholas II, Alexandra and children - and behind the scenes, all the Romanovs were supposed to be in custody and where the revolution found them. For example, Maria Pavlovna, the aunt of Nicholas II (since 1909 - president of the Academy of Arts, in the 1910s, together with Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, led the grand ducal opposition to Nicholas II), with her sons Andrei and Boris, she ended up on vacation in Kislovodsk and was arrested there. It is unclear how they managed to escape. Perhaps they paid off with a bribe and managed to hide. They hid in the mountains until the whites arrived, and when they began to retreat, in 1920 they left by sea for Europe. In addition to them, several generals turned out to be in Kislovodsk, incl. Commander of the Northern Front, General Ruzsky.

Is this the tsar’s adjutant, the head of the Pskov Headquarters, who forced Nicholas to abdicate and wringed his hands?

- Yes. He and other military leaders were not just killed, they were cut to pieces with sabers. And the elder brother of Konstantin Konstantinovich ( K.R.) Nikolai Konstantinovich was arrested in Tashkent, where he had been exiled back in tsarist times. He had an American mistress, either an actress or a dancer. She didn’t have enough money for a gift, and he stole precious stones from the frame of the family icon from the Marble Palace. There was a terrible scandal, Alexander II exiled him to Central Asia. There he died, although they say that he was killed.

And Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fedorovna was detained in Moscow...

- Yes, in the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent, which she founded. It was the third day of Easter 1918. She was arrested and, together with two assistants, taken to Perm. One of them was released, the other stayed with Elizaveta Fedorovna, she was also killed. Many Romanovs were in Perm at that time. Then they decided to take them to Yekaterinburg. They took us to Yekaterinburg - it seemed like a bit much. And those who were not directly part of the family were transported to Alapaevsk.

In 1992, Elizaveta Fedorovna was canonized, but during her lifetime she was hated and persecuted. In 1915-1916, she became a favorite target of Moscow pogromists. Because she's German and Native sister Empress Alexandra Feodorovna?

“Those who didn’t know how she helped people hated her.” During the war, terrible propaganda was carried out against the Germans. And who knew, they were treated with love. When the pogromists went to the Martha and Mary Convent, they defended it.

IN total The Romanovs were kept in eight places: Tobolsk, St. Petersburg, Crimea, Tashkent, Kislovodsk, Perm, Yekaterinburg, Alapaevsk. Did I name everything?

— Vologda is still at nine. The cousins ​​of Nicholas II were taken there: Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, he was a historian, his brother Grand Duke Georgiy Mikhailovich, manager of the Russian Museum, as well as Grand Duke Dmitry Konstantinovich, manager of the state horse breeding.

Who was killed in Alapaevsk?

- The children of Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich - Igor, John and Konstantin Konstantinovich, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, the Empress's sister Elizaveta Feodorovna and Vladimir Pavlovich Paliy - the son of Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich, who, although he had a different surname, also belonged to the royal family. They tried to destroy their bodies, like the remains of the royal family. They threw me into a mine. And after they failed to bring it down, they showered it with garbage.

And this is a special topic. The fact is that not everyone officially recognizes the authenticity of the royal remains. There are differences among researchers different years. For example, Nikolai Sokolov and Konstantin Diterichs, who wrote about the Romanovs in the 1920s, testify that the bodies were burned. Sokolov found fragments and melted bullets, but did not find the remains themselves and was inclined to believe that they had been destroyed. White emigrants claim that the royal family was destroyed, and then suddenly, the remains were found. Personally, I believe that they are genuine, although, of course, everything needs to be double-checked. During the investigation, many distortions were made.

In the early 1990s, a commission on the royal remains was created. Did you take part in it?

— I was part of the expert group of the commission and observed its work. And this is what struck me. Firstly, its composition. God knows who, ignorant people. Deputy Minister textile industry! And secondly, not all documents were looked at. Many Ural archives disappeared during the summer of 1918, and no one even seriously tried to search. We opened the party archive for this period - we couldn’t find it! Maybe they disappeared, maybe they were destroyed when Yekaterinburg was evacuated to Vyatka. But there were no whites or Germans there; they couldn’t lose them. Some materials surface on Lubyanka. Suddenly! After all, when the commission on the remains contacted them, they swore that they had nothing on the murder of the Romanovs, but years later, suddenly, there were two whole volumes on the royal family.

What is this connected with?

— Perhaps they don’t know their archives well about the first years of Soviet power. And there is a version that some of the documents were bombed during the Second World War during the evacuation. They were taken out of Moscow. On the Volga, the barge perished, and many materials, for example, from the People's Commissariat of Agriculture, then disappeared. This is evidenced in the acts, I saw these acts. But the materials found are enough to understand: both murders are identical, in fact it was one order. They were killed in Yekaterinburg on the night of July 16-17, 1918. In Alapaevsk - a day later. The bodies of the royal family were stripped and their belongings were burned. This was witnessed by the funeral team of security officers. Alapaevites were thrown into the mine alive, with documents, in clothes. The acts drawn up by the White Guards were found. According to them, the bodies were thrown into the mine and they tried to blow them up in both cases, in Alapaevsk and near Yekaterinburg. And the commandant of the Ipatiev House, Yurovsky, writes that they wanted to temporarily place them there. How temporary it is if you throw grenades into a mine! Soon they began to talk about the execution of the royal family, and in order to stop the rumors, they returned to the remains, brought kerosene, sulfuric acid... Apparently, they themselves did not know what to do. It was impossible for them to be found. Pravda and Izvestia then wrote: “In connection with the threat of the capture of the Tsar by the White Czechs, by decision of the Urals Council, he was shot. The family is in a safe place". And the Germans were told the same thing.

Cousin Georgie and AuntAlix

You said that they delayed the execution. Why?

— Because initially there was a decision to judge. It was assumed that Trotsky would organize some kind of trial.

Or did they expect that the royal family would be taken out? Starting with Peter the Romanovs married German women, and there were also family relationships with other European courts. Nicholas II's mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, is the daughter of the King of Denmark. Her sister Alexandra, Queen Dowager of England, was the mother of King George of England V and dear aunt Nikolai. Cousin Georgie And aunt Alix(not to be confused with Alix- Nikolai's wifeII, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. — Approx. ed.) have you tried?

- No. We would like to - both the Germans and the British had opportunities.

It is known that the British brother was afraid to give asylum to his Russian brother. The official pretext is that parliament voted against it. But this is an excuse, and he himself wanted this? In letters to Russian relatives he signed "cousin and old friend Georgie". Did they have a good relationship with Nikolai?

- Yes, while he was in power. And then they decided to disown him. Why do we need a retired king? Nikolai had a trusting relationship with Georg. During the war, rumors spread that, secretly from England, Germany and I were preparing a separate peace. They say that the German empress and Rasputin have formed a German party that is playing on this, and England will not give up the straits to us (according to the treaty of alliance, in the event of an Entente victory, the Dardanelles and Bosporus straits went to Russia. - Note ed.). Someone deliberately spread these rumors. Maybe the Germans, maybe our factory owners. Because if Russia wins, they will not see power, but for now the war is an opportune moment to get rid of the tsar. And Nicholas II and George V discussed this plot in letters. Georgie wrote: don’t believe these rumors, they are hostile, the Germans don’t want to make peace, and we will give up the straits. And the sovereign told him: yes, there are people who want to quarrel between us. But we will not make peace with Germany, we will fight to the end. They assured each other of their loyalty. Participants in the events testify to this. The English military attache Williams, who was at our Headquarters, personally discussed this issue with the sovereign, his memoirs were published.

But then politics, and family ties?

— Alexandra Fedorovna in letters to Nicholas II, according to auntsAlix reported details of the life of British relatives. That one died at the front, the other got married... We are talking about everyday, routine things, family relationships they were supportive. We read all this in their front-line correspondence, which was published. Recently a hefty volume was published - “Correspondence of Nicholas and Alexandra”. This is virtually all of their wartime correspondence. By the way, it was published in the 1920s - in 5 volumes from 1923 to 1927. Then it was published by the historian of Freemasonry Oleg Platonov under the title “Nicholas II in Secret Correspondence.”

Since the time of JohnIII and IV England “played” against us. And in 1917, the Russian opposition and members of the Provisional Government consulted at the British embassy. This is documented. At the same time, personal ties between the two courts were strong. Maria Fedorovna spent a long time visiting her sister at Marlborough House. Her children and grandchildren were brought up in the English tradition: they all had English teachers, they all spoke English and even kept diaries in English. The main Anglomaniac among the Romanovs was Nicholas's brother, in whose favor he abdicated, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich. He sincerely loved England; he served “exile” there in 1912-1914. England had reasons not to save them. But isn't this a betrayal? “Corporate” - the monarch betrays the monarch and blood - brother of brother.

— It is officially believed that Nicholas II was “surrendered” because the British government was against his stay in England during the war. The country was then ruled by the Laborites, that is, the leftists - they allegedly insisted on this decision. The British Ambassador Buchanan confirms this version in his memoirs. And when in the 1990s an examination of the royal remains was carried out, and the chairman of the commission, director of the GARF Sergei Mironenko traveled with investigator Solovyov to England, he saw with his own eyes the diaries of George V. It is written in them that this was his order, he personally put pressure on the government, so that it does not accept the Romanovs. That is, the official version was fabricated to shield the king.

In his diaries one can trace a moment of hesitation, choice, or Georgie Was he guided only by political expediency?

— I haven’t seen these documents, but it is known that as soon as the February revolution took place and the tsar abdicated, George V invited the royal family to England by telegram, and it seems that Nicholas II was ready to accept this offer. But the children were sick, measles, everyone had a temperature of 40, where should we take them! And Nikolai went to Headquarters to hand over his cases. Yes, no one seemed to touch anyone, everyone was still free. Kerensky even promised that he himself would escort them to Murman, and then put them on a cruiser, and they would leave for England. They wrote about this in the newspapers. But the Petrograd Soviet, headed by Trotsky, declared: how can you let the emperor go abroad! He is organizing a counter-revolution there! Urgently arrest and Peter and Paul Fortress! However, then Trotsky still had to coordinate actions with the Provisional Government. But it was against it, and they made a compromise: not to arrest everyone, but only the royal family and not to keep them in a fortress, but whoever was there. In fact, it was house arrest. Well, soon the Provisional Government no longer cared about the royal family. While it was fighting for its portfolios, the October coup occurred, and Nicholas II and his family were sent to Tobolsk instead of England.

Everyone was sure that it was about to resolve. Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich wrote in his diaries: everything is being sorted out. For February-March 1917 there are such notes every day.

- They thought so. And when the Bolsheviks declared a separate peace, it became clear that something strange was happening. After all, Nicholas II was accused of precisely this, that he, a traitor, wanted to make peace with Germany, and for this he was overthrown. And it turned out that after seizing power, the Bolsheviks did just that. Why? Because the Germans financed them. The February Revolution actually took place with German money. Just like the first Russian one - into Japanese ones. And the Bloody Resurrection was arranged for them. All these are planned provocations carried out with Japanese and German money with the support of local revolutionaries. Both Japan in 1905 and Germany in 1917 had a vested interest in Russia weakening. Germany was on the verge of defeat; at any cost it was necessary to get us out of the war. Back in July 1917, Germany tried to provoke an armed uprising, but then Kerensky dispersed the Bolsheviks and Lenin was put on the wanted list.

By the February Revolution, the royal family was in Petrograd. When and why was she taken out of there?

- If we talk about the family as such - Nikolai, Alexander and children - they were transported to Tobolsk on the night of July 31 to August 1. As for the v.c. Mikhail Alexandrovich and other grand dukes, back in March 1918 there was an order from the Petrograd Commune to remove them from Petrograd. The Bolsheviks themselves rushed to Moscow just then, moving the capital because of the German threat. The Germans, on the one hand, signed a peace treaty, and on the other, they advanced and chopped off half of Russia, including Ukraine. And the situation was such that if the king abdicated the throne, then Mikhail did not abdicate! The document he signed implied that the choice of the board would be carried out by the Constituent Assembly. He did not deny, but “suspended” the question. That is, the danger of restoration remained. Therefore, the Constituent Assembly was dispersed (January 5/18, 1918, on the day of its convocation), and all the Romanovs were taken out of Petrograd.

There is a version that NikolaiII also did not recant, and his signature on the Manifesto was forged.

— Historian Peter Multatuli adheres to this version. But a putsch is a putsch. The same Catherine II - who did she ask for signatures? If you look at the act of abdication, it is not a manifesto in the proper sense of the word, that is, drawn up according to all the rules, but a telegram that the tsar agreed with Headquarters. In this case, it is considered that he renounced voluntarily, although in reality he did it under duress, and therefore, illegally. The way the act of renunciation is framed is illegal! Different powers were interested in the abdication of Nikolai Romanov. Both Russian masons and Western powers. Was common goal— knock Russia out of the game. Because in the war the scales tipped in favor of the Entente. If Russia got the Black Sea straits, England would be in trouble. From there it’s a stone’s throw to Egypt, Syria is nearby, Palestine is nearby. The Russians were then in Iran, and the British traditionally considered it their sphere of influence.

Do you mean the redistribution of the world between the allies, which has been discussed since the beginning of 1917? According to this plan, Russia lost the Dardanelles with the Bosporus and Constantinople, which Potemkin still dreamed of, and Paul I, who named his first-born Constantine - in honor of the Byzantine emperor and with an eye to expanding the empire.

— This was discussed back in 1915. The coup meant that there would be a new king, and necessarily a constitutional monarch, as in England, and there would be new agreements, that is, then the agreements could be revised. But when everything started to go south in Russia, they themselves, it seems, were no longer happy.

England was for the revolution-constitution, but not for the revolution-chaos and the power of the Bolsheviks?

- Yes, and in this one complex combination England was not the only one involved. The British feared a separate peace treaty for Russia. If Russia is just leaving the war, how many German divisions are being liberated! They would attack these French in one fell swoop, and then attack the British. But main reason events of 1917 - not in England, but in our so-called democracy and revolutionary social democracy. As during Russo-Japanese War, and in 1917 the Russian opposition tried at all costs to achieve a constitutional monarchy. In 1905 it took place, but this already seemed not enough, and soon Zemgor - there was such a public organization - spoke out against the current government. It turns out that the more you give in, the more demands there are. And with the beginning of the war, they began to seek military defeat so that tsarism would fall: “ Convert the Imperialist war into a civil war!“When this happened, all the social gains achieved under the king collapsed. You know, in the First World War, prisoners were kept on both sides, they were served by the Red Cross. If they returned from captivity or escaped, then they were heroes. Stalin said - we have no prisoners, only traitors. They built a just world, they built equality, but the “builders” have the same slogans, but their actions are completely different. This collision is always repeated and always outrages. They promised land to peasants, factories to workers, but what happened in the end? In fact, we had state capitalism. This became clear very soon, and without the help of the Red Latvians, the Bolsheviks would hardly have survived. When they killed German Ambassador Mirbach, a critical moment has arrived. The Germans were very tense, and it seems to me that the security officers shot the royal family out of fear.

Rescue attempts

It is known that there were attempts to free the sovereign. One of them was undertaken by Mikhail Alexandrovich’s adjutant and friend, Rizochka - captain of His Imperial Majesty's own convoy Alexander Petrovich Riza-Quli-Mirza Qajar. He even managed to sneak into Yekaterinburg incognito. Before this, the captives were visited in Tobolsk by a lady-in-waiting of the highest court, Margarita Khitrovo. What did they expect?

- All this is nothing more than good wishes, no one has done anything serious. Margarita Khitrovo was a friend of the eldest daughter of Nicholas II, Olga Nikolaevna. She traveled to Tobolsk during the Provisional Government. As soon as the royal family was taken there in 1917, she immediately went to them on a visit. After all, they were taken from Petrograd to the rear, away from the Germans, “to freedom.” And this Margarita, apparently, said something carelessly on the way: she was going to visit, she was carrying letters from relatives. And she was immediately arrested on suspicion of conspiracy. She was soon released, but V.K. was arrested under this sign. Mikhail Alexandrovich in Gatchina and Pavel Alexandrovich (uncle of Nicholas II) in Petrograd. And after, by the way, the Bolsheviks often resorted to this topic. Several times they published messages that supposedly someone was trying to free the king.

Nicholas II with his children on the roof of the Freedom House in Tobolsk. Spring 1918

So neither Rizochka, nor others actually did anything?

- Nothing. But there was this Boris Nikolaevich Solovyov (the husband of Matryona Rasputina, Grigory’s daughter, died in 1926 in Germany), he tried to organize something. He arrived in Tobolsk, established surveillance of the royal family and tried to arrange their release. Investigator Sokolov believed that he was afraid that the Entente would capture the family and make it the banner of the white movement, which was against the Germans. The Germans were afraid of whites. If they won, Russia could turn its bayonets against Germany.

Have Western governments tried to do something?

— They reasoned like George V: “Why risk your skin because of some Romanovs!” But he still sent a ship to Crimea and took the mother of Nicholas II, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, and took the brothers Nicholas and Peter Nikolaevich to Europe.

As for the Entente governments, they persuaded the Bolsheviks to continue the war and open a second front. And Lenin dressed up between the Germans and the Entente, trying to figure out who was better with him. To which the German Ambassador Mirbach made it clear: if you do this, then we can change you and win you back. In the end, his security officer Blyumkin dropped a bomb. Meanwhile, the communists themselves had different attitudes towards the war. Many people, especially those on the left, wanted it. So that it would be like in the French Revolution - there, too, the Germans entered Paris. They thought that this is how, with bayonets, the global wave would begin. And the situation at the front was such that the Czechs went on the offensive. The Czechs are the power of the Entente. And the Germans decided that if the new regime, which is for ending the war, is not supported, it will be overthrown, the previous government will return, and a second front can be organized. We must support! And they turned a blind eye to the fact that the royal family was killed. But that's what I think. Or maybe there was some kind of agreement between the powers. That's why everyone is still silent.

- What do you mean, they are silent? Are there archives in the West to which access is prohibited?

On some issues, the term there is up to a hundred years or more, especially in England. Until it expires, documents cannot be touched. The British archive is like our Spetskhran, and even worse. It was during perestroika that we pulled out almost everything, and now we’re throwing ashes on our heads. And they are silent, although they have no less sins and provocations behind them.

We thank the publishing house "PROZAiK" for the materials provided.

According to official history, on the night of July 16-17, 1918, Nikolai Romanov, along with his wife and children, was shot. After opening the burial and identifying the remains in 1998, they were reburied in the tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. However, then the Russian Orthodox Church did not confirm their authenticity.

“I cannot exclude that the church will recognize the royal remains as authentic if convincing evidence of their authenticity is discovered and if the examination is open and honest,” Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, said in July of this year.

As is known, the Russian Orthodox Church did not participate in the burial of the remains of the royal family in 1998, explaining this by the fact that the church is not sure whether the original remains of the royal family are buried. The Russian Orthodox Church refers to a book by Kolchak investigator Nikolai Sokolov, who concluded that all the bodies were burned.

Some of the remains collected by Sokolov at the burning site are kept in Brussels, in the Church of St. Job the Long-Suffering, and they have not been examined. At one time, a version of Yurovsky’s note, who supervised the execution and burial, was found - it became the main document before the transfer of the remains (along with the book of investigator Sokolov). And now, in the coming year of the 100th anniversary of the execution of the Romanov family, the Russian Orthodox Church has been tasked with giving a final answer to all the dark execution sites near Yekaterinburg. To obtain a final answer, research has been carried out for several years under the auspices of the Russian Orthodox Church. Again, historians, geneticists, graphologists, pathologists and other specialists are rechecking the facts, powerful scientific forces and the forces of the prosecutor's office are again involved, and all these actions again take place under a thick veil of secrecy.

Genetic identification research is carried out by four independent groups of scientists. Two of them are foreign, working directly with the Russian Orthodox Church. At the beginning of July 2017, the secretary of the church commission for studying the results of the study of the remains found near Yekaterinburg, Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov) of Yegoryevsk, said: a large number of new circumstances and new documents have been discovered. For example, Sverdlov’s order to execute Nicholas II was found. In addition, based on the results of recent research, criminologists have confirmed that the remains of the Tsar and Tsarina belong to them, since a mark was suddenly found on the skull of Nicholas II, which is interpreted as a mark from a saber blow he received while visiting Japan. As for the queen, dentists identified her using the world's first porcelain veneers on platinum pins.

Although, if you open the conclusion of the commission, written before the burial in 1998, it says: the bones of the sovereign’s skull are so destroyed that the characteristic callus cannot be found. The same conclusion noted severe damage to the teeth of Nikolai’s presumed remains due to periodontal disease, since this person I've never been to the dentist. This confirms that it was not the tsar who was shot, since the records of the Tobolsk dentist whom Nikolai contacted remained. In addition, no explanation has yet been found for the fact that the height of the skeleton of “Princess Anastasia” is 13 centimeters greater than her lifetime height. Well, as you know, miracles happen in the church... Shevkunov did not say a word about genetic testing, and this despite the fact that genetic studies in 2003 conducted by Russian and American specialists showed that the genome of the body of the supposed empress and her sister Elizabeth Feodorovna did not match , which means no relationship

In addition, in the museum of the city of Otsu (Japan) there are things left after the policeman wounded Nicholas II. They contain biological material that can be examined. Using them, Japanese geneticists from Tatsuo Nagai’s group proved that the DNA of the remains of “Nicholas II” from near Yekaterinburg (and his family) does not 100% match the DNA of biomaterials from Japan. During the Russian DNA examination, second cousins ​​were compared, and in the conclusion it was written that “there are matches.” The Japanese compared relatives of cousins. There are also the results of a genetic examination of the president International Association forensic doctors Mr. Bonte from Dusseldorf, in which he proved: the found remains and doubles of the Nicholas II Filatov family are relatives. Perhaps, from their remains in 1946, the “remains of the royal family” were created? The problem has not been studied.

Earlier, in 1998, the Russian Orthodox Church, on the basis of these conclusions and facts, did not recognize the existing remains as authentic, but what will happen now? In December, all conclusions of the Investigative Committee and the ROC commission will be considered by the Council of Bishops. It is he who will decide on the church’s attitude towards the Yekaterinburg remains. Let's see why everything is so nervous and what is the history of this crime?

This kind of money is worth fighting for

Today some Russian elites Suddenly, interest awoke in one very piquant story of relations between Russia and the United States, connected with the Romanov royal family. Briefly, this story is as follows: more than 100 years ago, in 1913, the Federal Reserve System (FRS) was created in the United States - the central bank and printing press for the production of international currency, still in operation today. The Fed was created for the newly created League of Nations (now the UN) and would be a single global financial center with its own currency. Russia contributed 48,600 tons of gold to the “authorized capital” of the system. But the Rothschilds demanded that Woodrow Wilson, who was then re-elected as US President, transfer the center to their private ownership along with the gold. The organization became known as the Federal Reserve System, where Russia owned 88.8%, and 11.2% belonged to 43 international beneficiaries. Receipts stating that 88.8% of gold assets for a period of 99 years are under the control of the Rothschilds were transferred in six copies to the family of Nicholas II.

The annual income on these deposits was fixed at 4%, which was supposed to be transferred to Russia annually, but was deposited in the X-1786 account of the World Bank and in 300 thousand accounts in 72 international banks. All these documents confirming the right to the gold pledged to the Federal Reserve from Russia in the amount of 48,600 tons, as well as income from leasing it, were deposited by the mother of Tsar Nicholas II, Maria Fedorovna Romanova, for safekeeping in one of the Swiss banks. But only heirs have conditions for access there, and this access is controlled by the Rothschild clan. Gold certificates were issued for the gold provided by Russia, which made it possible to claim the metal in parts - the royal family hid them in different places. Later, in 1944, the Bretton Woods Conference confirmed Russia's right to 88% of the Fed's assets.

This “golden” question was once proposed to be addressed by two well-known Russian oligarch– Roman Abramovich and Boris Berezovsky. But Yeltsin “didn’t understand” them, and now, apparently, that very “golden” time has come... And now this gold is remembered more and more often - though not at the state level.

Some suggest that the surviving Tsarevich Alexei later grew into Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin

People kill for this gold, fight for it, and make fortunes from it.

Today's researchers believe that all wars and revolutions in Russia and in the world occurred because the Rothschild clan and the United States did not intend to return gold to the Federal Reserve System of Russia. After all, the execution of the royal family made it possible for the Rothschild clan not to give up the gold and not pay for its 99-year lease. “Currently, out of three Russian copies of the agreement on gold invested in the Fed, two are in our country, the third is presumably in one of the Swiss banks,” says researcher Sergei Zhilenkov. – In a cache in the Nizhny Novgorod region, there are documents from the royal archive, among which there are 12 “gold” certificates. If they are presented, the global financial hegemony of the USA and the Rothschilds will simply collapse, and our country will receive huge money and all the opportunities for development, since it will no longer be strangled from overseas,” the historian is sure.

Many wanted to close the questions about the royal assets with the reburial. Professor Vladlen Sirotkin also has a calculation for the so-called war gold exported to the First World War and Civil War to the West and East: Japan - 80 billion dollars, Great Britain - 50 billion, France - 25 billion, USA - 23 billion, Sweden - 5 billion, Czech Republic - 1 billion dollars. Total – 184 billion. Surprisingly, officials in the US and UK, for example, do not dispute these figures, but are surprised at the lack of requests from Russia. By the way, the Bolsheviks remembered Russian assets in the West in the early 20s. Back in 1923, People's Commissar of Foreign Trade Leonid Krasin ordered a British intelligence firm to evaluate Russian real estate and cash deposits abroad. By 1993, this company reported that it had already accumulated a data bank worth 400 billion dollars! And this is legal Russian money.

Why did the Romanovs die? Britain did not accept them!

There is a long-term study, unfortunately, by the now deceased professor Vladlen Sirotkin (MGIMO) “Foreign Gold of Russia” (Moscow, 2000), where the gold and other holdings of the Romanov family, accumulated in the accounts of Western banks, are also estimated at no less than 400 billion dollars, and together with investments - more than 2 trillion dollars! In the absence of heirs from the Romanov side, the closest relatives are members of the English royal family... It is whose interests may be the background to many events of the 19th–21st centuries...

By the way, it is not clear (or, on the contrary, it is clear) for what reasons the royal house of England denied asylum to the Romanov family three times. The first time in 1916, in the apartment of Maxim Gorky, an escape was planned - the rescue of the Romanovs by kidnapping and internment of the royal couple during their visit to an English warship, which was then sent to Great Britain. The second was Kerensky's request, which was also rejected. Then the Bolsheviks’ request was not accepted. And this despite the fact that the mothers of George V and Nicholas II were sisters. In surviving correspondence, Nicholas II and George V call each other “Cousin Nicky” and “Cousin Georgie” - they were cousins ​​with a smaller age difference three years, and in their youth these guys spent a lot of time together and were very similar in appearance. As for the queen, her mother, Princess Alice, was the eldest and beloved daughter of Queen Victoria of England. At that time, England held 440 tons of gold from Russia’s gold reserves and 5.5 tons of Nicholas II’s personal gold as collateral for military loans. Now think about it: if the royal family died, then who would the gold go to? To the closest relatives! Is this the reason why cousin Georgie refused to accept cousin Nicky's family? To obtain gold, its owners had to die. Officially. And now all this needs to be connected with the burial of the royal family, which will officially testify that the owners of untold wealth are dead.

Versions of life after death

All versions of the death of the royal family that exist today can be divided into three. First version: the royal family was shot near Yekaterinburg, and its remains, with the exception of Alexei and Maria, were reburied in St. Petersburg. The remains of these children were found in 2007, all examinations were carried out on them, and they will apparently be buried on the 100th anniversary of the tragedy. If this version is confirmed, for accuracy it is necessary to once again identify all the remains and repeat all examinations, especially genetic and pathological anatomical ones. Second version: the royal family was not shot, but was scattered throughout Russia and all family members died a natural death, having lived their lives in Russia or abroad; in Yekaterinburg, a family of doubles was shot (members of the same family or people from different families, but similar on members of the emperor's family). Nicholas II had doubles after Bloody Sunday 1905. When leaving the palace, three carriages left. It is unknown which of them Nicholas II sat in. The Bolsheviks, having captured the archives of the 3rd department in 1917, had data of doubles. There is an assumption that one of the families of doubles - the Filatovs, who are distantly related to the Romanovs - followed them to Tobolsk. Third version: the intelligence services added false remains to the burials of members of the royal family as they died naturally or before opening the grave. To do this, it is necessary to very carefully monitor, among other things, the age of the biomaterial.

Let us present one of the versions of the historian of the royal family Sergei Zhelenkov, which seems to us the most logical, although very unusual.

Before investigator Sokolov, the only investigator who published a book about the execution of the royal family, there were investigators Malinovsky, Nametkin (his archive was burned along with his house), Sergeev (removed from the case and killed), Lieutenant General Diterichs, Kirsta. All these investigators concluded that the royal family was not killed. Neither the Reds nor the Whites wanted to disclose this information - they understood that American bankers were primarily interested in obtaining objective information. The Bolsheviks were interested in the tsar's money, and Kolchak declared himself the Supreme Ruler of Russia, which could not happen with a living sovereign.

Investigator Sokolov was conducting two cases - one on the fact of murder and the other on the fact of disappearance. Conducted an investigation at the same time military intelligence in the person of Kirst. When the whites left Russia, Sokolov, fearing for collected materials, sent them to Harbin - some of his materials were lost along the way. Sokolov’s materials contained evidence of the financing of the Russian revolution by the American bankers Schiff, Kuhn and Loeb, and Ford, who was in conflict with these bankers, became interested in these materials. He even called Sokolov from France, where he settled, to the USA. When returning from the USA to France, Nikolai Sokolov was killed.

Sokolov’s book was published after his death, and many people “worked” on it, removing many scandalous facts from it, so it cannot be considered completely truthful. The surviving members of the royal family were observed by people from the KGB, where a special department was created for this purpose, dissolved during perestroika. The archives of this department have been preserved. The royal family was saved by Stalin - the royal family was evacuated from Yekaterinburg through Perm to Moscow and came into the possession of Trotsky, then the People's Commissar of Defense. To further save the royal family, Stalin carried out an entire operation, stealing it from Trotsky’s people and taking them to Sukhumi, to a specially built house next to the former house of the royal family. From there, all family members were distributed according to different places, Maria and Anastasia were taken to the Glinsk hermitage (Sumy region), then Maria was transported to Nizhny Novgorod region, where she died of illness on May 24, 1954. Anastasia subsequently married Stalin’s personal security guard and lived very secludedly on a small farm; she died on June 27, 1980 in the Volgograd region.

The eldest daughters, Olga and Tatyana, were sent to Serafimo-Diveevsky convent– the empress was settled not far from the girls. But they did not live here for long. Olga, having traveled through Afghanistan, Europe and Finland, settled in Vyritsa Leningrad region, where she died on January 19, 1976. Tatyana lived partly in Georgia, partly in the territory Krasnodar region, buried in the Krasnodar region, died on September 21, 1992. Alexey and his mother lived at their dacha, then Alexey was transported to Leningrad, where they “did” a biography on him, and the whole world recognized him as party and Soviet leader Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin (Stalin sometimes called him Tsarevich in front of everyone). Nicholas II lived and died in Nizhny Novgorod (December 22, 1958), and the queen died in the village of Starobelskaya, Lugansk region on April 2, 1948 and was subsequently reburied in Nizhny Novgorod, where she and the emperor have a common grave. Three daughters of Nicholas II, besides Olga, had children. N.A. Romanov communicated with I.V. Stalin, and wealth Russian Empire were used to strengthen the power of the USSR...

Yakov Tudorovsky

Yakov Tudorovsky

The Romanovs were not executed

According to official history, on the night of July 16-17, 1918, Nikolai Romanov, along with his wife and children, was shot. After opening the burial and identifying the remains in 1998, they were reburied in the tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. However, then the Russian Orthodox Church did not confirm their authenticity. “I cannot exclude that the church will recognize the royal remains as authentic if convincing evidence of their authenticity is discovered and if the examination is open and honest,” Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, said in July of this year. As is known, the Russian Orthodox Church did not participate in the burial of the remains of the royal family in 1998, explaining this by the fact that the church is not sure whether the original remains of the royal family are buried. The Russian Orthodox Church refers to a book by Kolchak investigator Nikolai Sokolov, who concluded that all the bodies were burned. Some of the remains collected by Sokolov at the burning site are kept in Brussels, in the Church of St. Job the Long-Suffering, and they have not been examined. At one time, a version of Yurovsky’s note, who supervised the execution and burial, was found - it became the main document before the transfer of the remains (along with the book of investigator Sokolov). And now, in the coming year of the 100th anniversary of the execution of the Romanov family, the Russian Orthodox Church has been tasked with giving a final answer to all the dark execution sites near Yekaterinburg. To obtain a final answer, research has been carried out for several years under the auspices of the Russian Orthodox Church. Again, historians, geneticists, graphologists, pathologists and other specialists are rechecking the facts, powerful scientific forces and the forces of the prosecutor's office are again involved, and all these actions again take place under a thick veil of secrecy. Genetic identification research is carried out by four independent groups of scientists. Two of them are foreign, working directly with the Russian Orthodox Church. At the beginning of July 2017, the secretary of the church commission for studying the results of the study of the remains found near Yekaterinburg, Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov) of Yegoryevsk, said: a large number of new circumstances and new documents have been discovered. For example, Sverdlov’s order to execute Nicholas II was found. In addition, based on the results of recent research, criminologists have confirmed that the remains of the Tsar and Tsarina belong to them, since a mark was suddenly found on the skull of Nicholas II, which is interpreted as a mark from a saber blow he received while visiting Japan. As for the queen, dentists identified her using the world's first porcelain veneers on platinum pins. Although, if you open the conclusion of the commission, written before the burial in 1998, it says: the bones of the sovereign’s skull are so destroyed that the characteristic callus cannot be found. The same conclusion noted severe damage to the teeth of Nikolai’s presumed remains due to periodontal disease, since this person had never been to the dentist. This confirms that it was not the tsar who was shot, since the records of the Tobolsk dentist whom Nikolai contacted remained. In addition, no explanation has yet been found for the fact that the height of the skeleton of “Princess Anastasia” is 13 centimeters greater than her lifetime height. Well, as you know, miracles happen in the church... Shevkunov did not say a word about genetic testing, and this despite the fact that genetic studies in 2003 conducted by Russian and American specialists showed that the genome of the body of the supposed empress and her sister Elizabeth Feodorovna did not match , which means no relationship.