Assassination of the tsarist family
The murder of the tsarist family by the Bolsheviks occurred on the night of July 16-17, 1918 in Yekaterinburg . The former Tsar Nicholas II and his family, like the rest of the Romanov family, were murdered not least because the Bolsheviks did not want to leave any potential symbolic figures to the “ white ” counter-revolutionaries . Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich was the first Romanov to be killed on June 13, 1918 . In the course of the Russian Civil War , other members of the dynasty were eliminated, including Yelisaveta Feodorovna , the sister of the Tsarina, and five other Romanovs the night following the murder of the Tsarist family. On January 29, 1919, the last four Romanovs in custody were shot. A total of 18 members of the dynasty and many other people from their environment were killed by the Bolsheviks.
prehistory
Russia at the beginning of the 20th century
Russia faced major internal problems at the beginning of the 20th century. The Russian border provinces, such as the Grand Duchy of Finland or the Ukraine , increasingly opposed the Tsar's Russification policy . Already under Alexander III. Russia started to deprive the peripheral provinces of their freedoms. This led to strong conflicts within the Russian Empire.
The hope for change connected with the new Tsar Nicholas II, who after the early death of Alexander III. ascended the throne in 1894 was not fulfilled. Like his father, Nikolaus stuck to the Russian autocracy . There was a climate of revolution in Russia. The pent-up aggression against the increasing restriction of autonomy in the outskirts of the empire soon came to light. The Russian police state and the autocracy became less and less popular among the common people. The Russo-Japanese war , which was supposed to nip the revolutionary mood in the country in the bud with a quick victory, led to the opposite. After heavy defeats by the Russian armed forces in Port Arthur and near Mukden , the tsarist empire was seized by the revolution in 1905 . At first the rulers tried to put down the uprising. After tsarist soldiers shot down demonstrators on the so-called Petersburg Bloody Sunday , the tsar felt compelled to make changes in the empire in order to restore peace. Nikolaus had to partially say goodbye to the autocracy and agree to an elected representative body. In the October Manifesto of 1905 he convened the first Duma and appointed Sergei Witte prime minister.
Russia was also hit by strikes in the years that followed. The situation in the country eased only superficially, and freedom of the press was used by the radical forces, the Bolsheviks, to shape opinion. The government under Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin was unable to improve the situation among workers and peasants very much, despite the good economic situation. Workers radicalized across the country and the government lost control of the country. The same applied to Tsar Nicholas II and his court. They increasingly gambled away their reputation in public. Already not popular with the people, the popularity of the crown fell rapidly since the miracle healer Grigori Rasputin frequented the court. His effect on the illness of the heir to the throne Alexei made him popular with the family. Rasputin particularly damaged the popularity of the German Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna . The rejection of the broad masses, as in parts of the Tsar dynasty itself, led to the extensive isolation of the Tsar and his family. They withdrew to their palaces and lost touch with the problems of the population. During the First World War , the ground was laid for the overthrow of the monarchy and the 300-year-old Romanov dynasty in Russia.
Russia during the First World War
Even the tsar could not contribute to easing the escalation in Europe during the July crisis , which began after the murder of the Austrian heir to the throne . The partial mobilization of the Russian army fueled the conflict and put Germany's loyalty to the alliance to the test; in August 1914 the First World War began . The Russian troops could not stand up to the German imperial army and suffered a serious defeat at Tannenberg . On the southern front things went better against the Austrian troops . In the further course of the war, however, the tsarist troops could show little success.
The outbreak of war had led to an increase in patriotism in Russia, as in other participating countries . Similar to the German civil peace policy and the French Union sacrée , there was initially cooperation between the government and the Duma in Russia, but this broke up again due to the increasing failure on the fronts of the war. The Duma fell back on its old goal of getting the constitution through. The majority of the Duma members strived for a constitutional monarchy .
The situation in the capital Petrograd worsened after Tsar Nicholas II took over command of the troops from his uncle Nikolaus Nikoljewitsch in August 1915 . Despite the successful Brusilov offensive, there was no turning point at the front . The task required that Tsar Nicholas II stayed almost exclusively at the Mogilev headquarters , which made Alexandra Feodorovna de facto regent in Petrograd. Under the influence of Rasputin, she made controversial decisions and dismissed several ministers on her own initiative. On November 1, 1916, Foreign Minister Pavel Miliukov gave a famous speech in which he repeatedly asked the rhetorical question “What is this? Stupidity or treason? ”Asked. He called Prime Minister Boris Stürmer , a favorite of Rasputin, and indirectly the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna as a traitor. Striker had to resign, and Russia faced revolution.
February Revolution and Abdication
The internal problems of the country caught up with the tsar in the course of the war. As a result of the war, a basic supply of the population with essential things was no longer guaranteed, and inflation did the rest. More and more people became impoverished. In November 1916 there were first expressions of displeasure on the part of the citizens. In parts of the Romanov family an opposition to the tsar developed, which began to work against the tsarina and Rasputin. The Duma and the government had been fighting for months, and protests in the streets were mounting.
In the ranks of the opposition family members, it was decided to eliminate Rasputin. Felix Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich were involved in the murder of Rasputin in December 1916. The Tsarina demanded the immediate execution of the two murderers, but the Petersburg authorities refused to make arrests because they considered the act to be approved by the population. After a court hearing, the tsar finally banished Rasputin's murderers from the capital - which later saved their lives. The assassination of Rasputin made matters worse, and relief at his death did not last long. The situation in the capital began to spiral out of control after workers demonstrated against the government and the tsar.
The population increasingly refused allegiance to the tsar. Russia was gripped again by a revolution. In February 1917 the demonstrations in Petrograd increased. At the beginning the displeasure about the shortage of food was expressed, the mood soon changed. There were also strikes in the factories, and the garrison troops defied orders and joined the demonstrators. On February 26th, Jul. / March 11, 1917 greg. the Tsar dissolved the Duma, which also turned the MPs against him.
The February Revolution was initially limited to Petrograd. After the news spread throughout the Russian Empire, riots broke out in other cities as well. At the headquarters of the army, far from the capital, the Tsar initially wanted to have the uprising put down militarily; his generals resisted and suggested that he renounce the throne. Isolated from the events in Petrograd and with no support from his own ranks or from his allies, Nicholas II was forced to abdicate . On jul. / March 15, Greg. he signed the deed of abdication in which he renounced the throne in favor of his brother Mikhail Romanov . The fact that Nikolaus abdicated in the name of his son Alexei led to problems, because the reign of Mikhail for Alexei, which the proponents of the abdication wanted, became obsolete.
The Duma deputies persuaded Mikhail Alexandrovich to abdicate. The Grand Duke found himself unsupported and renounced the following day, July 3rd . / March 16, Greg. , also on the Russian throne. The form of government should be clarified at a constituent assembly , according to the will of the people. In the days of the revolution, circumstances did not permit elections, so the form of government remained open.
The Provisional Government took power. One of their first official acts was the imprisonment of the royal family in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo .
The fate of the Grand Duke Mikhail Romanov
House arrest in Gatchina
One day after the Tsar's abdication, the Petrograd Executive Committee decided to arrest the Tsar's family. Separately, the report made a resolution on Mikhail Alexandrovich , the younger brother of the Tsar and thus a possible heir to the throne. In this it says that the de facto imprisonment of the Grand Duke should be carried out. The Grand Duke Mikhail Romanov, his wife Natalija Brassowa , their son Georg Brassow and Natalija's daughter Natalija (Tata) Mamontow from their first marriage were under the supervision of the revolutionary army.
Since the spring of 1917, after the initial unrest leading to the abdication, Mikhail Alexandrovich Romanov and his family were able to live relatively undisturbed in Gatchina , albeit under constant surveillance by the government troops. On August 21, 1917, the existing freedom of movement was largely restricted by Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky . From then on, the brief Tsar Mikhail Romanov and his wife Natalija Brassowa were under house arrest. From the government's point of view, the necessity for this step was the uncovering of an alleged conspiracy by monarchist circles who sought to get in touch with the abdicated Tsar.
Exile to Perm
As a result of the German advance towards Petrograd after the October Revolution and due to counterrevolutionary developments in the country, the Grand Duke and other persons of the old Tsarist regime were banished to Perm in the Urals. Natalija Brassova was refused permission to follow her husband into exile. Mikhail Romanov and his secretary Brian Johnson arrived in Perm on March 17, 1918.
The exiles Mikhail Alexandrovich, Brian Johnson, Colonel Pyotr Snamerovsky and Mikhail's servants took up quarters in a Perm hotel. At first they were allowed to move around freely. The only requirement was to appear at the local Cheka every day . Natalija Brassova traveled to Perm to see her husband after they had evacuated their son out of the country. He came to Germany to Denmark, where the Danish king him Christian X recorded. Natalija's stay with her husband was short-lived, and a few days later she left for Moscow. She had made the decision to intercede directly with Lenin on behalf of her husband.
Assassination of the Grand Duke and his secretary
On the evening of June 12, 1918, the Grand Duke was taken from his quarters in an operation disguised as an arrest, accompanied by his British secretary Brian Johnson. The Perm Cheka represented the action as if Mikhail Alexandrovich and his secretary had been kidnapped from the hotel. One hour after the supposed disappearance of the Grand Duke, a large-scale search was started.
Andrei Markow, one of those involved in carrying out the order to kidnap Mikhail, was also directly responsible for the liquidation. The group of Bolsheviks led by Markov brought the prince and his secretary out of town in cabs and drove with them towards Motovilicha. The detainees were told to reassure them that they would be relocated and removed from the area. In a forest, Markow had the cabs stopped, the prisoners alight and shot them early in the morning of June 13, 1918. The dead were stripped of their valuables and buried in the forest floor. The grave of the two murdered people has not yet been found.
More victims
On June 14, one day after the murder, the Chekists arrested Mikhail's servant Tschelyschew, his driver Borunov and Colonel Pyotr Snamerovsky, on charges of involvement in the alleged kidnapping of the Grand Duke, in order to eliminate the witnesses of the nightly events. The hotel manager Saposhnikov was also arrested.
In addition, a formal investigation was initiated to clarify the escape of Michael Romanov, which should have consequences for his relatives. After removing the traces, the Bolsheviks saw the act as sufficiently covered up. The prisoners were later murdered.
aftermath
The press reported extensively on the alleged escape of the former Grand Duke. For the Bolsheviks this led to undesirable effects. Numerous rumors circulated about it among the population. Many followers of the old order attached their hopes to Mikhail's escape. There were strange reports. Among other things, it was reported that the Grand Duke had joined the white troops and had already addressed a manifesto to the people. Such reports received great attention in the press and among the common people, so that the Bolsheviks felt compelled to announce the renewed arrest of Mikhail Alexandrovich and, in the winter of 1918, his shooting.
The murder of Mikhail Alexandrovich Romanov was followed by the murders of Yekaterinburg, Alapayevsk and Petrograd. It thus formed the prelude to the crimes of the Bolsheviks against the Romanov dynasty.
Fate of the Mikhail family
Natasha Brassova met Lenin in Moscow and spoke out on behalf of her husband who had been exiled to Perm. Unsuccessfully, she left Moscow to visit her daughter from her first marriage, Nathalie, called Tata, in Petrograd. She was arrested there on June 13th. After three months in detention, she managed to escape with the help of the fortress doctor.
On September 7th, Tata was arrested for her mother's disappearance, but was released on September 10th. Mother and daughter went into hiding and fled from the Bolsheviks in the German-occupied People's Republic of Ukraine . After the end of the war they faced another threat from the Bolsheviks and fled to Odessa . There they managed to escape to Great Britain on board a British warship in April 1919 .
The events of Nicholas II.
Imprisonment in the Alexander Palace
After his abdication, Nicholas II returned on March 9, 1917 to his wife Alexandra Feodorovna and his children Olga , Tatiana , Maria , Anastasia and Alexei in Tsarskoye Selo . There the royal family and their entourage were placed under house arrest. Apart from the limited freedom of movement, the family suffered little deprivation. The time was passed with gardening and short walks in the garden of the Alexander Palace .
House arrest rules have been tightened over time. The first castle commandant, Kotzebue, maintained a lenient relationship with the internees in the Alexanderpalast. He became the first victim of denunciations . He was officially accused of spending hours with Anna Vyrubowa , the tsarina's lady-in-waiting . The Minister of Justice of the Kerensky Provisional Government replaced Kotzebue with Korowitschenko. He also had the ladies-in-waiting of Tsarina Anna Vyrubowa and Lili Dehn arrested. The separation from her long-time lady-in-waiting and friend hit Alexandra Feodorovna very hard. Anna Vyrubowa was accused of espionage for the war opponent Germany, imprisoned in the Peter and Paul fortress and questioned. The allegations did not stand up to scrutiny and Anna Vyrubova was allowed to leave the prison. After the October Revolution , she fled the Bolsheviks across the Gulf to Finland and found refuge in a monastery.
In mid-August 1917, the family's circumstances changed. Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky was concerned about the safety of the former tsar. Angry Bolsheviks considered storming the palace to retaliate against the Tsar. Such attempts had already been made. The provisional government's first deliberations were aimed at sending the tsar into exile. Nicholas' maternal cousin, King George V of Great Britain , initially offered the Tsar asylum in Great Britain, but had to withdraw the offer due to pressure from his government. Members of the royal family also feared that the unpopular royal family could lead to a revolution in Great Britain too.
Nikolaus and Alexandra Feodorovna never expressed a desire to go into exile. Kerensky banished the Romanovs and their entourage to Siberia in order to defuse the situation in Petrograd. On August 13, 1917, the tsar was deported to Tobolsk .
Exile in Tobolsk
The family was exiled to Siberia, which had always been the place of exile of tsarism . The government officially evacuated the family to Tobolsk, where they and their entourage were housed in the former governor's house, called the House of Freedom . The fall of the Kerensky government on October 25th July / 7th November 1917 greg. and the accompanying seizure of power by the Bolsheviks worsened the situation for the exiles. In the first months of 1918 the new rulers increasingly restricted all freedoms. The climate between residents and guards deteriorated.
Planned process
Originally, the Bolsheviks planned to bring the former tsar to justice. He was to be judged in a large show trial for his crimes against the Russian people, similar to what King Louis XVI once did in the French Revolution . was condemned by France . The trial was to take place in Moscow , the new capital of Soviet Russia , and the indictment was Leon Trotsky . Since the planned process required the presence of the tsar in Moscow, Yakov Sverdlov commissioned Soviet Commissioner Vasily Jakowlew with the planning for the transfer of Nicholas II to Moscow. At the beginning of April 1918, Yakovlev was commissioned to bring the entire family to Moscow. Yakovlev went to Tobolsk to inform the family of the decision. He planned to take the family to Moscow via Yekaterinburg . In his opinion, the detour via Yekaterinburg was necessary in order not to alarm the Bolsheviks there, as they advocated an immediate liquidation of the Tsar.
Relocation to Yekaterinburg
The drive to Yekaterinburg turned out to be difficult. The main reason for the delay was the inability to transport the heir to the throne, Alexei, who suffered from a renewed outbreak of his hemophilia . The Council of People's Commissars in Moscow then changed the instructions for Yakovlev, who was now to leave Tobolsk alone with the Tsar.
Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna insisted on accompanying her husband. Those responsible complied with the request. Alexandra decided to take her daughter Maria with her as well, while the other daughters should take care of the sick Alexei. The chambermaid Anna Demidowa, Prince Vasily Dolgorukov, personal physician Yevgeny Botkin and Nikolaus' servant Tschemodurow traveled to Yekaterinburg with the three Romanovs . On the night of April 25, 1918, the entourage set out and left Tobolsk.
The Romanovs reached Yekaterinburg on April 30th. An incident occurred at the train station, where an angry crowd awaited the Romanovs and prevented them from being immediately accommodated in their quarters. During the night the Romanovs were finally moved to their new accommodation. The Bolsheviks had requisitioned the house of the engineer Ipatiev for the family . They hastily erected a man-high wooden fence around the property, which they called a house for special use . Soon afterwards machine guns were deployed on the roof.
For the Romanovs there was a strict and humiliating regime in this house. In order to cut off the prisoners from the outside world, no exits into the city were allowed and only short stays in the small garden of the house were permitted. Later even the windows were painted white to keep the detainees completely isolated.
The part of the family remaining in Tobolsk and the rest of the servants arrived in Yekaterinburg on May 23. They were received by the Chairman of the Regional Soviet, Alexander Beloborodov , and transferred to the Ipatiev House. Only a few of the people who had set out with the children from Tobolsk to get to the tsarist family were admitted. Only the children of the Tsar and the cook Charitonov and his nephew Leonid Sednew were allowed into the house for special use . The following day, the sailor Klimenti Nagorny and Nikolaus 'lackey troop were admitted to the family, but Nikolaus' old valet Chemodurov had to leave the house.
The Bolsheviks imprisoned the valet and the rest of the entourage in the local prison.
The night of the murder
On July 4, 1918, the Cheka from Yekaterinburg took over guarding the Romanovs. It was directed by Jakow Jurowski . In the first weeks of July, the decision to execute the royal family was made in Moscow . Lenin and Sverdlov had come to believe that a trial against the former tsar was too risky. An innocent tsar would have questioned the veracity of the revolution. The Council of People's Commissars in Moscow decided to annihilate the royal family in Yekaterinburg. In no case should they fall into the hands of the approaching white troops . The Bolsheviks did not want to leave the whites with a symbol for a possible counter-revolution .
Jurowski was charged with shooting the family. In addition to Jurowski, the Bolsheviks Alexander Beloborodow and Filip Goloschtschokin were involved in the planning for the murder . After the white armies surrounded Ekaterinburg, it was imperative to hurry. On the night of July 16-17, 1918, Jurowski went to Botkin's personal doctor and instructed him to wake up the rest of the people in the Ipatiev house and tell them that they had to go to the lower part of the house. The Cheka took the prisoners to a specially prepared room in the cellar of the house. The Romanovs and their servants were told that they would be taken to the cellar for protection as there could be an exchange of fire in the city that night. The Tsarina complained to Commandant Jurowski about the empty room and asked for two chairs. Jurowski had two chairs brought for the Tsarina and her sick son Alexei. The other people present instructed Jurowski to stand in two rows, allegedly for a photo that Moscow was demanding because rumors about their escape had surfaced. Then he led in the firing squad. It consisted of four Russian Bolsheviks and seven Hungarian prisoners of war. Jurowski informed the Tsar that the government had decided to execute them and that they would be shot.
The tsar asked: "What?" , Then Jurowski shot him. All other shooters present then shot at the person assigned to them beforehand. To avoid excessive bloodshed, the heart should be aimed directly at. Alexandra died immediately sitting on the chair, a few seconds later Olga too. Botkin, Trupp, and Charitonov followed just as quickly. Alexei and three of his sisters were still alive and seriously injured on the ground. As the bullets that were fired at them seemed to ricochet off, the shooters proceeded to stab the victims with the bayonet . However, some of the bayonets got stuck in the girls' bodices. The children of the Tsar and the chambermaid Anna Demidowa had sewn family jewelry into the bodices or made pillows with valuable content during internment in the Alexander Palace. They wore these bodices on the evening of the murders and the maid Demidova tried to repel the shots with her pillow. So it took about twenty minutes before the last one was dead. Nikolai's body was the first to be placed in a sheet and taken away. Finally, Anastasia's little King Charles Spaniel Jemmy was also killed and removed. The kitchen boy Leonid Sednew had been called out of the house a few hours earlier and thus escaped being shot.
Trace removal
After the murder, Jurowski tried to cover up the traces of the crime. The remains were taken to a mine shaft called Ganina Jama in a forest about 15 km from Yekaterinburg. There were rumors that Anastasia was still alive at this point. The forest was near the village of Koptjaki and was named Four Brothers by the residents . The stripped corpses were thrown into the shaft and the clothing burned. On the following day, however, the bodies were taken out again. The traces should be removed more thoroughly, so Alexandra and Alexei should be burned. Instead of the tsarina, however, Maria was burned. Then a pit was dug in which the remaining bodies were buried. To make them unrecognizable, sulfuric acid was poured over their faces. Jurowski had tree trunks laid over the grave and the filled pit had to be driven over several times with a truck. The final resting place of the tsarist family, disguised as a road fortification, seemed to have disappeared forever.
On July 20, 1918, the official announcement about the shooting of Nikolaus Alexandrovich Romanov appeared in a separate press issue.
“According to the order of the Rayon Executive Committee of the Ural Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Soviets, the former Tsar and autocrat Nikolaus Romanov was shot on July 17, 1918. The body was released for burial:
- The chairman of the executive committee
- Beloborodov
Yekaterinburg, July 20, 1918 10 a.m. "
However, the Soviet leadership kept silent about the shooting of the rest of the family. They claimed that Alexandra Feodorovna and her five children had been taken to safety. The public reaction to the news of the death of Nicholas II remained cautious, only in circles of the monarchists many were shocked. The disappearance of the family was also the breeding ground for numerous rumors that quickly spread. The rumors took various forms, including reports that the entire family had been executed, or that even Nikolaus survived. The Bolsheviks stuck to their presentation. It was not until the publication of the book Murder of the Tsar's Family by the investigator of the white army, Nikolai Sokolow , in 1925 that there was no longer any doubt about the murder of the entire Tsar's family.
Sokolov's investigation
The city of Yekaterinburg was surrendered by the Bolsheviks on July 25, 1918 and taken by the white troops under the command of the Czechoslovak general Radola Gajda . The whites immediately inspected the Ipatiev house, where they found traces of the crime. The Urals government launched a preliminary investigation to solve the Romanov case. The first investigators Namjotkin and Sergeyev began their work, but were soon replaced by Nikolai Sokolov . Sokolov went to work meticulously. The investigators searched houses and arrested various people, among them Bolsheviks, who could no longer get out of the pocket around Yekaterinburg. One of them was Pavel Medvedev, head of the Ipatiev house guard. Sokolov continued his investigation even after the Bolsheviks had retaken the Urals. In exile in Paris, too, he collected evidence and testimony until his death. His book about the murder of the tsarist family appeared in late 1924 shortly after his death. His evidence of the execution of the entire family, however, lacked the corpses as final evidence.
Alexander Avdonin, a geologist from Yekaterinburg, and Geli Ryabov , a well-known filmmaker and author, began to grapple with the fate of the royal family in the mid-1970s. In 1976 Ryabov traveled to Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg). The two went in search of the remains of the tsarist family. In the Soviet Union, knowledge of the fate of the last tsar was kept strictly confidential. Therefore, Avdonin and Ryabov feared that if they ever knew the grave, the KGB would remove all of the remaining traces. The demolition of the Ipatiev House on Moscow orders in July 1977, when Boris Yeltsin was Secretary of the Territorial Soviet, confirmed their fears. Officially, the Politburo declared the Ipatiev House "not of sufficient historical significance" after it had increasingly become a place of pilgrimage for Russian monarchists in the 1970s.
While studying the sources, including Sokolov's book, Avdonin and Ryabov became aware of a photo published in the book. It shows the path paved with tree trunks to the shafts in the forest of the four brothers . Avdonin and Ryabov found the grave of the murdered there in May 1979. They removed three skulls from the grave for further investigation. This proved difficult in the Soviet Union, however, and after a year they returned the skulls to their graves in the forest. In 1989, after the upheavals in the Eastern Bloc, Ryabov published his find, and it took until July 12, 1991, shortly before the final dissolution of the Soviet Union , for the remains to be exhumed. Nine of the eleven murdered were in the grave. The recovered corpses could be clearly identified in 1993 by means of DNA analysis . Previously only Alexandra, through her dental fillings, and Tsar Nikolai II, through the deformation of the hip bones as a result of constant riding, were clearly identified. Blood samples were taken from living relatives for DNA analysis. Alexandra Feodorovna's closest living relative is Prince Philip Mountbatten , husband of Elizabeth II of Great Britain, whose sample was used to identify the Tsarina and her daughters. The comparison sample for the tsar was provided by Xenia Sfiris, a descendant of Irina Yusupova , daughter of Xenia Romanov , sister of Nicholas. Since two bodies were missing in the grave, those of Alexei and one of his sisters (Maria or Anastasia), the rumors about the possible survival of a family member did not stop. The remains of Alexei and Maria were also found in 2007 and identified beyond doubt in 2009.
Consequences and Effects
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion were found among the books of the murdered Tsarina , a forgery first published in 1903 that was intended to serve as evidence of a Jewish world conspiracy . The tsar's supporters, where similar anti-Semitic conspiracy theories had been very popular for a long time, soon began to be rumored that the Yekaterinburg murders were the result of international Judaism, which had instigated the revolution in order to usurp world domination . It was also alleged that the murder was a ritual Jewish murder , and that the tsarist family was bled to death as in a slaughter . Since there were actually several Jews among the leading revolutionaries, Leon Trotsky and Grigory Zinoviev , Bolshevism was easily identified as Jewish . As a result, about 100,000 Jews were murdered during the White Terror during the Russian Civil War - as the American political scientist Daniel Pipes writes, "probably the largest murder campaign committed against Jews before the Nazi Holocaust ".
The disinformation about the fate of the Romanovs spread by Lenin and other Bolsheviks was the beginning of numerous rumors and speculations. Every imaginable variant of the fate of the Romanovs circulated. Since the bodies had not yet been found during Sokolov's investigation, and since the government only admitted the shooting of Nicholas II, his report in 1925 could not silence the rumors. The government later confessed to the murder of the entire family. However, because of the previous disinformation, many did not believe the statement.
Inside and outside Russia, people sought the inheritance of the tsarist family. Since the Romanovs were one of the richest aristocratic houses of their time, impostors kept appearing . Among the best-known were Anna Anderson (1896–1984) and Eugenia Smith (1899–1997), who posed as Anastasia, and the Polish Colonel Michał Goleniewski (1922–1993), who posed as Tsarevich Alexei Romanov . No one was able to prove his alleged parentage. Even the most famous and most mysterious of them, Anna Anderson, was posthumously convicted of a lie by means of DNA analysis.
Eighty years after the tsar and his family were murdered, the remains of the tsar's family were buried in St. Petersburg in the Peter and Paul Cathedral . The family was canonized by the Orthodox Church in Russia in 2000 because of their martyrdom , the Russian Church abroad canonized the family as early as 1981. On the site of their murder in Yekaterinburg the Orthodox Cathedral was built on the blood in 2002/2003 .
The Romanovs in Alapayevsk
Exile of the grand princes
After Nicholas II abdicated, many of the grand dukes stayed in Russia. At first the Provisional Government took no further interest in the large Romanov family. Only the Tsar was placed under house arrest by the government in the Alexander Palace . Soon, the situation that changed Kornilov - coup had the young government shaken. In addition, the politicians increasingly gambled away their trust in the population. As a result, some grand dukes were arrested and others placed under surveillance. In the course of the Kornilov putsch, Paul (Pawel) Alexandrovich , among others, was arrested along with his wife, Princess Olga Paley and his son Vladimir Paley .
The seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in October 1917 led to further deterioration for the grand princes. In the spring of 1918 some grand dukes had to leave Petrograd and go into exile. On April 2, 1918, Sergei Michailowitsch , Vladimir Paley, Ivan Konstantinowitsch and his wife Jelena Petrovna , Konstantin Konstantinowitsch and Igor Konstantinowitsch arrived in Vyatka . Some of the grand dukes' servants voluntarily followed them to the Urals into exile .
The Grand Dukes were to be relocated several times over the next few months. The first relocation was decided by the local Territorial Soviet. After only a month in Vyatka, the exiles were transferred to Yekaterinburg. The feared counter-revolution again served as the reason.
Elizaveta Feodorovna
Jelisaveta Fjodorovna , sister of the tsarina and widow of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich , was like her sister a born princess of Hesse-Darmstadt . Since the death of her husband she lived as the abbess of the Martha Maria Convent of Mercy in Moscow.
After the fall of the Tsarist regime in Russia, Emperor Wilhelm II tried to get his childhood sweetheart Jelisaveta Fyodorovna. He offered to help her leave Russia. However, she declined his offers and did not change her mind even after the October Revolution . Banished by the Bolsheviks from Moscow to the Urals , she too was eventually relocated to Yekaterinburg. She arrived there on May 17, 1918. The chairman of the regional soviet Alexander Beloborodov interned them together with the other grand dukes. The abbess was accompanied by two nuns from her monastery who voluntarily accepted the banishment.
Second banishment
In May 1918, almost all of the Romanovs exiled to the Urals were in Yekaterinburg. Therefore, the chairman of the Ural Regional Soviet Alexander Belorodov made the decision to relocate some of the Romanovs again in order to reduce their number in the city.
Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich sent a telegraphic letter of complaint about his relocation directly to Lenin and Sverdlov and, because of his rheumatism, asked for a transfer to Vologda or Vyatka. The request was not granted.
Jelisaveta Fjodorovna, Sergei Michailowitsch, Iwan Konstantinowitsch and Jelena Petrovna, Vladimir Paley and the brothers Konstantin and Igor Konstantinowitsch reached Alapayevsk on May 20, 1918 . At the beginning of their stay in Alapayevsk, the Romanovs were still able to move around freely, they could attend church services or go for walks in the city. The alleged flight of Mikhail Alexandrovich from Perm on June 12 changed the conditions for the Alapayevsk exiles. From then on they had to live under a prison regime. The servants of the grand dukes were ordered to leave Alapayevsk. The same was true of Yelisaveta Fyodorovna's companions. The Serbian princess Jelena Petrovna had already left.
The night of the murder of July 17th
The Alapayevsk prisoners were also murdered the day after the royal family was murdered in Yekaterinburg. On the night of July 18, several Bolsheviks, led by Pyotr Starzew and Grigory Abramov, removed the imprisoned Romanovs from the city. Under the pretext of re-laying, the Romanovs were taken to a mine shaft in the nearby forest. There she was pushed into the shaft alive and left to her fate. They only killed the defending Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich with a shot in the head. Then bars and grenades were thrown into the shaft. After three days, the last fell silent when the Bolsheviks filled in the shaft.
In addition to the six members of the Romanov dynasty Jelisaveta Fyodorovna, Sergei Michailowitsch, the brothers Iwan, Igor and Konstantin Konstantinowitsch and Count Vladimir Paley, the servant Fyodor Remes and the nun Varvara Jakowlewa also lost their lives. They stayed with the Romanovs until the end.
Investigations
When assassinating the grand dukes in Alapayevsk, the Bolsheviks used the same methods that they had used to cover up the shooting of Mikhail Romanov in Perm. Allegedly the Romanov princes were kidnapped from their accommodation by white bandits. A pro forma search operation initiated by the Regional Soviet was of course unsuccessful. The newspapers picked up the case and reported on the alleged kidnapping. Abbess Yelisaveta Fyodorovna is not mentioned in the press. For fear of German reactions, the Soviets kept a secret that she was staying with the other grand dukes and had disappeared with them.
After the fall of Yekaterinburg, the White Army marched into Alapayevsk on September 28, 1918. The investigators in the Romanov murder case knew of the disappearance of the Alapievsk prisoners and so, as in Yekaterinburg, they started the investigation. Some of the Bolsheviks involved were arrested, including Pyotr Starzew. First testimony led investigator Sergejew to the scene of the crime. The investigators took the first of the eight corpses out of the coal pit on October 8, 1918.
The autopsy of the dead revealed that they had been plunged alive and died of the injuries they had suffered. Only Sergei Mikhailovich's body was shot in the head. The identity of the dead could be perfectly clarified on the basis of identification papers.
In February Nikolai Sokolov replaced investigator Sergeyev and took over the management. He was able to arrest another person involved in Abramov. Sokolov clarified the course of events in Alapayevsk. In contrast to the Ekaterinburg investigation, his evidence here was supported by the victims found.
The bones of the grand dukes were buried in the church of St. Seraphim in Beijing . Jelisaveta Fyodorovna and her companion Varvara Jakowlewa are buried in the Maria Magdalena Church in Jerusalem .
Jelena Petrovna's fate
Elena Petrovna had left Alapayevsk of her own free will. She wanted to check on her children, who had stayed with her mother-in-law Yelisaveta Mawrikievna . In addition, like Nathalie Brassowa before her, she wanted to secure the release of her husband Ivan Konstantinovich. In Yekaterinburg she learned of the tightening conditions and wanted to return to her husband. Alexander Beloborodov refused to allow her to travel to Alapyevsk and arrested her on July 7, 1918.
The Serbian princess was under the protection of her foreign citizenship, so the unwanted witness had to be isolated from the prisoners. Jelena Petrovna was transferred to the Cheka and interviewed by Jakow Jurowski . He moved them to Perm together with some of the royal suite. She had been in Perm Prison since July 23, and from December 2, she was held in the Moscow Kremlin . The Serbian princess developed a psychoneurosis with severe depression in her captivity and was released in mid-December 1918 due to her health. Thanks to the intensive efforts on the part of Norway, she was allowed to travel to Norway . Her mother-in-law Yelisaveta Mawrikievna and her children Vsevolod and Yekaterina had already fled to Norway.
The grand dukes in Petrograd
The grand dukes who had remained in Petrograd could live relatively unmolested under the Kerensky government. Only with the October Revolution did their situation change. After Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich Romanov was exiled to Perm, other members of the Romanov dynasty had to leave Petrograd. They were threatened with exile to Vologda . The Grand Dukes Nikolaus Michailowitsch , Dimitri Konstantinowitsch and Paul Alexandrowitsch were asked by the Soviet government to leave Petrograd. Princess Olga Paley succeeded through intensive efforts to save her seriously ill husband Paul Alexandrovich from exile. The other two grand dukes sent the Petrograd Soviets to Vologda at the end of March 1918.
In April 1918, Georgi Mikhailovich arrived there, who had been arrested by Red Fins at the Helsinki train station. In Vologda, the Romanov princes could live under similar conditions as their relatives in Vyatka . At the beginning of their stay in Vologda, the grand dukes were still in contact with their relatives in Vyatka by letter. The supposed escape of Michael Alexandrovich changed everything. The Bolsheviks used the camouflaged shooting of the tsarist brother Michael to aggravate the living conditions of all Romanovs. The grand dukes were arrested and taken to the local prison. After a short time, the prisoners were transferred to the Petrograd Cheka. They were imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
The physical condition and efforts of Olga Paley prevented Paul Alexandrovich's exile to Vologda, but did not protect him from arrest by the Petrograd Cheka in August 1918. In the same month, Gavriil Konstantinowitsch , who was still living in Petrograd for the same reasons as Paul Alexandrovich, became , arrested.
After Gabriel Konstantinowitsch was imprisoned in the same prison as his uncle, it was possible to save him from execution by the Cheka. In prison, the doctor in charge, Ivan Manuchin, advocated the release of the seriously ill Grand Duke, and it is thanks in particular to Maxim Gorky's efforts that Gabriel Romanov was released. He later emigrated to Germany via Finland and was one of the few sources that could report on the little-known fate of the Petrograd prisoners.
Gorky also advocated the other grand dukes, especially the historian and scientist Nikolaus Mikhailovich . The Petrograd Academy of Sciences supported Maxim Gorky in his efforts to secure the release of its honorary member Nikolaus Mikhailovich. The proponents of the release cited the internationally recognized work of the historian and his apolitical lifestyle as arguments. Gorky turned directly to the Council of People's Commissars and to Lenin personally to comply with his request. Lenin refused to be released and replied to a letter from Gorky with the words:
"The revolution doesn't need historians."
Immediately after the murder of the German socialists Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg on January 15, 1919, a decision was made at the highest level on the fate of the grand dukes who were held hostage in the Peter and Paul Fortress. To this end, the Petrograd Cheka and the Council of People's Commissars in Moscow exchanged some communications. In the end it was decided to liquidate all of the former grand dukes in custody and not to exclude Nikolaus Mikhailovich from them.
On the night of January 28-29, the four Grand Dukes Nikolaus Michailowitsch, Paul Alexandrowitsch, Dimitri Konstantinowitsch and Georg Michailowitsch were placed against the wall in the Peter and Paul Fortress and shot. The murder of the German comrades Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg served the Bolsheviks as a reason for the execution of the Romanov princes.
The bodies of the first three grand dukes were thrown into a mass grave in the fortress. However, the remains of Dimitri Konstantinowitsch were carried away in a carpet by his former adjutant von Leiming the next morning and buried in the garden of a private house in Petersburg, where they are still located today. In 2011, Russian archaeologists reported that excavations in the Peter and Paul Fortress likely found the graves of the grand dukes by chance.
In 1999 all four grand princes were officially rehabilitated.
Emigration of the Romanovs
Not all members of the Romanov dynasty fell victim to the Bolsheviks; a large number of them were able to flee abroad.
Escape from the Crimea
The largest group among the refugees were those who had left Russia via the Crimea . After Nicholas II abdicated, some of the grand dukes went there to escape revolutionary Petrograd. Others, like Nikolaus Nikolajewitsch , were exiled there. They had settled in their summer palaces and were able to survive the first time after the abdication here. The provisional government put them under surveillance after the Kornilov putsch , but it was not until the Bolsheviks came to power in the turmoil of the October Revolution that the situation also became more dangerous for the Romanovs in Crimea. The sailor Sadoroshny prevented the planned shooting of the exiles from Crimea in the spring of 1918 because Lenin's order from Moscow was not available. Eventually the Germans took the Crimea, but refused to let the grand dukes leave. It was not until April 1919 that the Grand Dukes left the Crimea on a British naval ship. The British Queen Alexandra had sent a ship for her sister, the mother of the last tsar, Maria Feodorovna . But this refused to go on board if not all of the Romanovs who were staying here were taken. The exiles from Crimea left their Russian homeland on the battleship HMS Marlborough and emigrated. With Maria Fyodorovna, their two daughters Xenija and Olga left Russia with their families. The families of the brothers Nikolaus and Peter Nikolajewitsch were also in the Crimea .
Other escape routes
The family of the widowed Maria Pavlovna was overtaken by the revolution in Kislovodsk in the Caucasus. They left Russia with their two younger sons Boris and Andrei Vladimirovich and their lovers. Their eldest son Kyrill Vladimirovich emigrated with his wife Viktoria Fjodorovna and their two daughters Maria and Kira via a northern route to Finland. As early as June 1917, Kyrill submitted an application to the provisional government to leave the country, which was granted.
Dimitri Pavlovich also managed to escape from Russia; he emigrated to Paris. At the time of the revolution, Dimitri was one of the murderers of Rasputin in exile on the Persian border. In the months after the revolution he managed to flee to Tehran in Persia before emigrating to France.
Final clarification of the fate of the royal family
On August 24, 2007, a team of Russian archaeologists stated that they had found the remains of the Tsar's son Alexei and his sister Maria that summer. According to reports, the location of the bones corresponds to a previously secret report by the murder squad of the tsarist family. On July 16, 2008, the Innsbruck Forensic Medicine Institute announced the results of the DNA tests. Accordingly, the remains found in the summer of 2007 were undoubtedly from Alexei and his sister Maria. In order to rule out errors in identification, the DNA analyzes were assigned by the Russian public prosecutor's office to three independent laboratories, one in Russia, one belonging to the United States Department of Defense and one in Innsbruck. 90 years after the murder of the tsarist family, their fate was finally clarified.
However, Walther Parson from the forensic medicine department in Innsbruck pointed out on July 16, 2008 that only the DNA analysis of the Tsar's son Alexei was unambiguous. The existing genetic material could not be clearly assigned to the Grand Duchess Maria. The DNA could have matched all the Tsar's daughters. The file was closed, but the doubts remained. Parson said that the laboratory did not have enough genetic material. In addition, the DNA examinations were under enormous time pressure.
Rehabilitation of the royal family
The Russian Supreme Court declared Tsar Nicholas II a victim of the communist era in 2008. The court had ruled that the tsar and his family were "suppressed for no reason" and should be rehabilitated, said court spokesman Pavel Odintsov: "The decision is final." More than 90 years after his murder, the last Russian tsar and the tsar's family were Romanov formally recognized as a victim of political violence, as confirmed by Odintsov. Thus, the multiple rejected applications of the bereaved were granted.
This ruling overturns the decision of the Russian General Prosecutor's Office, which refused rehabilitation. The argument: there was no trial against the royal family. Rather, the months of imprisonment and the shooting by Soviet authorities were sanctioned arbitrary measures.
So far, the bloody act has been classified as ordinary murder by the authorities, not an act of political violence. This was not in accordance with Russian law, said the bereaved's lawyer, German Lukyanov, after the verdict was announced. He decidedly ruled out that the rehabilitation was a purely political decision.
The Russian Orthodox Church had long campaigned for the royal family to be recognized as victims of political repression. After the verdict, a spokesman for the Moscow Patriarchate said: "This decision can only be welcomed."
literature
(in chronological order)
- Nikolai Alexejewitsch Sokolow : The death path of the Tsar. Portrayed by the examining magistrate. Otto Stollberg Verlag, Berlin 1925, DNB 576444561 .
- Edith Martha Almedingen: The Romanows. History of a dynasty. Fritz Molden Verlag, Vienna 1968, DNB 454562802 .
- Richard Pipes : Russia before the revolution. Beck Verlag, Munich 1977, ISBN 3-406-06720-4 .
- Richard Kohn (Ed.): The Russian Revolution in Eyewitness Reports. dtv-Verlag, Munich 1977, ISBN 3-423-01289-7 .
- Edward Radsinski : Nicholas II. The last tsar and his time. Bertelsmann Verlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-570-01450-9 .
- Juri Buranow, Vladimir Khrustalev: The Tsar Murderers. Destruction of a dynasty. Construction Verlag, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-351-02408-8 .
- Tatjana Botkina: My memories of the royal family. Ullstein Verlag, Berlin / Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-548-23225-6 .
- Elisabeth Heresch : Nicholas II. Cowardice, lies and betrayal. Ullstein Verlag, Berlin / Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-548-35413-0 .
- Hans-Dieter Schütt , Raymund Stolze (Ed.): Alexandra. The Last Tsarina, letters and diaries 1914–1918. Ullstein Verlag, Berlin / Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-548-35360-6 .
- Robert K. Massie : The Romanovs. The last chapter. Knaur Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-426-60752-2 .
- Orlando Figes : Tragedy of a People. The epoch of the Russian Revolution from 1891 to 1924. Berlin Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-8270-0243-5 .
- Michael Schaper (ed.): In the empire of the tsars. (= GEO epoch. No. 17). Gruner + Jahr, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-570-19322-5 , pp. 154–157.
- Katharina Jakob: The brutal end of the Romanovs. In: PM History . Issue 09/2017. Gruner + Jahr, Hamburg 2017, ISSN 2510-0661 , pp. 44–53.
Web links
- The end of the Romanovs - the murder of the last royal family . In: MDR.de , March 18, 2020
- Reinhard Veser: Assassination of the ruling family - Holy Tsar . In: FAZ.net , July 16, 2018
- Romanov Memorial Website (English, Russian)
- Murder of the Imperial Family - The executioner Yurovsky's account . In: AlexanderPalace.org (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ The certificate of abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, March 2nd (15th) 1917 / Bavarian State Library (BSB, Munich). In: www.1000dokumente.de. Retrieved January 20, 2016 .
- ↑ Massie, Robert K .: Die Romanows Das last Kapitel, Droemersche Verlagsanstalt Th. Knaur, 1998, Munich, p. 15.
- ↑ Massie, Robert K .: Die Romanows Das last Kapitel, Droemersche Verlagsanstalt Th. Knaur, 1998, Munich, p. 15.
- ↑ Elisabeth Heresch: Nikolaus II, Feigheit, Lie und Verrat , Ullstein Verlag, p. 385.
- ↑ Europeana : Enquête judiciaire sur l'assassinat de la famille impériale russe avec les preuves, les interrogatoires et les dépositions des témoins et des accusés, 5 plans et 83 photographies documentaires inédites
- ^ Robert K. Massie : The Romanovs. The last chapter. Knaur Verlag, Munich 1995, pp. 80–81, ISBN 3-426-60752-2 .
- ^ Victim of premeditated murder . In: Der Spiegel . No. 30 , 2008, p. 98 ( online - chief investigator Vladimir Solovyov about his findings on the murder of the tsarist family).
- ↑ Jeffrey L. Sammons (ed.): The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The basis of modern anti-Semitism. Forgery. Text and comment . Wallstein, Göttingen 1998.
- ↑ Michael Hagemeister: The "Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion" and the Basel Zionist Congress of 1897. In: Heiko Haumann (ed.), The dream of Israel. The origins of modern Zionism. Beltz Athenaeum, Weinheim 1998, p. 259.
- ^ Daniel Pipes: Conspiracy. The fascination and power of the secret. Gerling Akademie Verlag, Munich 1998, p. 150.
- ↑ Les Russes pensent avoir retrouvé les restes de princes Romanov. Tribune de Genève, June 8, 2011, archived from the original on February 1, 2015 ; Retrieved February 7, 2013 (French).
- ↑ GMI Tirol: DNA analyzes in Tirol clarify the identity of two Tsar children ( memento of the original from October 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 30, 2011.
- ↑ Rheinische Post, edition July 10, 2008 p. C8.
- ↑ a b Court Rehabilitates the Last Russian Tsar , Die Welt Online, October 2, 2008.
- ↑ a b Supreme Court Rehabilitates the Imperial Family , Russia News, October 1, 2008.
