Nikolai Alexejewitsch Sokolov

Nikolai Sokolov around 1920

Nikolai Alexejewitsch Sokolow ( Russian: Николай Алексеевич Соколов ; born May 22, 1882 in Mokshan , Penza Oblast , Russian Empire ; † November 23, 1924 in Salbris , Loir-et-Cher department , France ) was a Russian judge and investigator in the des The whereabouts of Nicholas II and the tsarist family after the October Revolution .

Life

Sokolow disguised as a farmer

After studying law in Kharkiv , Sokolov became a judge for extraordinary matters in Penza Oblast . After the October Revolution he refused to serve the Bolsheviks and fled to Omsk . The staunch monarchist and devout Sokolov joined circles loyal to the Tsar there. He joined the White Army and forged plans for the liberation of the imprisoned tsarist family around Nicholas II, which, however, were never seriously implemented and had no consequences. On February 7, 1919, Admiral Alexander Kolchak officially commissioned him to investigate the death of the royal family. At this point in time, the tsarist family had been shot almost a year ago. But since the Bolsheviks continued to claim that they had murdered Nicholas II, but not his wife Alexandra Feodorovna and their five children, there were still many rumors about the whereabouts of the tsarist family. The scene of the murder, the Ipatiev house near Yekaterinburg , had been under the control of the White Army under General Radola Gajda since July 25, 1918 . This enabled Sokolov to conduct an undisturbed investigation, so that he could evaluate large amounts of evidence left behind and question hundreds of witnesses, including three guards of the Ipatiev House. However, Sokolov was unable to locate the remains of the tsarist family.

The civil war which developed to the disadvantage of the White Army and the recapture of Yekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks forced him to flee along the Trans-Siberian Railway to Harbin . In 1920 Sokolow traveled to France with General Maurice Janin , where he settled in the small town of Salbris in the Loir-et-Cher department . He lived there together with his 23-year-old wife, whom he had met in Yekaterinburg, as well as his daughter Natalie and his son Alexei in poor circumstances. He evaluated the results of his investigation and summarized them in a report. Nikolai Sokolow was found dead in the garden of his house on November 23, 1924 after a long illness. A heart attack was determined to be the cause of death. In the same year, his results were published in French under the book title Enquête judiciaire sur l'assassinat de la famille impériale Russe (German book title: The murder of the Tsarist family ). In this he comes to the conclusion that the tsar's family and their four employees were murdered in the Ipatiev house and that the corpses were then completely burned. However, the theories put forward by Sokolow met with stiff resistance from the start. Maria Fjodorovna , mother of the last Russian tsar, did not recognize the results of the investigation. Only one of the guards whom Sokolov had questioned as a witness was actually in the Ipatiev house at the time of the murder. In addition, it was doubted that the eleven bodies could have been completely disposed of so quickly. Above all, the complete destruction of the bones would have been impossible in such a short time. In fact, after the exhumation of the bones of the murder victims in 1991, it turned out that Sokolov's meticulous work was entirely incorrect on this point. Despite this mistake in content, the world public first learned about the murder of the tsarist family through the publication of the book , which previously could only be suspected.

Nikolai Sokolow is buried today in the local cemetery in Salbris. His grave is still preserved and can be visited.

Web links

Footnotes

↑ 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

personal data
SURNAME	Sokolow, Nikolai Alexejewitsch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Соколов, Николай Алексеевич (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Investigator in the clarification of the whereabouts of the tsarist family after their shooting
DATE OF BIRTH	May 22, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH	Mochan
DATE OF DEATH	November 23, 1924
Place of death	Salbris

[1] 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