The Tragedy Ends
THE knell sounded shortly after midnight, when Jurovsky knocked at the door of the ex-Emperor and bade Nicholas arise and dress. The same summons was delivered to the Tzarina, the children, and their suite. Jurovsky explained to Nicholas that the Siberian army, under Admiral Kolchak, and the Czechoslovak troops, those former prisoners of war who had succeeded in arming themselves and were now a serious menace to the Soviet regime in Siberia, were approaching Ekaterinburg ; an engagement was imminent, and bullets would be flying in the streets. In his solicitude for the safety of the royal family he must insist that they come below stairs, where they would be secure from accident or injury.
The ex-Tzar, seemingly, was satisfied, credulous as always, and did not appear to suspect a trap. The women dressed and washed, not omitting, however, to put on the specially prepared clothes into the lining and hems of which they had previously sewn jewels and bank notes against the hoped-for day of escape. Several cushions had likewise been filled with precious stones and money ; in all, one million rubles, something over $500,000, had been secreted in this manner.
To reach the safe place designated by Jurovsky, they descended a flight of steps, passed into the open courtyard, and thence approached a semibasement, eighteen by sixteen feet in dimensions. The single door was open, awaiting their coming ; there was no other exit, as the inside door entering into a second room was barred and obstructed on the far side. The only window, opening on to the Vosnesensky Lane that skirted the side of the house, was protected by a heavy iron grille. Outside this window stood sentries, their faces pressed against the grimy glass, able to see all that passed within, especially as the room had been lighted for the better aim of the executioners. The testimony of these onlookers forms one of the strongest elements in the convincing depositions gathered during the inquiry.
There was, moreover, another window, opening not directly into the room, but into a lobby before it ; this window commanded a view of the interior, and here too stood a sentry who witnessed the butchery. The deposition of Medvedev, one of the actual participants in the murder, later captured by the Whites ; the description given to Yakimov by Klescheev and Deriabin, the sentries who gazed spellbound through these windows ; and the account of Proskouriakov, the Red Guard who removed the bloodstains from the floor with water, mop, and sawdust, make it possible to reconstruct the tragedy in all its hideous detail.
The midnight procession, in passing through the dim courtyard, must have seen the motor trucks silhouetted against the summer sky. In that northern latitude it is light until after 10 P.M.; it is never wholly dark, especially on clear nights, and dawn appears as early as two in the morning. They doubtless imagined the vehicles were for their escape in case of danger, or possibly for the baggage. Not one of the victims seems to have suspected what lay beyond that open door through which light was streaming into the courtyard. Above, nothing to be seen but sharp points of light, like a myriad watching eyes in a clear blue sky ; below, shadowy figures lurking at corners and along the inner, stockade ; no sound, except the shuffling of many feet on the dirt walk. Jurovsky marshaled them, leading the way and beckoning toward the open door ; behind followed Medvedev and the scowling Letts, eleven men, fingering their pistols as they closed in on their unsuspecting victims.
As it is the last time we shall look upon their faces before the fiery acid burns away all traces of a human countenance, let us note them carefully as they pass into the shambles : —
1. Nicholas Romanov, fifty years of age, late Tzar of All the Russias, carrying in his arms,
2. The Tzarevitch, Alexis, a boy of fourteen years, heir to the throne ;
3. Alexandra Feodorovna, forty-six years old, late Empress, born Princess Alice of Hesse, favorite granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England ;
4. The Grand Duchess Olga, eldest daughter, twenty-three years of age ;
5. The Grand Duchess Tatiane, daughter, twenty-one years of age ;
6. The Grand Duchess Maria, daughter, nineteen years of age ;
7. The Grand Duchess Anastasia, youngest daughter, seventeen years old ;
8. Dr. Eugene Sergeievich Botkin, physician to the royal family, a stout, gray-haired man, between fifty-five and sixty years of age ;
9. Anna Demidova, a chambermaid, tall, thin, dark, about forty years of age ;
10. Ivan Haritonov, cook to the imperial family, a short man, slightly bald, with black hair and moustache, aged forty years ;
11. Alexis Troupp, a footman, tall, thin, dark, thirty-five years of age.
Once having entered, exit for them is barred by the executioners, who mass themselves before the door, awaiting the prearranged signal. Nicholas, still believing that the family is about to be conveyed to a place of safety, requests that chairs be brought for the Empress and the children. It is done. They rest, waiting in simple expectation, hats on and clad in traveling clothes.
At this point the available testimony, which covers volumes, diverges slightly, but only in unimportant chronological details. According to some witnesses, Jurovsky, standing at the head of his file, suddenly produced a paper and read what purported to be a death warrant which authorized him to execute “Nicholas the Bloody and all his family”; others, not mentioning he death warrant, depose that Jurovsky suddenly addressed Nicholas and said : —
“ Your relatives have sought to rescue you, but it could not be managed by them and so we ourselves are obliged to kill you.”
The ex-Tzar did not seem to understand and asked “What do you mean ?”
“This is what I mean !” cried Jurovsky, firing point-blank at the Emperor with his automatic revolver, killing him instantly.
The scene that followed must await its own proper Dante. Twelve revolvers bellowed thunder and spat tounges of fire ; the hollow chamber, reverberating with the explosions, filled up with smoke and acrid fumes ; not once, nor twice, but again and again each Lett, frenzied with primeval bloodlust, fired, choosing his own particular victim. With twelve men letting loose the pent-up hatreds of three hundred years, it is not unreasonable to expect that each emptied the clip of his automatic, which would make nearly a hundred shots. Medvedev, a participant, confessed that the sight with the blended smell of blood and powder fumes, nauseated him. The petrified onlookers at the windows were harrrowed by the shrieks of women and the groans of men ; Alexis, the Tzarevitch, was not killed outright, but moaned and writhed over the bodies of his dead parents. It was Jurovsky who finally dispatched him with his revolver. Those who still breathed were bayoneted to death. The floor was chipped and torn with bayonet thrusts driven through the soft bodies. A little dog, King Charles spaniel, pet of the Grand Duchess Anastasia and brought down by her in her arms, ran hysterically about, darting between the legs of friend and foe, barking furiously. Floor and walls were spattered with blood and bits of clinging flesh.
Twenty-three living persons had entered that narrow cellar — eleven prisoners and the twelve guards conducting them to a place of greater safety. As dawn began to streak the sky, twelve persons came out, leaving eleven corpses safely within, lying in pools of blood that trickled in widening circles out into the corridor. Such evidence must be removed ; Jurovsky called for Proskouriakov to mop up the floor, scatter sawdust about, and cleanse the walls. Sheets were then brought from upstairs ; into them the bleeding bodies were rolled and then piled, pell-mell into the waiting motor truck, precedence no longer observed.
Twelve miles northwest of Ekaterinburg, on the shores of Lake Isset, stands the secluded little village of Koptiaki in the centre of a heavily wooded forest. Once the site of extensive mining operations, it was now deserted, save for the scattered peasant families who remained unaffected by the coming and going of miners and engineers. Off the beaten track, forgotten and insignificant, the Siberian hamlet slumbered in obscurity — until July 17, 1918.
Early that morning, Anastasia Zykova, a peasant, accompanied by her son Nicholas and her daughter-in-law Maria, started before sunup for Ekaterinburg, with horse and cart, to sell their catch of fish. They had barely passed one of the abandoned mines, — the one known as “Four Brothers” because of the four pine trees that once stood there, — when they perceived a procession of some sort approaching them. It took the form of several vehicles guarded by Red horsemen. Barely recovered from their surprise at the early morning apparition, they were further dismayed when two of the horsemen galloped swiftly forward to intercept them. The soldiers reined up before the Zykovi, ordered them curtly and with menace in their voices to turn back to their village, and, above all, not to dare to look behind. The simple peasants obeyed, turned their horse’s head toward home, and retreated. But one of the women looked back, whereupon the two Red Guards galloped in pursuit and with drawn revolvers accompanied the party nearly a mile, threatening them with instant death if they attempted to see what was going on behind them.
In a short time the village of Koptiaki was buzzing with excitement. Men crept out on all fours across the fields in the direction taken by the motor truck and carts of the cortège ; the tracks led across open ground toward one of the shafts of the old Isetsky mine. But the village scouts found that sentries had been stationed in a wide circle, completely isolating the locality ; frightened and wondering, they crawled back and awaited developments. Toward evening they saw in the heavens glowing reflections from a great bonfire kindled on the spot where the Bolsheviki had finally halted. The hidden rite, whatever it was, continued throughout the next day ; only on Thursday, July 19, were the woods deserted and silent.
Then, and only then, did a group of peasants venture to approach the scene. They found the space around the shaft littered with debris of various kinds — disturbed foliage, remnants of a fire, charred wood, and piles of ashes. But on poking under the ashes with sticks they encountered a collection of burnt objects that gave rise to horrible suspicions : first, a Maltese cross set with emeralds, six-corset steels from women’s corsets, a miscellaneous collection of charred buttons, buckles, parts of slippers, hooks and eyes, beads, parts of women’s clothing, and a number of small, dirty pebbles which, on being cleaned and treated chemically, turned out to be pure diamonds. Francis McCullagh, that brilliant and supremely daring journalist who visited these scenes a few weeks after the murder and interrogated the peasants and even Jurovsky himself, spent many weeks — trying weeks — with the present writer in Moscow. He recounted his findings at Ekaterinburg in considerable detail. It was the discovery of that Maltese cross that led to the ghastly truth. Such a decoration was worn only by personages high in the Imperial Service. Pometkovsky, one of the searchers, who was in reality an escaped royalist officer in hiding, knew that there was but one such person in Ekaterinburg. As other metallic and stone objects that had resisted the fire but plainly revealed their late owners were placed before him, he cried aloud : “ God Almighty ! Can they have burned the whole family alive ?”
He was right, but not entirely so ; they had burned them, but not while alive.
The spot for the cremation of the bodies had been chosen in advance by Jurovsky and extraordinary precautions taken to destroy the corpus delicti. Subsequent events, however, have proved that, though the bodies of the victims can never be produced as primary evidence of the crime, the boast of Voikov, “The world will never know what we have done with them,” has not been justified. The elaborate technique of concealment overshot its mark and ignored a number of obvious possibilities. Jurovsky had added to his staff two new assistants whose particular function seems to have been to dismember the bodies. Arrived at the pit, which was thirty feet deep, the regicides set to work to finish their gruesome task. The corpses were drenched with benzine, the countenances having probably first been destroyed by the sulphuric acid, and the human bonfire was then ignited. Acid was likewise used to dissolve the larger and tougher bones which were likely to resist the flames. When fire had consumed all the flesh and reduced skulls and skeletons to ashes, the débris was swept up and cast into the yawning mouth of the iron pit. An attempt was made to rearrange the scarred face of nature by scattering the embers and foliage carelessly about, so as to simulate the appearance of an ordinary camping ground or picnic place. But the wound was too deep ; the executioners were tired and probably hurried. They sat down at last beneath the pine trees to eat their lunch, letting fall the telltale eggshells.
The Commission of Inquiry found hundreds of clues and articles definitely identified as belonging to the imperial family : the six sets of corset steels, exactly the number for six women ; precious stones in great numbers ; the belt buckles of both Tzar and Tzarevitch ; the buckles of the women’s shoes ; hooks and eyes and other metallic parts of feminine wear ; the broken lense of the Empress’s eyeglasses ; a set of artificial teeth identified as those of Dr. Botkin ; fragments of chopped and sawed human bones ; and one human finger, long, slender, well-shaped, probably cut from the Empress’s hand to get at a ring. This pathetic collection of relics, the meagre débris of a fallen dynasty, this admixture of human bones and ashes, corset steels and diamond dust, was transported in a single trunk to Harbin and from thence to “a sure place.”? That is all the record shows ; where or how far they wandered after crossing into Mongolia I know not.1
So passed Nicholas II and the Romanovs, to be followed by a third Nicholas, called Lenin, and the House of the Soviets.
Eight days after these events, on July 25, 1918, Ekaterinburg was evacuated by the Bolsheviki, and the combined Kolchak and Czechoslovak troops entered the city. Five days later, on July 30, an orderly investigation, conducted in a scientific and judicial spirit, was instituted, first under the direction of Judge Nametkin, of that territorial jurisdiction, but later — and fortunately — committed to the very capable hands of Judge Nicholas Sokolov of the Omsk Tribunal. On the evacuation of the town by the Bolsheviki, someone had the presence of mind to rush to the telegraph office and secure possession of the official telegrams that passed between Moscow and the Ural capital during those eventful days ; from these records, fortified by the sworn statements of the scores of witnesses and the mute testimony of the hundreds of recognizable clues that had been trampled into the clay in the forest or found at the bottom of the shaft, Sokolov was enabled to publish to an expectant world in 1925 his precious report of 295 pages, totaling 120,000 words. With infinite difficulty, patience, and hazard, he managed to smuggle his material out of Russia to Western Europe, where in peace and safety he edited and published his findings. His work done, he died of hardship and exhaustion.
These documents, of inestimable importance for students of the Russian Revolution, are a monument to the painstaking judicial mind of their author. They set at rest, definitely, all doubt as to the fate of the Romanovs,2 not only with respect to the immediate family of the Tzar, but also of his near relatives, the grand dukes and princes who were murdered about the same time, either at Petrograd or in the environs of Perm. The murders at Alapaevsk, near Perm, bear a striking resemblance to the Ekaterinburg tragedy. Twenty-four hours after the death of Nicholas, six other Romanovs were officially murdered in that city by the Bolsheviki, their bodies thrown down the shaft of an unused mine, and hand grenades dropped down to ensure complete destruction of life. But the bodies of the Perm victims were eventually recovered and identified.
The moral responsibility for the wholesale butchery of the imperial family would now seem to rest fairly and squarely on the shoulders of the Soviet Government, and can no longer be charged off to an alleged uncontrollable fanaticism on the part of local Ekaterinburg authorities. It was decided upon, approved, and arranged by Jankel Sverdlov at Moscow ; Bieloborodov, Golostchekin, and Jurovsky were merely the executors — most willing executors — of a matured governmental policy. To be sure, contrary protestations have been made and pretexts advanced as fictitious as the inhuman charge of incest brought against Marie Antoinette by Hébert during her trial. But, in the copious light shed upon events by the official telegrams confiscated at Ekaterinburg, such-evasion is no longer tenable.
There was but one telegram sent by the Ekaterinburg “ Cheka ” to Moscow on July 17, the day following the murder ; it was signed by Bieloborodov, President of the Ural Soviet. Written in code, the combinations of numbers defied the best cypher experts of Europe for two years. But when human ingenuity had unraveled what other human ingenuity had contrived, the cryptic groupings of numbers fell into the following indictment of Moscow as having had a clear understanding with Ekaterinburg before the murder : —
To Moscow, Kremlin, for Gorbounov, Secretary of Council of People’s Commissars
Please confirm receipt
Tell Sverdlov that the entire family has met the same fate as its head. Officially, they will perish during the evacuation.
BIELOBORODOV
On the following day, July 18, Sverdlov announced to the Central Executive Committee at Moscow that the Tzar had been killed, adding — falsely — that the remaining members of his family had been moved to a safe place. He knew, by prearranged convention, the exact meaning of the sentence “the whole family has met the same fate as its head.” Two days later he gives Golotschekin assurance by telegraph that the Central Government approves the execution and authorizes his friend to publish these facts in Ekaterinburg. On the evening of the twentieth, in a meeting of the regional Soviet of the Urals, public announcement was made of the execution to its members — who were supposed to have ordered the deed on their own initiative. On the following day placards were posted throughout the town informing the inhabitants of the Tzar’s death and repeating the falsehood concerning the rest of the family. Every single step was ordered, controlled, and approved from Moscow, by Jankel Sverdlov and his colleagues of the Central Executive Committee.
That posterity may entertain no doubt of their complicity the very name of Ekaterinburg has been officially changed to Sverdlovsk and the space before Ipatiev’s house has been rechristened The Square of National Vengeance.
1 See Appendix XI.
2 Following historical precedent, claims are now being made in monarchist circles that not all the family perished. At Castle Seeon, in Bavaria, a certain young woman called Frau Von Tchaikovsky has been proclaimed as the Grand Duchess Anastasia who, it is pretended, managed to escape from Ekaterinburg to find refuge, eventually, in Germany. Similarly, a young man calling himself Eugene Michaielevich Ivanov, resembling Alexis, — he is even afflicted with hæmophilia, — has been discovered in Bydgosz, Pomerania, Poland, and hailed as the true Tzarevitch. According to the legend, he too escaped the slaughter, his place having been taken by the son of a cook. This is not the place to subject these claims to minute investigation. Royalist circles are divided. The evidence is far from being convincing and shows glaring inconsistencies.