How was the fate of the regicides of the imperial family

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In July 1918, the last Russian emperor Nicholas II and his family were killed in Yekaterinburg in the "Ipatiev house". Thousands of documentary, historical and artistic studies have been written about that distant tragedy. The point in numerous investigations has not been set even today. The names of only a part of the perpetrators of the murder are reliably known. Of the participants in the firing squad, a few survived to old age, achieved all kinds of honors, entertained with memories of vacationers in sanatoriums, pioneers and pubs' regulars.

Preparation for the fatal execution and the composition of the execution group

In the Civil War, when blood was shed in a river, the murder of the Tsar's family was not perceived by society as a terrible atrocity. During the years of socialism, this crime was presented as an act of justice, and city streets, for example, Sverdlovsk, were named after the murderers. According to the official version, it was with Yakov Sverdlov that the issue of execution, considered by the Ural authorities at a party meeting, was agreed upon. However, neither the chairman of the presidium of the Ural regional committee of the RCP (b), nor the leader of the proletarians himself, Lenin, was convicted of participating in this decision. The Church on the Blood has now been erected at the site of the execution of the royal family in Yekaterinburg.

Only the first level reminds of the basement of the Ipatiev House, in which the bloody massacre was committed. The exact composition of the execution group has not been reliably established either - documents on this matter are not available, and the testimonies of eyewitnesses are full of discrepancies. Researchers were confused by false evidence with fake trials. It is believed that the execution was carried out by a team of 8-10 people. The names of eight are probably known, including the developer of the plan and the immediate leader of the firing squad, Yurovsky.

Were there Latvians?

In historical sources, the version about participation in the execution of Latvian riflemen was popularized. Other researchers argue that Latvians, on the contrary, were the only ones in the team who at the last moment refused to play the role of executioners. The unnamed Latvians were mentioned in the investigative documents by the investigator Sokolov, who recorded the testimonies of the interrogated. The Chekists, who voluntarily wrote their memoirs, did not report on foreigners. Latvians are also absent in the photographs of the participants in the execution from Radzinsky's book about the life of Nicholas II.

Despite the widespread version about the composition of the execution group, some historians are sure that the mythical Latvians were created by Sokolov, relying either on false testimony from interrogations, or on their own conclusions. In his memoirs, the son of Medvedev, one of the executioners, said that former regicides often met in their Moscow apartment. At the same time, he did not mention any Latvians. The fact that Latvians were present in the Ipatiev House is definitely established. But whether one of them shot at the royal family is unknown. But in any case, they most likely acted not as representatives of the Latvian people, but proceeding from the Bolshevik ideas of the Red Army, of which they were fighters.

The fate of the murderers

Of the well-known perpetrators of the crime, there are those who quite happily lived to a ripe old age. The developer of the plan is Yurovsky, Nikulin, Ermakov, namesakes Medvedevs, Kabanov, Vaganov and Netrebin are the names of the executioners established by repeated investigations. Medvedev subsequently donated his firing Mauser to the museum, repeatedly spoke to students with lectures on the elimination of tsarism, was a guest of honor even in pioneer camps. And according to the stories of his contemporaries, he allowed himself to go to pubs, proudly demanding free drinks. Nikulin and Yurovsky also donated their revolvers to the museum, which were written off to the NKVD warehouse. The weapons that were used to kill the royal family and those close to them were exhibited years later in the Museum of Modern History. In the 60s, the propaganda department on Moscow radio recorded audio conversations with 70-year-old Nikulin and 67-year-old Rodzinsky (the latter took part in the destruction of bodies). The tapes, of course, were immediately classified.

Investigation of the White Guards and subsequent cases

After the murder of the royal family, white troops approached the city and occupied it. It was immediately decided to start an investigation. Previously, the case for the most resonant murder in the country started in 1918. According to the author of the book "Twenty-Three Steps Down" Kasvinov, all the Chekists who fell into the hands of the white people who were involved in the execution were tortured and shot by the White Guards. They were punished with the blood of a wrench, guards, guards, drivers. In the course of the investigation, interrogations were carried out not only in Yekaterinburg, but also in Omsk, Chita, Vladivostok, and after the advance of the Red Army even in Harbin, Berlin and Paris. The investigation was terminated in 1924 due to the death of Nikolai Sokolov, the chief investigator.

Investigative actions were resumed already in 1993 at the initiative of the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia. And all the details of that fatal incident have not been established to this day. The version of ritual murder regularly pops up. However, neither the White Guard investigator Sokolov in the last century, nor the senior investigator for especially important cases Soloviev, who was involved in the case in the 1990s - 2000s, found signs of ritual actions in that crime. The Romanov family was shot, bayonets were used to finish off the survivors. There was no purposeful mockery of the bodies of those killed, and an attempt to destroy the remains was made to conceal evidence due to the threat of the capture of Yekaterinburg by the Whites. No cult targets were set. In 2007, the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia once again resumed its investigation into the murder of the family of the last tsar. Similar events were carried out by the Investigative Committee of Russia in 2015.

But after all There were a lot of regicides in the history of Russia.