Why is it that some of you make it appear that people living in eastern section of Russian Urals didn't know other languages accept for Russian and that they were all illiterate? Russia was a huge melting pot of different groups of people. Especially in and near Ekaterinburg which was a mining town which had a huge influx of foreigners due to the rich resources being mined, also, there was a school of mines. Prosperous mines allowed the Ipatiev family and other families to build and/or buy grand mansions. And properous families brought in tutors who taught their children various languages like French, and, yes, even German. At that time a great deal of scholarly information in books were written in Latin and German. French was learned since it was then the international language for communication.
Yes, Yurovsky knew German and as a side note changed his religion to Lutheran while living in Germany.
Most believe Yurovsky's background was Jewish. If his family did hold Jewish roots, they probably came from German Jews who migrated into Poland and then migr. farther east to Moscow then to Odessa and then to the Urals. If so, they may have spoken German and Yiddish in their homes and Russian while in the public eye. According to Yurovsky, he was not raised Jewish in his father's house, therefore, Yurovsky's family may have just spoken Russian in their home. His knowledge of German would have been later if that was the case.
Source: >>“.... Once I had to take lunch to my father and passed a group of Jews on their way to their synagogue. And then I asked my mother, “How is it that Jews have all the money, and can close their shops to go to Synagogue on Friday, when others have to work? Why are they allowed to decide when it is forbidden to work, when the rest of us have to do so?” << King and Wilson have Yurovsky Memiors:
kingandwilson >>...I was fifteen or sixteen when another important event took place. Whenever we sat down to lunch in our family, questions about the emperor would be raised. Father was very severe, and would not allow any contrary points of view from his children. He glorified Nicholas I. I didn’t think was deserved. And I began to argue that nothing good had happened because of Nicholas I. When something good had happened it was only because of Alexander II: he had freed the Serfs and was not so coarse as one heard that Nicholas I had been. When I was sixteen, we had a typical fight. My father refused to listen; he threw a fork at me and I ran out, staying away from home for two days. <<
Since Yurovsky was interested in the medicial field and knew about the Tsarvich's conditions, most medical books were in Latin and German at that time. And there is evidence that Yurovsky did have some background since he served as a medic in the Tsar's army at one time.
Yurvsky's little side business of photography and making false passports probably gave him the opportunity to hear many kinds of languages. Therefore, Yurovsky certainly knew what language the Romanovs and their servants were speaking at any given time.
Yurovsky continued:>>Because of my political views, we were forced to leave Russia and I spent many years in Berlin, where I worked as a watchmaker. We all spoke German and converted to the German [Lutheran] Church. My employer had a friend who made society photographs and he trained me in this, which I liked, particularly composing the photographs and capturing the faces. << Wilson and King's web site.
Because my ancestors were Germans who migr. into Russia, I am well aware of the various German colonies established in the Russian communities, so, I am not making any assumptions.
A great deal of information we Americans read is from the English speaking part of the world, England, and the rest of the world was not English, although, the British certainly had it's presents in the world. At that time they were interested in the resources in eastern Russia, especially their oil. Unless you had family in Russia and/or have a real interest in European history before the 1900s, your awareness is limited to the history written by the British. The Germans under Kaiser Wilhlem II, the Krupp Co. and others were fighting for world domination before WWI [The Great War]. The Germans were infiltrating right along with the British and right up at the top with higher education in all fields. The Germans were sending teachers into Russia where they taught at the highest levels and all the way down to the German colonies in every corner of Russia. German-Russian children were being sent to Germany to study in the universities and returned home with new ideas about everything from medicine to animal husbandry.
The White Army had a huge number of German-Russian officers. The Austrians didn't speak Austrian they spoke German.
The higher educated Lituanians were from the old Boyer families who's background were Prussians/Germans.
Alex III tried to halt the Germans successes in Russia. But that was like trying to stop the water from rushing into the valley after the dam was broken. After Alex. III's death, the German-Russians (Catholics, Lutherans and Jewish) became part of the rising new middle class citizens. It took WWI to turn the Russian masses against all German and German-Russians. Later Bolsheivks labeled most of the upper and middle class German-Russians Kulacks, "the enemies of the state" and carted them off in trains to Siberia and concentration camps.
AGRBear
