Murder of the Imperial Family 17 July 1918


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lucien

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This week many will commemorate the 90th anniversary of the murders at Ekaterinenburg.
On occasion of which a communiqué of the secretariat in Moscow of HH Prince Dmitri Romanov and the Representative in St.Petersburg of the Romanov Family Association:

"In respectfull remembrance of the tenth anniversary of the solemn re-burial in the St.Peter and St.Paul Cathedral in St.Petersburg of the victims of the massacre that took place in Ekatarinenburg,and of the ninetieth anniversary of this tragedy suffered by the Imperial Family
and their suite,I wish to let it be known that - just as it has been since 1998 - I have decided to hold a solemn religious ceremony on july 17th 2008 at the St.Peter and Paul Cathedral,St.Petersburg.

I therefore request all those - in Russia or abroad - who wish to participate in this act of deep respect for the Imperial Family and the glorious history of Russia,to join me this 17th of july at the St.Peter and Paul Cathedral.

Prince Dmitri Romanov."

The Romanoff Family Association
 
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The German magazine "Spiegel" has published a video on its website with facts on the murder, some ancient picture, some statements ... unfortunatly all in German:
Video - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten

Please use the following words to search the video:

Familie Russland Mord Gedenken
 
There's a service at an Orthodox Cathedral here tomorrow. I might pop along. I find it amazing that the Romanovs are still remembered and mourned with affection all these years later whilst Lenin is reviled and hated.
 
There's a service at an Orthodox Cathedral here tomorrow. I might pop along. I find it amazing that the Romanovs are still remembered and mourned with affection all these years later whilst Lenin is reviled and hated.
Lenin ought to be reviled and hated. Along with Stalin.
Lenin's crass remark about KK that the revolution didn't need any historians, that rankles.
 
When will the remains be laid to rest?
 
Most certainly not this year,to short a time.According to Princess Olga Romanov it might very well be next year,meanwhile a family representative is for meetings regarding in Russia.
 
There's a service at an Orthodox Cathedral here tomorrow. I might pop along. I find it amazing that the Romanovs are still remembered and mourned with affection all these years later whilst Lenin is reviled and hated.

Lenin as well as Stalin is not hated anong all russians. most part of them still think that they were useful to the country.

romanovs will be remembered by religious people as they represent the symbol of martyrdom.
 
Oddly, another anniversary of sorts

A day after the 90th anniversary of these deaths, comes the 90th birthday of Nelson Mandela.

For some reason, as I was listening to NPR this morning, that juxtaposition struck me. It makes the events at the Ipatiev house somehow less distant in the past.
 
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Perhaps we can stop the discussion on Stalin and Lenin, considering we are remembering the 90th anniversary o the murder of the Imperial Family this might not be the most appropriate thread to discuss these men.
 
Massacre of the Russian royals: Horrific last hours of a dynasty | Mail Online

interesting article about a new book with some details i don't remember reading about.

*quote from article

*These were not the only potions on which the Tsaritsa was reliant. Plagued by migraines, heart palpitations, insomnia and sciatica, she was hopelessly addicted to a whole range of drugs. She had long ago admitted to being 'saturated' with Veronal, a barbiturate. She also took morphine and cocaine for menstrual pain.

It has been speculated that the Tsar, too, was cushioned from reality by narcotics. It was said that his childlike indifference to losing the throne was the result of smoking a mixture of hashish and the psychoactive herb henbane, administered by a Tibetan doctor, recommended by Rasputin, to counter stress and insomnia

*Since April, the 13-year-old had been suffering from a recurring haemorrhage in his knee, causing him agonising pain. Doctors had already cautioned that Alexey would not reach 16 because of his debilitating illness, but he seemed now at death's door. The family was exhausted by a relentless round of all-night sessions at his beside. Eventually, the splint was taken off his leg, and he could be carried out to the garden, but he would never walk again.

*July 4, there was an abrupt change in the House. The authorities were concerned that a rescue attempt was being plotted by royalists, and the guards were changed. There was another reason for this, and for the Tsar and Tsaritsa, it was a shocking one.

On June 27, Maria, the most flirtatious and attractive of the Grand Duchesses, had been discovered, during an inspection by commanders, in a compromising situation with guard Ivan Skorokhodov.

He had smuggled in a cake for her 19th birthday, and their friendship had developed quickly in the boredom of the house. Skorokhodov was sent to the city's prison, while Maria, an elegant young woman with light brown hair and mischievous blue eyes - was reprimanded by her family.

Tragically, in their final weeks together, her eldest sister, Olga, and her mother froze her out, refusing to speak to her as punishment for disgracing them.

*The mood grew increasingly ugly - 45 members of the local Orthodox diocese were murdered, their eyes gouged out, tongues and ears hacked off and their mangled bodies thrown in the river.

*A guard described the Tsar's 'melancholy' aspect, of outward calm and dignity, that crumpled when he though he was unobserved. He would watch his children play, his soft blue eyes full of tears. For her part, the Tsaritsa was a broken woman. Gone were her delicate features and lovely golden hair.

*In Britain, George V had withdrawn his earlier offer of asylum for the family, and three days' before the execution was blithely attending a cricket match at Lord's

*a man walked towards the Tsar and shot him at point-blank range in the chest

* Half drunk, the guards shot clumsily, hitting the Tsaritsa in the left side of her skull

*None of the Romanov girls died a quick or painless death. Maria was felled by a bullet in the thigh, and lay bleeding until repeated stabbing in the torso snuffed out her life. Her sisters were eventually finished off with an 8in bayonet, Olga having been shot in the jaw, and Tatiana in the back of the head as she tried to escape

*Last of the women to die was Anastasia.....Yurovsky, took his gun to her head.

*Yurovsky fired his Colt into the boy's head, and he slumped against his father.

*It had taken a frenzied 20 minutes to kill the Romanovs and their servants.
 
Just reading it, even though we all know what took place, makes your blood run cold. If only they could have died straight away it would have been much easier on them. Innocent young girls and a ill boy I'm sure Moscow would have been proud!
 
Just reading it, even though we all know what took place, makes your blood run cold. If only they could have died straight away it would have been much easier on them. Innocent young girls and a ill boy I'm sure Moscow would have been proud!

Horrifying & sickening,just imagine Michael.
 
I cannot begin to think what must have ran through their minds in those last few seconds/minutes. Does not bear thinking about.
 
it is awful and Sad yet there are safe now .
 
Tragic end - especially for the innocent young Grand Duchesses and the ill Heir.........
The "Comrades" must surely be, as of yet, proud (not) of thier actions.
 
Pamela, I've found an interesting "error" in "Born to Rule". Where the Imperial Family was executed, the author's source was Wilton's "The Last Days of the Romanovs" and Wilton used Bulygin. When I get back home, I'll print out what was said, however! Yurovsky's last words to NII do not jive with what Massie said and King and Wilson. So! We have conflict.

(Warren,you may want to move this over to the proper thread. Sorry! :D)
 
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Ah, is it error, or supposition?
 
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Ah, is it error, or supposition?
Countess, I do not know. King and Wilson used Yurovsky's Kudrin's and Nikulin's notes.
Page 271 of "Born to Rule" has (Wilton and Bulygin's notes) Yurovsky saying "Your relations have tried to save you; they have failed, and we must now shoot you." Then they say that Yurovsky shot Nicholas in the head.
King and Wilson from "Fate of the Romanovs" use Yurovsky's notes with Kudrin and Nikulin on page 306 say "In view of the fact that your relatives continue their offensive against Soviet Russia," he declared loudly. "The Presidium of the Ural Regional Soviet has decided to sentance you to death."
Here Yurovsky's bullet went to Nicholas's chest.
Of course the end result was still the same, though for this curious cat, these scenarios are quite different.
So. Who's got the straight scoop?
 
Russophile, if I remember correctly, Massie's "Nicholas and Alexandra" agrees with your first quote. The second one seems decidedly odd, although I have read somewhere just recently that it has been determined that Lenin did not authorize the execution of the Romanovs, but that the Ural Soviet took it upon themselves to do so. (Don't ask me to tell you where I read it; lately my brain resembles nothing so much as it does swiss cheese with all those holes!)

The first quote would seem to be unsupported due to a lack of a bullet hole in Nicky's skull in the remains found outside of Ekaterinburg. Here's the quote from Yurovsky's note, which is translated on the Alexander Palace website: " I announced: the Executive Committee of Soviet Workers, Peasants and Soldier Deputies of the Urals carried [a decision] to shoot them. Nikolai turned around and asked (sic). I repeated the order and commanded “Shoot”. I shot first and killed Nikolai to drop (sic)." A head shot would be more likely to cause instant death, a chest shot not necessarily, unless the heart was hit directly.
 
Erickson in her book, Alexandra, The Last Tsarina, recounts the family's final hour from Yurovsky's description of what happened in Nicholas and Alexandra: The Last Imperial Family, p. 381. Erickson does not describe Nicholas's death, but writes he said "What? What?" in response to Yurovsky saying, "in view of the fact that their relavites in Europe were continuing to attack Soviet Russia, the Ural Executive Committee had ordered them to be shot." The tragic account ends with Alix being struck by a bullet in her forehead as she begain saying the "Our Father"
 
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