Tsar Nicholas II

THE EXECUTION OF THE TSAR

THE 100 YEAR CENTENARY

By Stephen Wilson

 

Russian Tsar Nicholas II

MOSCOW -- I wake up at five in the morning in unfamiliar surroundings Astonishingly, this

is not a flat in Glasgow or London but In Moscow. This is not my apartment

and then i realize that i had agreed to look after two of my colleague's cats .

Next to my bed a huge front page photo of the the family of the last Tsar

confronts me . In the photo I see the gentle almost angelic faces of Nicholas

the 2nd ,his wife, four young daughters and youngest son staring straight at

me. They look so fragile ,frail and vulnerable. It is difficult for me to imagine

that around a century ago they were taken to a small cellar and put to death

in what was a botched execution. An icon of the family sits next to it and it

seems like a shrine has been erected in this room. When I drop into the

next bedroom I notice another huge photo of the last Tsar along with icons.

In the next room I notice the roof tops of Lefortovo prison which is still used

for political prisoners. I recall from reading Eugenia Ginzburg's memoir of

how she was detained in this very building and told by a guard that "Do you

know how many a day they're finishing off Now ? Seventy ! That is how many."

{Journey Into the Whirlwind, Eugenia Semyonovna Ginzburg,Harcourt, London

1995}

 

On many of the main streets of Moscow billboards have been erected

photos of the last Tsar and his wife where their words are quoted conveying

the virtues of the ideal family and the Orthodox religion. For example , 'We

must be grateful to God for everything he grants us " . Even the metro station

i pass through every week , Voikovskaya station reminds me of the cruel fate

of the Tsarist family. The metro station is named after the Bolshevik who had a

hand in his execution. Pyotr Voikov was responsible for ordering the sulphuric

acid from a chemist used to burn the remains of the deceased victims . The

metro station also has a notorious reputation for being a favorite place for

carrying out suicide. Attempts to change the name of the station failed after

a dubious local vote in favor of keeping the name!

There is no doubt that some kind of bizarre religious cult has been growing

around the last Tsar. This has largely been inspired by the fact that the Tsar

and his family were canonized in 2000 as saints or 'passion bearers' and you

can come across their icon in most Orthodox churches in Moscow. The film

Matilda, which dramatized the alleged love affair between the Tsar and

a ballerina, provoked outrage from some outspoken Russians who viewed

the film as a smear on the Tsar's reputation. While for most people this was

mere drama , some zealots equated the film as heinous as defacing an icon.

One person I spoke to told me : " This film is just an attempt to make money

from slandering the reputation of the Tsar. I doubt it is based on any reality ".

A more anxious student , Yevgeni told me : " Now nobody can say anything

terrible about this Tsar. It is an attack on freedom of speech". Indeed, the

tense atmosphere where even constructive criticism of the Tsar is interpreted

as an insult might become a predicament for some Russian historians.

As many as 100,000 people went on a pilgrimage to Yekaterinburg on the 17th

of July to attend a special memorial service to the last Tsar. This represents

a huge increase from past occasions reflecting a rising popularity in the role

of the family as esteemed saints.

Yet tense controversy surrounds the events concerning not only the role but

the execution and burial of the Tsar and his family. Historians are divided as

to who ordered their execution, whether the bones uncovered of the victims

are really those of the Tsar and his family and how should society perceive

the role of the Romanovs in Russian history.

 

THE FORMER ATTITUDE TO THE TSAR

 

 

It is worth pointing out that the attitude of most people to the Russian Tsar

in 1917 was a far cry from the current attitude. By March 1917 the Tsar had

practically lost all support not only among the peasants but practically

every section of society including the nobility. Nicholas the 2nd's reputation

as a weak Tsar who failed to keep order, being blamed for the defeat in the

First World War, the negative influence of Rasputin and fabricated allegations

of secret German sympathies as well as his intolerance of any kind of dissent

had turned him into one of the most hated Tsars. He was known as 'Bloody

Nicholas ' , especially after the events of Bloody Sunday not to mention his

secret approval of widespread pogroms of Jews. {See Orlando Figes 2017,

A People's Tragedy, The Russian Revolution, Penguin , Random house ,

London about the Tsar's attitude to pogroms.} Some of the Old Believers

even went so far to describe the role of the Tsar to the 'Anti Christ'.

So how did one of the most unpopular Tsars in Russian history attain

Sainthood? After all, most Russians prefer their rulers to be very strong

and authoritarian! Nicholas the 2nd was the most unsuitable Tsar. He

was the most reluctant ruler . He even confessed : 'I don't know how to

rule or what to do ." If you read the diaries of the last Tsar what strikes you

is how ordinary and dull they are . The Tsar liked to play cards, table tennis

and to do some gardening. He reminds you of an English man from an

Agatha Christie Novel than a Russian Tsar. In deed , he spoke impeccable

English.

When the Tsar was forced to abdicate he was put under house arrest by

the Provisional government at Tsarskoe Selo. He was treated quite well

but his movements were strictly curtailed. According to the then Prime

Minister Kerensky the Tsar was very happy to lose power. Kerensky wrote

in his memoirs : 'All those that watched him in his captivity were unanimous

in saying that Nicholas the 2nd seemed generally to be very good-tempered

and appeared to enjoy his new manner of life. it seemed as if a heavy burden

had fallen from his shoulders and that he was greatly relieved.' The Tsar

amused himself by playing Dominos, cards and table tennis.

King George v had promised that England would allow the Tsar's family refuge

and then withdrew the promise. The king did not want to offend the Labor

party.

 

CAPTIVITY

 

 

With the rise of the Bolshevik power the fate of the Tsar's family radically

changed. After some time in Tobolsk, the Tsar's family were finally sent

to 'The House of Special Designation 'in the town of Yekaterinburg or Ipatev's

house. The mansion was ominous . The windows were painted over in

white, the rooms dimly lit and members of the family were kept under strict

surveillance and escorted even to the toilets. What did the Bolshevik state

intend to do with them? According to reliable sources the Tsar was to be

taken back to Moscow to be put on trial and sentenced to death. However,

the approaching white army of Admiral Kolchak was about to take the

town so a decision was taken to murder the Royal Family on 17th July 1918.

The Soviet official version was that only Nicholas the 2nd had been executed

while the rest of the family had been allowed to live and evacuated to another

secret location. This led to a spate of legends of surviving members of the

family. However, in 1926, a book was written revealing that an investigation

had been carried out by Nikolai Sokolov which found the whole family and

attendants had been murdered. However, the government insisted that the

order had not been issued by Lenin but by the local Ural Soviet . Even the

Soviet Government felt uneasy about confessing to murdering unarmed

children along with their parents in a dark and dismal cellar. However,

this version was undermined by Leon Trosky who let the cat out of the bag. He

wrote the following in his diaries in 1935:

'My next visit to Moscow took place after Yekaterinburg had already fallen {i.e.

after July 25, 1918}. Speaking with Sverdlov, I asked in passing, "Oh yes, and where

is the Tsar?" "Finished", he replied. "He has been shot " "And where is the family?"

'The Family along with him ." "All?" I asked , apparently with a trace of surprise. "All,"

Sverdlov responded . "Why?" He awaited my reaction. I made no reply . "And who

decided the matter?" I inquired. "We decided it here. Ilich thought that we should not

leave the Whites a live banner, especially under the present difficult circumstances".

The second piece of evidence that Lenin ordered the execution of the Tsar comes

from archives where on the 16th of July, an official called Goloshchekin sent a secret

coded telegram to the Ural regional Soviet ordering their execution.

The rationale that the execution was carried out to deter the Whites seems odd.

None of the White armies were calling for the restoration of the Tsar. This was

because he was almost as unpopular among the White armies as the Red.

 

A BOTCHED EXECUTION

 

The execution turned out to be a very botched operation. Yakov Yurovsky, the chief

of the execution squad woke the family up at 1:30 a.m. telling them they were taking

them to a safer place because of nearby fighting. They took them to an underground

cellar with very little space. At just after 2 p.m. 7 Romanovs along with 4 attendants

were forced into a room escorted by an execution squad .Each guard had been

allocated a specific victim to kill. Yet when they entered the room they found that

each victim stood behind another .Yurovsky then read out a statement. "In view of the

offensive being launched by your relatives against Soviet Russia, the Executive

Committee of the Ural Soviet has decided to sentence you to death." The Tsar

answered: "What? What? " and turned to face his family. Yurovsky repeated the

order and then ordered his men to fire. The guards had been ordered to aim for

the heart. The victims then shouted some inaudible words but the guards began

shooting. The shooting took around two to three minutes. Yurovsky stated: 'I

killed Nicholas on the spot' . He then had to finish off his son who was badly

wounded on the floor. But the bullets ricocheted all around the room. They failed

to immediately kill the daughters because bullets bounced off some jewels they had

concealed in their clothes. So they even had to finish off the daughter Anastasia

with a bayonet. The disposal of the bodies went wrong. Yurovsky had to persuade

the drunken guards not to rob the victims, the mine shaft they had to use to bury

the victims was not deep enough and the truck broke down. They failed to even

burn the remains of the victims. This is why it was later possible to dig up

the remains of the bodies and identify them using the most up-to-date forensic

DNA analysis.

Despite the on-going reservations that the bodies are not authentic, the Russian

investigative committee confirm they are the Tsar's family. According to the Genetic

analysis 7 of the 11 found remains correspond to the mother, father , 4 daughters and

examination of the family'. Nicholas the 2nd's remains were identified by comparing

them to to the exhumed remains of his father, Alexander the 3rd.

So then why is the Russian Orthodox Church not persuaded than the bones are

authentic? Perhaps they jealously seek to preserve the legacy of the Tsar and

his family's remains as their sole property! It could well be due to the fact they

feel their influence over this matter has been slighted or diminished. Yet strictly

speaking a dead body or bones belong to nobody. Whatever, the last Tsar

seems more popular after his death than during his lifetime. I wonder what he

would make of all this debate over his fate?