According to official history, on the night of July 16-17, 1918, Nikolai Romanov, along with his wife and children, was shot. After opening the burial and identifying the remains in 1998, they were reburied in the tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. However, then the Russian Orthodox Church did not confirm their authenticity.
“I cannot exclude that the church will recognize the royal remains as authentic if convincing evidence of their authenticity is discovered and if the examination is open and honest,” Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, said in July of this year.
As is known, the Russian Orthodox Church did not participate in the burial of the remains of the royal family in 1998, explaining this by the fact that the church is not sure whether the original remains of the royal family are buried. The Russian Orthodox Church refers to a book by Kolchak investigator Nikolai Sokolov, who concluded that all the bodies were burned.
Some of the remains collected by Sokolov at the burning site are kept in Brussels, in the Church of St. Job the Long-Suffering, and they have not been examined. At one time, a version of Yurovsky’s note, who supervised the execution and burial, was found - it became the main document before the transfer of the remains (along with the book of investigator Sokolov). And now, in the coming year of the 100th anniversary of the execution of the Romanov family, the Russian Orthodox Church has been tasked with giving a final answer to all the dark execution sites near Yekaterinburg. To obtain a final answer, research has been conducted for several years under the auspices of the Russian Orthodox Church. Again, historians, geneticists, graphologists, pathologists and other specialists are rechecking the facts, powerful scientific forces and the forces of the prosecutor's office are again involved, and all these actions again take place under a thick veil of secrecy.
Genetic identification research is carried out by four independent groups of scientists. Two of them are foreign, working directly with the Russian Orthodox Church. At the beginning of July 2017, the secretary of the church commission for studying the results of the study of the remains found near Yekaterinburg, Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov) of Yegoryevsk, said: a large number of new circumstances and new documents have been discovered. For example, Sverdlov’s order to execute Nicholas II was found. In addition, based on the results of recent research, criminologists have confirmed that the remains of the Tsar and Tsarina belong to them, since a mark was suddenly found on the skull of Nicholas II, which is interpreted as a mark from a saber blow he received while visiting Japan. As for the queen, dentists identified her using the world's first porcelain veneers on platinum pins.
Although, if you open the conclusion of the commission, written before the burial in 1998, it says: the bones of the sovereign’s skull are so destroyed that the characteristic callus cannot be found. The same conclusion noted severe damage to the teeth of Nikolai’s presumed remains due to periodontal disease, since this person had never been to the dentist. This confirms that it was not the tsar who was shot, since the records of the Tobolsk dentist whom Nikolai contacted remained. In addition, no explanation has yet been found for the fact that the height of the skeleton of “Princess Anastasia” is 13 centimeters greater than her lifetime height. Well, as you know, miracles happen in the church... Shevkunov did not say a word about genetic testing, and this despite the fact that genetic studies in 2003 conducted by Russian and American specialists showed that the genome of the body of the supposed empress and her sister Elizabeth Feodorovna did not match , which means no relationship
In addition, in the museum of the city of Otsu (Japan) there are things left after the policeman wounded Nicholas II. They contain biological material that can be examined. Using them, Japanese geneticists from Tatsuo Nagai’s group proved that the DNA of the remains of “Nicholas II” from near Yekaterinburg (and his family) does not 100% match the DNA of biomaterials from Japan. During the Russian DNA examination, second cousins were compared, and in the conclusion it was written that “there are matches.” The Japanese compared relatives of cousins. There are also the results of a genetic examination of the President of the International Association of Forensic Physicians, Mr. Bonte from Dusseldorf, in which he proved: the found remains and doubles of the Nicholas II Filatov family are relatives. Perhaps, from their remains in 1946, the “remains of the royal family” were created? The problem has not been studied.
Earlier, in 1998, the Russian Orthodox Church, on the basis of these conclusions and facts, did not recognize the existing remains as authentic, but what will happen now? In December, all conclusions of the Investigative Committee and the ROC commission will be considered by the Council of Bishops. It is he who will decide on the church’s attitude towards the Yekaterinburg remains. Let's see why everything is so nervous and what is the history of this crime?
This kind of money is worth fighting for
Today, some of the Russian elites have suddenly awakened an interest in one very piquant history of relations between Russia and the United States, connected with the Romanov royal family. The story in a nutshell is this: More than 100 years ago, in 1913, the United States created the Federal Reserve System (FRS), a central bank and international currency printing press that still operates today. The Fed was created for the newly created League of Nations (now the UN) and would be a single global financial center with its own currency. Russia contributed 48,600 tons of gold to the “authorized capital” of the system. But the Rothschilds demanded that Woodrow Wilson, who was then re-elected as US President, transfer the center to their private ownership along with the gold. The organization became known as the Federal Reserve System, where Russia owned 88.8%, and 11.2% belonged to 43 international beneficiaries. Receipts stating that 88.8% of gold assets for a period of 99 years are under the control of the Rothschilds were transferred in six copies to the family of Nicholas II.
The annual income on these deposits was fixed at 4%, which was supposed to be transferred to Russia annually, but was deposited in the X-1786 account of the World Bank and in 300 thousand accounts in 72 international banks. All these documents confirming the right to the gold pledged to the Federal Reserve from Russia in the amount of 48,600 tons, as well as income from leasing it, were deposited by the mother of Tsar Nicholas II, Maria Fedorovna Romanova, for safekeeping in one of the Swiss banks. But only heirs have conditions for access there, and this access is controlled by the Rothschild clan. Gold certificates were issued for the gold provided by Russia, which made it possible to claim the metal in parts - the royal family hid them in different places. Later, in 1944, the Bretton Woods Conference confirmed Russia's right to 88% of the Fed's assets.
At one time, two well-known Russian oligarchs, Roman Abramovich and Boris Berezovsky, proposed to tackle this “golden” issue. But Yeltsin “didn’t understand” them, and now, apparently, that very “golden” time has come... And now this gold is remembered more and more often - though not at the state level.
Some suggest that the surviving Tsarevich Alexei later grew into Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin
People kill for this gold, fight for it, and make fortunes from it.
Today's researchers believe that all wars and revolutions in Russia and in the world occurred because the Rothschild clan and the United States did not intend to return gold to the Federal Reserve System of Russia. After all, the execution of the royal family made it possible for the Rothschild clan not to give up the gold and not pay for its 99-year lease. “Currently, out of three Russian copies of the agreement on gold invested in the Fed, two are in our country, the third is presumably in one of the Swiss banks,” says researcher Sergei Zhilenkov. – In a cache in the Nizhny Novgorod region, there are documents from the royal archive, among which there are 12 “gold” certificates. If they are presented, the global financial hegemony of the USA and the Rothschilds will simply collapse, and our country will receive huge money and all the opportunities for development, since it will no longer be strangled from overseas,” the historian is sure.
Many wanted to close the questions about the royal assets with the reburial. Professor Vladlen Sirotkin also has a calculation for the so-called war gold exported to the West and East during the First World War and the Civil War: Japan - 80 billion dollars, Great Britain - 50 billion, France - 25 billion, USA - 23 billion, Sweden - 5 billion, Czech Republic – $1 billion. Total – 184 billion. Surprisingly, officials in the US and UK, for example, do not dispute these figures, but are surprised at the lack of requests from Russia. By the way, the Bolsheviks remembered Russian assets in the West in the early 20s. Back in 1923, People's Commissar of Foreign Trade Leonid Krasin ordered a British investigative law firm to evaluate Russian real estate and cash deposits abroad. By 1993, this company reported that it had already accumulated a data bank worth 400 billion dollars! And this is legal Russian money.
Why did the Romanovs die? Britain did not accept them!
There is a long-term study, unfortunately, by the now deceased professor Vladlen Sirotkin (MGIMO) “Foreign Gold of Russia” (Moscow, 2000), where the gold and other holdings of the Romanov family, accumulated in the accounts of Western banks, are also estimated at no less than 400 billion dollars, and together with investments - more than 2 trillion dollars! In the absence of heirs from the Romanov side, the closest relatives are members of the English royal family... It is whose interests may be the background to many events of the 19th–21st centuries...
By the way, it is not clear (or, on the contrary, it is clear) for what reasons the royal house of England denied asylum to the Romanov family three times. The first time in 1916, in the apartment of Maxim Gorky, an escape was planned - the rescue of the Romanovs by kidnapping and internment of the royal couple during their visit to an English warship, which was then sent to Great Britain. The second was Kerensky's request, which was also rejected. Then the Bolsheviks’ request was not accepted. And this despite the fact that the mothers of George V and Nicholas II were sisters. In surviving correspondence, Nicholas II and George V call each other “Cousin Nicky” and “Cousin Georgie” - they were cousins with an age difference of less than three years, and in their youth these guys spent a lot of time together and were very similar in appearance. As for the queen, her mother, Princess Alice, was the eldest and beloved daughter of Queen Victoria of England. At that time, England held 440 tons of gold from Russia’s gold reserves and 5.5 tons of Nicholas II’s personal gold as collateral for military loans. Now think about it: if the royal family died, then who would the gold go to? To the closest relatives! Is this the reason why cousin Georgie refused to accept cousin Nicky's family? To obtain gold, its owners had to die. Officially. And now all this needs to be connected with the burial of the royal family, which will officially testify that the owners of untold wealth are dead.
Versions of life after death
All versions of the death of the royal family that exist today can be divided into three. First version: the royal family was shot near Yekaterinburg, and its remains, with the exception of Alexei and Maria, were reburied in St. Petersburg. The remains of these children were found in 2007, all examinations were carried out on them, and they will apparently be buried on the 100th anniversary of the tragedy. If this version is confirmed, for accuracy it is necessary to once again identify all the remains and repeat all examinations, especially genetic and pathological anatomical ones. Second version: the royal family was not shot, but was scattered throughout Russia and all family members died a natural death, having lived their lives in Russia or abroad; in Yekaterinburg, a family of doubles was shot (members of the same family or people from different families, but similar on members of the emperor's family). Nicholas II had doubles after Bloody Sunday 1905. When leaving the palace, three carriages left. It is unknown which of them Nicholas II sat in. The Bolsheviks, having captured the archives of the 3rd department in 1917, had data of doubles. There is an assumption that one of the families of doubles - the Filatovs, who are distantly related to the Romanovs - followed them to Tobolsk. Third version: the intelligence services added false remains to the burials of members of the royal family as they died naturally or before opening the grave. To do this, it is necessary to very carefully monitor, among other things, the age of the biomaterial.
Let us present one of the versions of the historian of the royal family Sergei Zhelenkov, which seems to us the most logical, although very unusual.
Before investigator Sokolov, the only investigator who published a book about the execution of the royal family, there were investigators Malinovsky, Nametkin (his archive was burned along with his house), Sergeev (removed from the case and killed), Lieutenant General Diterichs, Kirsta. All these investigators concluded that the royal family was not killed. Neither the Reds nor the Whites wanted to disclose this information - they understood that American bankers were primarily interested in obtaining objective information. The Bolsheviks were interested in the tsar's money, and Kolchak declared himself the Supreme Ruler of Russia, which could not happen with a living sovereign.
Investigator Sokolov was conducting two cases - one on the fact of murder and the other on the fact of disappearance. At the same time, military intelligence, represented by Kirst, conducted an investigation. When the Whites left Russia, Sokolov, fearing for the collected materials, sent them to Harbin - some of his materials were lost along the way. Sokolov’s materials contained evidence of the financing of the Russian revolution by the American bankers Schiff, Kuhn and Loeb, and Ford, who was in conflict with these bankers, became interested in these materials. He even called Sokolov from France, where he settled, to the USA. When returning from the USA to France, Nikolai Sokolov was killed.
Sokolov’s book was published after his death, and many people “worked” on it, removing many scandalous facts from it, so it cannot be considered completely truthful. The surviving members of the royal family were observed by people from the KGB, where a special department was created for this purpose, dissolved during perestroika. The archives of this department have been preserved. The royal family was saved by Stalin - the royal family was evacuated from Yekaterinburg through Perm to Moscow and came into the possession of Trotsky, then the People's Commissar of Defense. To further save the royal family, Stalin carried out an entire operation, stealing it from Trotsky’s people and taking them to Sukhumi, to a specially built house next to the former house of the royal family. From there, all family members were distributed to different places, Maria and Anastasia were taken to the Glinsk Hermitage (Sumy region), then Maria was transported to the Nizhny Novgorod region, where she died of illness on May 24, 1954. Anastasia subsequently married Stalin’s personal security guard and lived very secludedly on a small farm; she died on June 27, 1980 in the Volgograd region.
The eldest daughters, Olga and Tatyana, were sent to the Seraphim-Diveevo convent - the empress was settled not far from the girls. But they did not live here for long. Olga, having traveled through Afghanistan, Europe and Finland, settled in Vyritsa, Leningrad Region, where she died on January 19, 1976. Tatyana lived partly in Georgia, partly in the Krasnodar Territory, was buried in the Krasnodar Territory, and died on September 21, 1992. Alexey and his mother lived at their dacha, then Alexey was transported to Leningrad, where they “did” a biography on him, and the whole world recognized him as party and Soviet leader Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin (Stalin sometimes called him Tsarevich in front of everyone). Nicholas II lived and died in Nizhny Novgorod (December 22, 1958), and the queen died in the village of Starobelskaya, Lugansk region on April 2, 1948 and was subsequently reburied in Nizhny Novgorod, where she and the emperor have a common grave. Three daughters of Nicholas II, besides Olga, had children. N.A. Romanov communicated with I.V. Stalin, and the wealth of the Russian Empire was used to strengthen the power of the USSR...
Yakov Tudorovsky
Yakov Tudorovsky
The Romanovs were not executed
According to official history, on the night of July 16-17, 1918, Nikolai Romanov, along with his wife and children, was shot. After opening the burial and identifying the remains in 1998, they were reburied in the tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. However, then the Russian Orthodox Church did not confirm their authenticity. “I cannot exclude that the church will recognize the royal remains as authentic if convincing evidence of their authenticity is discovered and if the examination is open and honest,” Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, said in July of this year. As is known, the Russian Orthodox Church did not participate in the burial of the remains of the royal family in 1998, explaining this by the fact that the church is not sure whether the original remains of the royal family are buried. The Russian Orthodox Church refers to a book by Kolchak investigator Nikolai Sokolov, who concluded that all the bodies were burned. Some of the remains collected by Sokolov at the burning site are kept in Brussels, in the Church of St. Job the Long-Suffering, and they have not been examined. At one time, a version of Yurovsky’s note, who supervised the execution and burial, was found - it became the main document before the transfer of the remains (along with the book of investigator Sokolov). And now, in the coming year of the 100th anniversary of the execution of the Romanov family, the Russian Orthodox Church has been tasked with giving a final answer to all the dark execution sites near Yekaterinburg. To obtain a final answer, research has been conducted for several years under the auspices of the Russian Orthodox Church. Again, historians, geneticists, graphologists, pathologists and other specialists are rechecking the facts, powerful scientific forces and the forces of the prosecutor's office are again involved, and all these actions again take place under a thick veil of secrecy. Genetic identification research is carried out by four independent groups of scientists. Two of them are foreign, working directly with the Russian Orthodox Church. At the beginning of July 2017, the secretary of the church commission for studying the results of the study of the remains found near Yekaterinburg, Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov) of Yegoryevsk, said: a large number of new circumstances and new documents have been discovered. For example, Sverdlov’s order to execute Nicholas II was found. In addition, based on the results of recent research, criminologists have confirmed that the remains of the Tsar and Tsarina belong to them, since a mark was suddenly found on the skull of Nicholas II, which is interpreted as a mark from a saber blow he received while visiting Japan. As for the queen, dentists identified her using the world's first porcelain veneers on platinum pins. Although, if you open the conclusion of the commission, written before the burial in 1998, it says: the bones of the sovereign’s skull are so destroyed that the characteristic callus cannot be found. The same conclusion noted severe damage to the teeth of Nikolai’s presumed remains due to periodontal disease, since this person had never been to the dentist. This confirms that it was not the tsar who was shot, since the records of the Tobolsk dentist whom Nikolai contacted remained. In addition, no explanation has yet been found for the fact that the height of the skeleton of “Princess Anastasia” is 13 centimeters greater than her lifetime height. Well, as you know, miracles happen in the church... Shevkunov did not say a word about genetic testing, and this despite the fact that genetic studies in 2003 conducted by Russian and American specialists showed that the genome of the body of the supposed empress and her sister Elizabeth Feodorovna did not match , which means no relationship.
Nicholas II is the last Russian emperor who went down in history as the weakest tsar. According to historians, governing the country was a “heavy burden” for the monarch, but this did not prevent him from making a feasible contribution to the industrial and economic development of Russia, despite the fact that the revolutionary movement was actively growing in the country during the reign of Nicholas II, and the foreign policy situation was becoming more complicated. . In modern history, the Russian emperor is mentioned by the epithets “Nicholas the Bloody” and “Nicholas the Martyr”, since assessments of the activities and character of the tsar are ambiguous and contradictory.
Nicholas II was born on May 18, 1868 in Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire, into the imperial family. For his parents, and, he became the eldest son and the only heir to the throne, who from a very early age was taught the future work of his whole life. The future tsar was raised from birth by the Englishman Karl Heath, who taught young Nikolai Alexandrovich to speak fluent English.
The childhood of the heir to the royal throne was spent within the walls of the Gatchina Palace under the strict guidance of his father Alexander III, who raised his children in the traditional religious spirit - he allowed them to play and fool around in moderation, but at the same time did not allow manifestations of laziness in their studies, suppressing all thoughts of his sons about future throne.
At the age of 8, Nicholas II began to receive general education at home. His education was carried out within the framework of the general gymnasium course, but the future tsar did not show much zeal or desire to study. His passion was military affairs - at the age of 5 he became the chief of the Life Guards of the Reserve Infantry Regiment and happily mastered military geography, law and strategy. Lectures for the future monarch were given by the best world-famous scientists, who were personally selected for their son by Tsar Alexander III and his wife Maria Feodorovna.
The heir especially excelled in learning foreign languages, so in addition to English, he was fluent in French, German and Danish. After eight years of the general gymnasium program, Nicholas II began to be taught the necessary higher sciences for a future statesman, included in the course of the economics department of the law university.
In 1884, upon reaching adulthood, Nicholas II took the oath in the Winter Palace, after which he entered active military service, and three years later began regular military service, for which he was awarded the rank of colonel. Completely devoting himself to military affairs, the future tsar easily adapted to the inconveniences of army life and endured military service.
The heir to the throne had his first acquaintance with state affairs in 1889. Then he began to attend meetings of the State Council and the Cabinet of Ministers, at which his father brought him up to date and shared his experience on how to govern the country. During the same period, Alexander III made numerous trips with his son, starting from the Far East. Over the next 9 months, they traveled by sea to Greece, India, Egypt, Japan and China, and then returned to the Russian capital through the whole of Siberia by land.
Ascension to the throne
In 1894, after the death of Alexander III, Nicholas II ascended the throne and solemnly promised to protect the autocracy as firmly and steadfastly as his late parent. The coronation of the last Russian emperor took place in 1896 in Moscow. These solemn events were marked by tragic events on the Khodynskoe field, where, during the distribution of royal gifts, mass riots occurred that took the lives of thousands of citizens.
Due to the mass crush, the monarch who came to power even wanted to cancel the evening ball on the occasion of his ascension to the throne, but later decided that the Khodynka disaster was a real misfortune, but not worth overshadowing the coronation holiday. Educated society perceived these events as a challenge, which laid the foundation for the creation of a liberation movement in Russia from the dictator tsar.
Against this background, the emperor introduced a strict internal policy in the country, according to which any dissent among the people was persecuted. In the first few years of the reign of Nicholas II, a population census was carried out in Russia, and a monetary reform was carried out, establishing the gold standard for the ruble. The gold ruble of Nicholas II was equal to 0.77 grams of pure gold and was half “heavier” than the mark, but twice “lighter” than the dollar at the exchange rate of international currencies.
During the same period, Russia introduced "Stolypin" agrarian reforms, introduced factory legislation, passed several laws on compulsory worker insurance and universal primary education, as well as abolished the tax levy on landowners of Polish origin and abolished penalties such as exile to Siberia.
In the Russian Empire, during the time of Nicholas II, large-scale industrialization took place, the rate of agricultural production increased, and coal and oil production began. Moreover, thanks to the last Russian emperor, more than 70 thousand kilometers of railway were built in Russia.
Reign and abdication
The reign of Nicholas II at the second stage took place during the years of aggravation of the internal political life of Russia and a rather difficult foreign policy situation. At the same time, the Far Eastern direction was in his first place. The main obstacle for the Russian monarch to dominate in the Far East was Japan, which, without warning in 1904, attacked a Russian squadron in the port city of Port Arthur and, due to the inaction of the Russian leadership, defeated the Russian army.
As a result of the failure of the Russo-Japanese War, a revolutionary situation began to rapidly develop in the country, and Russia had to cede to Japan the southern part of Sakhalin and the rights to the Liaodong Peninsula. It was after this that the Russian emperor lost authority in the intelligent and ruling circles of the country, who accused the tsar of defeat and connections with, who was an unofficial “adviser” to the monarch, but was considered in society a charlatan and a fraudster who had complete influence over Nicholas II.
The turning point in the biography of Nicholas II was the First World War of 1914. Then the emperor, on the advice of Rasputin, tried with all his might to avoid a bloodbath, but Germany went to war against Russia, which was forced to defend itself. In 1915, the monarch took over military command of the Russian army and personally traveled to the fronts, inspecting military units. At the same time, he made a number of fatal military mistakes, which led to the collapse of the Romanov dynasty and the Russian Empire.
The war aggravated the country's internal problems; all military failures in the environment of Nicholas II were blamed on him. Then “treason began to nest in the government of the country,” but despite this, the emperor, together with England and France, developed a plan for a general offensive of Russia, which was supposed to triumphantly end the military confrontation for the country by the summer of 1917.
The plans of Nicholas II were not destined to come true - at the end of February 1917, mass uprisings began in Petrograd against the royal dynasty and the current government, which he initially intended to suppress by force. But the military did not obey the king’s orders, and members of the monarch’s retinue tried to persuade him to abdicate the throne, which supposedly would help quell the unrest. After several days of painful deliberation, Nicholas II decided to abdicate the throne in favor of his brother, Prince Mikhail Alexandrovich, who refused to accept the crown, which meant the end of the Romanov dynasty.
Execution of Nicholas II and his family
After the tsar signed the abdication manifesto, the Russian Provisional Government issued an order to arrest the royal family and his entourage. Then many betrayed the emperor and fled, so only a few close people from his entourage agreed to share the tragic fate with the monarch, who, together with the tsar, were exiled to Tobolsk, from where, allegedly, the family of Nicholas II was supposed to be transported to the USA.
After the October Revolution and the Bolsheviks, led by the Bolsheviks, came to power, they transported the royal family to Yekaterinburg and imprisoned them in a “special purpose house.” Then the Bolsheviks began to hatch a plan for a trial of the monarch, but the Civil War did not allow their plan to be realized.
Because of this, the upper echelons of Soviet power decided to shoot the Tsar and his family. On the night of July 16-17, 1918, the family of the last Russian emperor was shot in the basement of the house in which Nicholas II was kept captive. The Tsar, his wife and children, as well as several of his associates, were taken into the basement under the pretext of evacuation and shot point-blank without explanation, after which the victims were taken outside the city, their bodies were burned with kerosene, and then buried in the ground.
Personal life and royal family
The personal life of Nicholas II, unlike many other Russian monarchs, was the standard of the highest family virtue. In 1889, during the visit of the German princess Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt to Russia, Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich paid special attention to the girl and asked his father for his blessing to marry her. But the parents did not agree with the choice of the heir, so they refused their son. This did not stop Nicholas II, who did not lose hope of marrying Alice. They were helped by Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, the sister of the German princess, who arranged secret correspondence for the young lovers.
Five years later, Tsarevich Nicholas again persistently asked his father’s consent to marry the German princess. Alexander III, due to his rapidly deteriorating health, allowed his son to marry Alice, who, after anointing, became. In November 1894, the wedding of Nicholas II and Alexandra took place in the Winter Palace, and in 1896 the couple accepted the coronation and officially became the rulers of the country.
The marriage of Alexandra Fedorovna and Nicholas II produced 4 daughters (Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia) and the only heir, Alexei, who had a serious hereditary disease - hemophilia, associated with the process of blood clotting. The illness of Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich forced the royal family to meet the then widely known Grigory Rasputin, who helped the royal heir fight attacks of illness, which allowed him to gain enormous influence over Alexandra Feodorovna and Emperor Nicholas II.
Historians report that family was the most important meaning of life for the last Russian emperor. He always spent most of his time in the family circle, did not like secular pleasures, and especially valued his peace, habits, health and well-being of his relatives. At the same time, the emperor was no stranger to worldly hobbies - he enjoyed hunting, participated in horse riding competitions, enthusiastically skated and played hockey.
Nicholas II Alexandrovich
Years of life: 1868 - 1918
Years of reign: 1894 - 1917
Nicholas II Alexandrovich born May 6 (18 old style) 1868 in Tsarskoe Selo. Russian Emperor, who reigned from October 21 (November 1), 1894 to March 2 (March 15), 1917. Belonged to Romanov dynasty, was the son and successor of Alexander III.
Nikolai Alexandrovich from birth he had the title - His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke. In 1881, he received the title of Heir to Tsarevich, after the death of his grandfather, Emperor Alexander II.
Full title Nicholas II as Emperor from 1894 to 1917: “By God's favor, We, Nicholas II (Church Slavic form in some manifestos - Nicholas II), Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia, Moscow, Kiev, Vladimir, Novgorod; Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan, Tsar of Poland, Tsar of Siberia, Tsar of Chersonese Tauride, Tsar of Georgia; Sovereign of Pskov and Grand Duke of Smolensk, Lithuania, Volyn, Podolsk and Finland; Prince of Estland, Livonia, Courland and Semigal, Samogit, Bialystok, Korel, Tver, Yugorsk, Perm, Vyatka, Bulgarian and others; Sovereign and Grand Duke of Novagorod of the Nizovsky lands, Chernigov, Ryazan, Polotsk, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Belozersky, Udora, Obdorsky, Kondiysky, Vitebsk, Mstislavsky and all northern countries Sovereign; and Sovereign of Iversk, Kartalinsky and Kabardinsky lands and regions of Armenia; Cherkasy and Mountain Princes and other Hereditary Sovereign and Possessor, Sovereign of Turkestan; Heir of Norway, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Stormarn, Ditmarsen and Oldenburg, and so on, and so on, and so on.”
The peak of Russia's economic development and at the same time the growth of the revolutionary movement, which resulted in the revolutions of 1905-1907 and 1917, occurred precisely during the reign of Nicholas II. Foreign policy at that time was aimed at Russia's participation in blocs of European powers, the contradictions that arose between them became one of the reasons for the outbreak of the war with Japan and World War I.
After the events of the February Revolution of 1917 Nicholas II abdicated the throne, and a period of civil war soon began in Russia. The Provisional Government sent Nicholas to Siberia, then to the Urals. He and his family were shot in Yekaterinburg in 1918.
Contemporaries and historians characterize the personality of Nicholas in contradictory ways; Most of them believed that his strategic abilities in the conduct of public affairs were not successful enough to change the political situation at that time for the better.
After the revolution of 1917 it began to be called Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov(before this, the surname “Romanov” was not indicated by members of the imperial family; the titles indicated the family affiliation: emperor, empress, grand duke, crown prince).
With the nickname Nicholas the Bloody, which was given to him by the opposition, he figured in Soviet historiography.
Nicholas II was the eldest son of Empress Maria Feodorovna and Emperor Alexander III.
In 1885-1890 Nikolay received his home education as part of a gymnasium course under a special program that combined the course of the Academy of the General Staff and the Faculty of Law of the university. Training and education took place under the personal supervision of Alexander the Third with a traditional religious basis.
Nicholas II Most often he lived with his family in the Alexander Palace. And he preferred to relax in the Livadia Palace in Crimea. For annual trips to the Baltic and Finnish Seas he had at his disposal the yacht “Standart”.
From 9 years old Nikolay started keeping a diary. The archive contains 50 thick notebooks for the years 1882-1918. Some of them have been published.
The Emperor was fond of photography and liked watching movies. I read both serious works, especially on historical topics, and entertaining literature. I smoked cigarettes with tobacco specially grown in Turkey (a gift from the Turkish Sultan).
On November 14, 1894, a significant event took place in the life of Nicholas - his marriage to the German princess Alice of Hesse, who after the baptismal ceremony took the name Alexandra Fedorovna. They had 4 daughters - Olga (November 3, 1895), Tatyana (May 29, 1897), Maria (June 14, 1899) and Anastasia (June 5, 1901). And the long-awaited fifth child on July 30 (August 12), 1904, became the only son - Tsarevich Alexei.
On May 14 (26), 1896 it took place coronation of Nicholas II. In 1896, he toured Europe, where he met with Queen Victoria (his wife's grandmother), William II, and Franz Joseph. The final stage of the trip was Nicholas II’s visit to the capital of the allied France.
His first personnel changes were the dismissal of the Governor-General of the Kingdom of Poland, Gurko I.V. and the appointment of A.B. Lobanov-Rostovsky as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
And the first major international action Nicholas II became the so-called Triple Intervention.
Having made huge concessions to the opposition at the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, Nicholas II attempted to unite Russian society against external enemies.
In the summer of 1916, after the situation at the front had stabilized, the Duma opposition united with the general conspirators and decided to take advantage of the created situation to overthrow Emperor Nicholas II.
They even named the date February 12-13, 1917, as the day the emperor abdicated the throne. It was said that a “great act” would take place - the Emperor would abdicate the throne, and the heir, Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, would be appointed as the future emperor, and Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich would become the regent.
In Petrograd, on February 23, 1917, a strike began, which became general three days later. On the morning of February 27, 1917, soldier uprisings took place in Petrograd and Moscow, as well as their unification with the strikers.
The situation became tense after the proclamation of the manifesto Nicholas II February 25, 1917 on the termination of the meeting of the State Duma.
On February 26, 1917, the Tsar gave an order to General Khabalov “to stop the unrest, which is unacceptable in difficult times of war.” General N.I. Ivanov was sent on February 27 to Petrograd to suppress the uprising.
Nicholas II On the evening of February 28, he headed to Tsarskoe Selo, but was unable to get through and, due to the loss of contact with Headquarters, he arrived in Pskov on March 1, where the headquarters of the armies of the Northern Front under the leadership of General Ruzsky was located.
At about three o'clock in the afternoon, the emperor decided to abdicate the throne in favor of the crown prince under the regency of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, and in the evening of the same day Nikolai announced to V.V. Shulgin and A.I. Guchkov about the decision to abdicate the throne for his son. March 2, 1917 at 11:40 p.m. Nicholas II handed over to Guchkov A.I. Manifesto of renunciation, where he wrote: “We command our brother to rule over the affairs of the state in complete and inviolable unity with the representatives of the people.”
Nikolay Romanov with his family from March 9 to August 14, 1917 he lived under arrest in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo.
In connection with the strengthening of the revolutionary movement in Petrograd, the Provisional Government decided to transfer the royal prisoners deep into Russia, fearing for their lives. After much debate, Tobolsk was chosen as the city of settlement for the former emperor and his family. They were allowed to take personal belongings and necessary furniture with them and offer service personnel to voluntarily accompany them to the place of their new settlement.
On the eve of his departure, A.F. Kerensky (head of the Provisional Government) brought the brother of the former tsar, Mikhail Alexandrovich. Mikhail was soon exiled to Perm and on the night of June 13, 1918 he was killed by the Bolshevik authorities.
On August 14, 1917, a train departed from Tsarskoe Selo under the sign “Japanese Red Cross Mission” with members of the former imperial family. He was accompanied by a second squad, which included guards (7 officers, 337 soldiers).
The trains arrived in Tyumen on August 17, 1917, after which those arrested were taken to Tobolsk on three ships. The Romanov family settled in the governor's house, which was specially renovated for their arrival. They were allowed to attend services at the local Church of the Annunciation. The protection regime for the Romanov family in Tobolsk was much easier than in Tsarskoe Selo. The family led a measured, calm life.
Permission from the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the fourth convocation to transfer Romanov and members of his family to Moscow for the purpose of trial was received in April 1918.
On April 22, 1918, a column with machine guns of 150 people left Tobolsk for Tyumen. On April 30, the train arrived in Yekaterinburg from Tyumen. To house the Romanov family, a house that belonged to mining engineer Ipatiev was requisitioned. The family's staff also lived in the same house: cook Kharitonov, doctor Botkin, room girl Demidova, footman Trupp and cook Sednev.
To resolve the issue of the future fate of the imperial family, at the beginning of July 1918, military commissar F. Goloshchekin urgently left for Moscow. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars authorized the execution of all members of the Romanov family. After this, on July 12, 1918, based on the decision made, the Ural Council of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies at a meeting decided to execute the royal family.
On the night of July 16-17, 1918 in Yekaterinburg, in the Ipatiev mansion, the so-called “House of Special Purpose,” the former Emperor of Russia was shot Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, their children, Doctor Botkin and three servants (except for the cook).
The personal property of the former royal Romanov family was plundered.
Nicholas II and members of his family were canonized by the Catacomb Church in 1928.
In 1981, Nicholas was canonized by the Orthodox Church abroad, and in Russia the Orthodox Church canonized him as a passion-bearer only 19 years later, in 2000.
Icon of St. royal passion-bearers.
In accordance with the decision of August 20, 2000 of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, princesses Maria, Anastasia, Olga, Tatiana, Tsarevich Alexei were canonized as holy new martyrs and confessors of Russia, revealed and unmanifested.
This decision was received ambiguously by society and was criticized. Some opponents of canonization believe that attribution Nicholas II sainthood is most likely of a political nature.
The result of all the events related to the fate of the former royal family was the appeal of Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna Romanova, head of the Russian Imperial House in Madrid, to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation in December 2005, demanding the rehabilitation of the royal family, executed in 1918.
On October 1, 2008, the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (Russian Federation) decided to recognize the last Russian emperor Nicholas II and members of the royal family victims of illegal political repression and rehabilitated them.
Dedicated to the centenary of revolutionary events.
Not a single Russian tsar has had as many myths created as about the last one, Nicholas II. What really happened? Was the sovereign a sluggish and weak-willed person? Was he cruel? Could he have won the First World War? And how much truth is there in the black fabrications about this ruler?..
The story is told by Gleb Eliseev, candidate of historical sciences.
The Black Legend of Nicholas II
Rally in Petrograd, 1917
17 years have already passed since the canonization of the last emperor and his family, but you are still faced with an amazing paradox - many, even quite Orthodox, people dispute the fairness of canonizing Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich.
No one raises any protests or doubts about the legitimacy of the canonization of the son and daughters of the last Russian emperor. I have not heard any objections to the canonization of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Even at the Council of Bishops in 2000, when it came to the canonization of the Royal Martyrs, a special opinion was expressed only regarding the sovereign himself. One of the bishops said that the emperor did not deserve to be glorified, because “he is a state traitor... he, one might say, sanctioned the collapse of the country.”
And it is clear that in such a situation the spears are not broken at all over the martyrdom or Christian life of Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich. Neither one nor the other raises doubts even among the most rabid monarchy denier. His feat as a passion-bearer is beyond doubt.
The point is different - a latent, subconscious resentment: “Why did the sovereign allow a revolution to happen? Why didn’t you save Russia?” Or, as A. I. Solzhenitsyn so brilliantly put it in his article “Reflections on the February Revolution”: “Weak tsar, he betrayed us. All of us - for everything that follows."
The myth of the weak king, who supposedly voluntarily surrendered his kingdom, obscures his martyrdom and obscures the demonic cruelty of his tormentors. But what could the sovereign do in the current circumstances, when Russian society, like a herd of Gadarene pigs, was rushing into the abyss for decades?
Studying the history of Nicholas's reign, one is struck not by the weakness of the sovereign, not by his mistakes, but by how much he managed to do in an atmosphere of whipped-up hatred, malice and slander.
We must not forget that the sovereign received autocratic power over Russia completely unexpectedly, after the sudden, unforeseen and unanticipated death of Alexander III. Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich recalled the state of the heir to the throne immediately after his father’s death: “He could not gather his thoughts. He was aware that he had become the Emperor, and this terrible burden of power crushed him. “Sandro, what am I going to do! - he exclaimed pathetically. - What will happen to Russia now? I am not yet prepared to be a King! I can't rule the Empire. I don’t even know how to talk to ministers.”
However, after a brief period of confusion, the new emperor firmly took the helm of government and held it for twenty-two years, until he fell victim to a conspiracy at the top. Until “treason, cowardice, and deception” swirled around him in a dense cloud, as he himself noted in his diary on March 2, 1917.
The black mythology directed against the last sovereign was actively dispelled by both emigrant historians and modern Russian ones. And yet, in the minds of many, including fully churchgoers, of our fellow citizens, evil tales, gossip and anecdotes, which were presented as truth in Soviet history textbooks, stubbornly linger.
The myth of the guilt of Nicholas II in the Khodynka tragedy
It is tacitly customary to start any list of accusations with Khodynka - a terrible stampede that occurred during the coronation celebrations in Moscow on May 18, 1896. You might think that the sovereign ordered this stampede to be organized! And if anyone is to be blamed for what happened, then it would be the emperor’s uncle, Moscow Governor-General Sergei Alexandrovich, who did not foresee the very possibility of such an influx of public. It should be noted that they did not hide what happened, all the newspapers wrote about Khodynka, all of Russia knew about her. The Russian emperor and empress the next day visited all the wounded in hospitals and held a memorial service for the dead. Nicholas II ordered the payment of pensions to the victims. And they received it until 1917, until politicians, who had been speculating on the Khodynka tragedy for years, made it so that any pensions in Russia ceased to be paid at all.
And the slander that has been repeated for years sounds absolutely vile, that the tsar, despite the Khodynka tragedy, went to the ball and had fun there. The sovereign was indeed forced to go to an official reception at the French embassy, which he could not help but attend for diplomatic reasons (an insult to the allies!), paid his respects to the ambassador and left, having spent only 15 (!) minutes there.
And from this they created a myth about a heartless despot, having fun while his subjects die. This is where the absurd nickname “Bloody”, created by radicals and picked up by the educated public, came from.
The myth of the monarch's guilt in starting the Russo-Japanese War
The Emperor bids farewell to the soldiers of the Russo-Japanese War. 1904
They say that the sovereign pushed Russia into the Russo-Japanese War because the autocracy needed a “small victorious war.”
Unlike the “educated” Russian society, which was confident in the inevitable victory and contemptuously called the Japanese “macaques,” the emperor knew very well all the difficulties of the situation in the Far East and tried with all his might to prevent war. And we must not forget - it was Japan that attacked Russia in 1904. Treacherously, without declaring war, the Japanese attacked our ships in Port Arthur.
For the defeats of the Russian army and navy in the Far East, one can blame Kuropatkin, Rozhdestvensky, Stessel, Linevich, Nebogatov, and any of the generals and admirals, but not the sovereign, who was located thousands of miles from the theater of military operations and nevertheless did everything for victory.
For example, the fact that by the end of the war there were 20, and not 4, military trains per day along the unfinished Trans-Siberian Railway (as at the beginning) is the merit of Nicholas II himself.
And our revolutionary society “fought” on the Japanese side, which needed not victory, but defeat, which its representatives themselves honestly admitted. For example, representatives of the Socialist Revolutionary Party clearly wrote in their appeal to Russian officers: “Every victory of yours threatens Russia with the disaster of strengthening order, every defeat brings the hour of deliverance closer. Is it any surprise if the Russians rejoice at the success of your enemy?” Revolutionaries and liberals diligently stirred up unrest in the rear of the warring country, doing this, among other things, with Japanese money. This is now well known.
The Myth of Bloody Sunday
For decades, the standard accusation against the Tsar remained “Bloody Sunday” - the shooting of a supposedly peaceful demonstration on January 9, 1905. Why, they say, didn’t he leave the Winter Palace and fraternize with the people loyal to him?
Let's start with the simplest fact - the sovereign was not in Winter, he was at his country residence, in Tsarskoe Selo. He did not intend to come to the city, since both the mayor I. A. Fullon and the police authorities assured the emperor that they “had everything under control.” By the way, they didn’t deceive Nicholas II too much. In a normal situation, troops deployed to the streets would be enough to prevent unrest.
No one foresaw the scale of the January 9 demonstration, as well as the activities of the provocateurs. When Socialist Revolutionary militants began shooting at soldiers from the crowd of supposedly “peaceful demonstrators,” it was not difficult to foresee retaliatory actions. From the very beginning, the organizers of the demonstration planned a clash with the authorities, and not a peaceful march. They did not need political reforms, they needed “great upheavals.”
But what does the sovereign himself have to do with it? During the entire revolution of 1905–1907, he sought to find contact with Russian society and made specific and sometimes even overly bold reforms (like the provisions according to which the first State Dumas were elected). And what did he receive in response? Spitting and hatred, calls “Down with autocracy!” and encouraging bloody riots.
However, the revolution was not “crushed.” The rebellious society was pacified by the sovereign, who skillfully combined the use of force and new, more thoughtful reforms (the electoral law of June 3, 1907, according to which Russia finally received a normally functioning parliament).
The myth of how the Tsar “surrendered” Stolypin
They reproach the sovereign for allegedly insufficient support for “Stolypin’s reforms.” But who made Pyotr Arkadyevich prime minister, if not Nicholas II himself? Contrary, by the way, to the opinion of the court and immediate circle. And if there were moments of misunderstanding between the sovereign and the head of the cabinet, then they are inevitable in any intense and complex work. Stolypin's supposedly planned resignation did not mean a rejection of his reforms.
The myth of Rasputin's omnipotence
Tales about the last sovereign are not complete without constant stories about the “dirty man” Rasputin, who enslaved the “weak-willed tsar.” Now, after many objective investigations of the “Rasputin legend”, among which “The Truth about Grigory Rasputin” by A. N. Bokhanov stands out as fundamental, it is clear that the influence of the Siberian elder on the emperor was negligible. And the fact that the sovereign “did not remove Rasputin from the throne”? Where could he remove it from? From the bedside of his sick son, whom Rasputin saved when all the doctors had already given up on Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich? Let everyone think for themselves: is he ready to sacrifice the life of a child for the sake of stopping public gossip and hysterical newspaper chatter?
The myth of the sovereign’s guilt in the “misconduct” of the First World War
Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II. Photo by R. Golike and A. Vilborg. 1913
Emperor Nicholas II is also reproached for not preparing Russia for the First World War. The public figure I. L. Solonevich wrote most clearly about the efforts of the sovereign to prepare the Russian army for a possible war and about the sabotage of his efforts on the part of the “educated society”: “The “Duma of People’s Wrath”, as well as its subsequent reincarnation, rejects military loans: We are democrats and we don’t want militarism. Nicholas II arms the army by violating the spirit of the Basic Laws: in accordance with Article 86. This article provides for the right of the government, in exceptional cases and during parliamentary recess, to pass temporary laws without parliament - so that they are retroactively introduced at the very first parliamentary session. The Duma was dissolving (holidays), loans for machine guns went through even without the Duma. And when the session began, nothing could be done.”
And again, unlike ministers or military leaders (like Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich), the sovereign did not want war, he tried to delay it with all his might, knowing about the insufficient preparedness of the Russian army. For example, he directly spoke about this to the Russian ambassador to Bulgaria Neklyudov: “Now, Neklyudov, listen to me carefully. Do not forget for one minute the fact that we cannot fight. I don't want war. I have made it my immutable rule to do everything to preserve for my people all the advantages of a peaceful life. At this moment in history, it is necessary to avoid anything that could lead to war. There is no doubt that we cannot get involved in a war - at least for the next five or six years - until 1917. Although, if the vital interests and honor of Russia are at stake, we will be able, if absolutely necessary, to accept the challenge, but not before 1915. But remember - not one minute earlier, whatever the circumstances or reasons and whatever position we are in.”
Of course, many things in the First World War did not go as the participants planned. But why should these troubles and surprises be blamed on the sovereign, who at the beginning was not even the commander-in-chief? Could he have personally prevented the “Samson catastrophe”? Or the breakthrough of the German cruisers Goeben and Breslau into the Black Sea, after which plans to coordinate the actions of the Allies in the Entente went up in smoke?
When the will of the emperor could correct the situation, the sovereign did not hesitate, despite the objections of ministers and advisers. In 1915, the threat of such complete defeat loomed over the Russian army that its Commander-in-Chief, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, literally sobbed in despair. It was then that Nicholas II took the most decisive step - he not only stood at the head of the Russian army, but also stopped the retreat, which threatened to turn into a stampede.
The Emperor did not consider himself a great commander; he knew how to listen to the opinions of military advisers and choose successful solutions for the Russian troops. According to his instructions, the work of the rear was established; according to his instructions, new and even cutting-edge equipment was adopted (like Sikorsky bombers or Fedorov assault rifles). And if in 1914 the Russian military industry produced 104,900 shells, then in 1916 - 30,974,678! So much military equipment was prepared that it was enough for five years of the Civil War, and for arming the Red Army in the first half of the twenties.
In 1917, Russia, under the military leadership of its emperor, was ready for victory. Many people wrote about this, even W. Churchill, who was always skeptical and cautious about Russia: “Fate has never been as cruel to any country as to Russia. Her ship sank while the harbor was in sight. She had already weathered the storm when everything collapsed. All the sacrifices have already been made, all the work has been completed. Despair and betrayal took over the government when the task was already completed. The long retreats are over; shell hunger is defeated; weapons flowed in a wide stream; a stronger, more numerous, better equipped army guarded a huge front; the rear assembly points were crowded with people... In the management of states, when great events happen, the leader of the nation, whoever he is, is condemned for failures and glorified for successes. The point is not who did the work, who drew up the plan of struggle; blame or praise for the outcome falls on the one who has the authority of supreme responsibility. Why deny Nicholas II this ordeal?.. His efforts are downplayed; His actions are condemned; His memory is being defamed... Stop and say: who else turned out to be suitable? There was no shortage of talented and courageous people, ambitious and proud in spirit, courageous and powerful people. But no one was able to answer those few simple questions on which the life and glory of Russia depended. Holding victory already in her hands, she fell to the ground alive, like Herod of old, devoured by worms.”
At the beginning of 1917, the sovereign really failed to cope with the joint conspiracy of the top military and the leaders of opposition political forces.
And who could? It was beyond human strength.
The myth of voluntary renunciation
And yet, the main thing that even many monarchists accuse Nicholas II of is precisely renunciation, “moral desertion,” “flight from office.” The fact that he, according to the poet A. A. Blok, “renounced, as if he had surrendered the squadron.”
Now, again, after the scrupulous work of modern researchers, it becomes clear that there is no voluntary there was no abdication. Instead, a real coup took place. Or, as the historian and publicist M.V. Nazarov aptly noted, it was not “renunciation,” but “renunciation” that took place.
Even in the darkest Soviet times, they did not deny that the events of February 23 - March 2, 1917 at the Tsarist Headquarters and in the headquarters of the commander of the Northern Front were a coup at the top, “fortunately”, coinciding with the beginning of the “February bourgeois revolution”, launched (of course Well!) by the forces of the St. Petersburg proletariat.
Material on the topic
On March 2, 1917, Russian Emperor Nicholas II signed an abdication of the throne in favor of his brother Mikhail (who soon also abdicated). This day is considered the date of the death of the Russian monarchy. But there are still many questions about renunciation. We asked Gleb Eliseev, candidate of historical sciences, to comment on them.
With the riots in St. Petersburg fueled by the Bolshevik underground, everything is now clear. The conspirators only took advantage of this circumstance, exorbitantly exaggerating its significance, in order to lure the sovereign out of Headquarters, depriving him of contact with any loyal units and the government. And when the royal train, with great difficulty, reached Pskov, where the headquarters of General N.V. Ruzsky, commander of the Northern Front and one of the active conspirators, was located, the emperor was completely blocked and deprived of communication with the outside world.
In fact, General Ruzsky arrested the royal train and the emperor himself. And cruel psychological pressure began on the sovereign. Nicholas II was begged to give up power, which he never aspired to. Moreover, this was done not only by Duma deputies Guchkov and Shulgin, but also by the commanders of all (!) fronts and almost all fleets (with the exception of Admiral A.V. Kolchak). The Emperor was told that his decisive step would be able to prevent unrest and bloodshed, that this would immediately put an end to the St. Petersburg unrest...
Now we know very well that the sovereign was basely deceived. What could he have thought then? At the forgotten Dno station or on the sidings in Pskov, cut off from the rest of Russia? Didn’t you consider that it was better for a Christian to humbly cede royal power rather than shed the blood of his subjects?
But even under pressure from the conspirators, the emperor did not dare to go against the law and conscience. The manifesto he compiled clearly did not suit the envoys of the State Duma. The document, which was eventually published as a text of renunciation, raises doubts among a number of historians. Its original has not been preserved; only a copy is available in the Russian State Archive. There are reasonable assumptions that the sovereign's signature was copied from the order on the assumption of supreme command by Nicholas II in 1915. The signature of the Minister of the Court, Count V.B. Fredericks, who allegedly certified the abdication, was also forged. Which, by the way, the count himself clearly spoke about later, on June 2, 1917, during interrogation: “But for me to write such a thing, I can swear that I would not do it.”
And already in St. Petersburg, the deceived and confused Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich did something that, in principle, he had no right to do - he transferred power to the Provisional Government. As A.I. Solzhenitsyn noted: “The end of the monarchy was the abdication of Mikhail. He is worse than abdicating: he blocked the path to all other possible heirs to the throne, he transferred power to an amorphous oligarchy. His abdication turned the change of monarch into a revolution.”
Usually, after statements about the illegal overthrow of the sovereign from the throne, both in scientific discussions and on the Internet, cries immediately begin: “Why didn’t Tsar Nicholas protest later? Why didn’t he expose the conspirators? Why didn’t you raise loyal troops and lead them against the rebels?”
That is, why didn’t he start a civil war?
Yes, because the sovereign did not want her. Because he hoped that by leaving he would calm down the new unrest, believing that the whole point was the possible hostility of society towards him personally. After all, he, too, could not help but succumb to the hypnosis of the anti-state, anti-monarchist hatred to which Russia had been subjected for years. As A. I. Solzhenitsyn correctly wrote about the “liberal-radical Field” that engulfed the empire: “For many years (decades) this Field flowed unhindered, its lines of force thickened - and penetrated and subjugated all the brains in the country, at least in some way touched enlightenment, at least the beginnings of it. It almost completely controlled the intelligentsia. More rare, but permeated by its power lines were state and official circles, the military, and even the priesthood, the episcopate (the entire Church as a whole is already... powerless against this Field), and even those who fought most against the Field: the most right-wing circles and the throne itself."
And did these troops loyal to the emperor exist in reality? After all, even Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich on March 1, 1917 (that is, before the formal abdication of the sovereign) transferred the Guards crew subordinate to him to the jurisdiction of the Duma conspirators and appealed to other military units to “join the new government”!
The attempt of Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich to prevent bloodshed by renouncing power, through voluntary self-sacrifice, ran into the evil will of tens of thousands of those who wanted not the pacification and victory of Russia, but blood, madness and the creation of “heaven on earth” for a “new man”, free from faith and conscience.
And even the defeated Christian sovereign was like a sharp knife in the throat of such “guardians of humanity.” He was unbearable, impossible.
They couldn't help but kill him.
The myth that the execution of the royal family was the arbitrariness of the Ural Regional Council
Emperor Nicholas II and Tsarevich Alexei
in the link. Tobolsk, 1917-1918
The more or less vegetarian, toothless early Provisional Government limited itself to the arrest of the emperor and his family, the socialist clique of Kerensky achieved the exile of the sovereign, his wife and children to. And for whole months, right up to the Bolshevik revolution, one can see how the dignified, purely Christian behavior of the emperor in exile contrasts with each other and the evil vanity of the politicians of the “new Russia”, who sought “to begin with” to bring the sovereign into “political oblivion.”
And then an openly atheistic Bolshevik gang came to power, which decided to transform this non-existence from “political” into “physical”. After all, back in April 1917, Lenin declared: “We consider Wilhelm II to be the same crowned robber, worthy of execution, as Nicholas II.”
Only one thing is unclear - why did they hesitate? Why didn’t they try to destroy Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich immediately after the October Revolution?
Probably because they were afraid of popular indignation, afraid of public reaction with their still fragile power. Apparently, the unpredictable behavior of “abroad” was also frightening. In any case, the British Ambassador D. Buchanan warned the Provisional Government: “Any insult inflicted on the Emperor and His Family will destroy the sympathy aroused by the March and the course of the revolution, and will humiliate the new government in the eyes of the world.” True, in the end it turned out that these were just “words, words, nothing but words.”
And yet there remains a feeling that, in addition to rational motives, there was some inexplicable, almost mystical fear of what the fanatics were planning to do.
After all, for some reason, years after the Yekaterinburg murder, rumors spread that only one sovereign was shot. Then they declared (even at a completely official level) that the Tsar’s killers were severely condemned for abuse of power. And later, for almost the entire Soviet period, the version about the “arbitrariness of the Yekaterinburg Council”, allegedly frightened by the white units approaching the city, was officially accepted. They say that so that the sovereign would not be released and become the “banner of the counter-revolution,” he had to be destroyed. The fog of fornication hid the secret, and the essence of the secret was a planned and clearly conceived savage murder.
Its exact details and background have not yet been clarified, the testimony of eyewitnesses is surprisingly confused, and even the discovered remains of the Royal Martyrs still raise doubts about their authenticity.
Now only a few unambiguous facts are clear.
On April 30, 1918, Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich, his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and their daughter Maria were escorted from Tobolsk, where they had been in exile since August 1917, to Yekaterinburg. They were placed in custody in the former house of engineer N.N. Ipatiev, located on the corner of Voznesensky Prospekt. The remaining children of the Emperor and Empress - daughters Olga, Tatiana, Anastasia and son Alexei - were reunited with their parents only on May 23.
Was this an initiative of the Yekaterinburg Council, not coordinated with the Central Committee? Hardly. Judging by indirect evidence, at the beginning of July 1918, the top leadership of the Bolshevik party (primarily Lenin and Sverdlov) decided to “liquidate the royal family.”
Trotsky, for example, wrote about this in his memoirs:
“My next visit to Moscow came after the fall of Yekaterinburg. In a conversation with Sverdlov, I asked in passing:
Yes, where is the king?
“It’s over,” he answered, “he was shot.”
Where is the family?
And his family is with him.
All? - I asked, apparently with a tinge of surprise.
That’s it,” Sverdlov answered, “but what?”
He was waiting for my reaction. I didn't answer.
-Who decided? - I asked.
We decided here. Ilyich believed that we should not leave them a living banner, especially in the current difficult conditions.”
(L.D. Trotsky. Diaries and letters. M.: “Hermitage”, 1994. P.120. (Record dated April 9, 1935); Leon Trotsky. Diaries and letters. Edited by Yuri Felshtinsky. USA, 1986 , P.101.)
At midnight on July 17, 1918, the emperor, his wife, children and servants were awakened, taken to the basement and brutally killed. It is in the fact that they killed brutally and cruelly that all the eyewitness accounts, so different in other respects, amazingly coincide.
The bodies were secretly taken outside of Yekaterinburg and somehow tried to be destroyed. Everything that remained after the desecration of the bodies was buried just as secretly.
The Yekaterinburg victims had a presentiment of their fate, and it was not for nothing that Grand Duchess Tatyana Nikolaevna, during her imprisonment in Yekaterinburg, wrote out the lines in one of her books: “Those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ went to death as if on a holiday, facing inevitable death, they retained the same wondrous calm of spirit , which did not leave them for a minute. They walked calmly towards death because they hoped to enter into a different, spiritual life, which opens up for a person beyond the grave.”
P.S. Sometimes they notice that “Tsar Nicholas II atoned for all his sins before Russia with his death.” In my opinion, this statement reveals some kind of blasphemous, immoral quirk of public consciousness. All the victims of the Yekaterinburg Golgotha were “guilty” only of persistent confession of the faith of Christ until their death and died a martyr’s death.
And the first of them is the passion-bearer sovereign Nikolai Alexandrovich.
On the screensaver there is a fragment of a photo: Nicholas II on the imperial train. 1917
The upbringing he received under the guidance of his father was strict, almost harsh. “I need normal, healthy Russian children” - this was the demand the emperor put forward to the educators of his children. Such an upbringing could only be Orthodox in spirit. Even as a small child, the Tsarevich showed special love for God and His Church. The heir received a very good education at home - he knew several languages, studied Russian and world history, had a deep understanding of military affairs, and was a widely erudite person. But the father’s plans to prepare his son to bear his royal duty were not destined to be fully realized.
The first meeting of the sixteen-year-old heir Nicholas Alexandrovich and the young princess Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt took place in the year when her elder sister, the future Martyr Elizabeth, married Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the Tsarevich's uncle. A strong friendship began between them, which then turned into deep and ever-increasing love. When, having reached adulthood, the heir turned to his parents with a request to bless him for marriage with Princess Alice, his father refused, citing his youth as the reason for the refusal. Then he resigned himself to his father’s will, but in the year, seeing the unshakable determination of his son, usually soft and even timid in communicating with his father, Emperor Alexander III gave his blessing for the marriage.
The joy of mutual love was overshadowed by a sharp deterioration in the health of Emperor Alexander III, who died on October 20 of the year. Despite the mourning, it was decided not to postpone the wedding, but it took place in the most modest atmosphere on November 14 of the year. The days of family happiness that followed soon gave way for the new emperor to the need to assume the entire burden of governing the Russian Empire, despite the fact that he was not yet fully introduced to the highest state affairs.
Reign
The character of Nikolai Alexandrovich, who was twenty-six years old at the time of his accession, and his worldview by this time were completely determined. Persons standing close to the court noted his lively mind - he always quickly grasped the essence of the questions presented to him, his excellent memory, especially for faces, and the nobility of his way of thinking. At the same time, Nikolai Alexandrovich, with his gentleness, tact in his address, and modest manners, gave many the impression of a man who did not inherit the strong will of his father.
The guidance for Emperor Nicholas II was his father’s political testament:
“I bequeath to you to love everything that serves the good, honor and dignity of Russia. Protect autocracy, bearing in mind that you are responsible for the fate of your subjects before the Throne of the Most High. Let faith in God and the holiness of your royal duty be the basis of your life. Be strong and courageous, never show weakness. Listen to everyone, there is nothing shameful in this, but listen to yourself and your conscience".
From the very beginning of his reign as a Russian power, Emperor Nicholas II treated the duties of a monarch as a sacred duty. The Emperor deeply believed that for the Russian people, royal power was and remains sacred. He always had the idea that the king and queen should be closer to the people, see them more often and trust them more. Having become the supreme ruler of a huge empire, Nikolai Alexandrovich took upon himself enormous historical and moral responsibility for everything that happened in the state entrusted to him. He considered one of his most important duties to be the preservation of the Orthodox faith.
Emperor Nicholas II paid great attention to the needs of the Orthodox Church throughout his reign. Like all Russian emperors, he donated generously for the construction of new churches, including outside Russia. During the years of his reign, the number of parish churches in the empire increased by more than 10 thousand, and more than 250 new monasteries were opened. He himself participated in the laying of new churches and other church celebrations. The personal piety of the Sovereign was also manifested in the fact that during the years of his reign more saints were canonized than in the two previous centuries, when only 5 saints were glorified - during his reign, St. Theodosius of Chernigov (), Rev. Seraphim of Sarov (city), Holy Princess Anna Kashinskaya (restoration of veneration in the city), Saint Joasaph of Belgorod (city), Saint Hermogen of Moscow (city), Saint Pitirim of Tambov (city), Saint John of Tobolsk (city) . At the same time, the emperor was forced to show special persistence, seeking the canonization of St. Seraphim of Sarov, Saints Joasaph of Belgorod and John of Tobolsk. Emperor Nicholas II highly revered the holy righteous father John of Kronstadt and after his blessed death he ordered a nationwide prayerful commemoration of him on the day of his repose.
During the reign of Emperor Nicholas II, the synodal system of governing the Church was preserved, but it was under him that the church hierarchy had the opportunity not only to widely discuss, but also to practically prepare for the convening of a Local Council.
The desire to introduce Christian religious and moral principles of his worldview into public life has always distinguished the foreign policy of Emperor Nicholas II. Back in the year, he approached the governments of Europe with a proposal to convene a conference to discuss issues of maintaining peace and reducing arms. The consequence of this was the peace conferences in The Hague throughout the years, whose decisions have not lost their significance to this day.
But, despite the sovereign’s sincere desire for peace, during his reign Russia had to participate in two bloody wars, which led to internal unrest. In the year without declaring war, Japan began military operations against Russia, and the result of this difficult war for Russia was the revolutionary turmoil of the year. The sovereign perceived the unrest taking place in the country as a great personal sorrow.
Few people communicated with the Emperor informally. And everyone who knew his family life first-hand noted the amazing simplicity, mutual love and agreement of all members of this closely knit family. The children's relationship with the sovereign was touching - he was for them at the same time a king, a father and a comrade; their feelings changed depending on the circumstances, moving from almost religious worship to complete trust and the most cordial friendship.
But the center of the family was Alexey Nikolaevich, on whom all affections and hopes were concentrated. His incurable illness cast a shadow over the family's life, but the nature of the illness remained a state secret, and his parents often had to hide their feelings. At the same time, the illness of the Tsarevich opened the doors to the palace to those people who were recommended to the royal family as healers and prayer books. Among them, the peasant Grigory Rasputin appears in the palace, whose healing abilities gave him great influence at court, which, together with the notoriety that spread about him, undermined the faith and loyalty of many to the imperial house.
At the beginning of the war, on a wave of patriotism in Russia, internal disagreements largely subsided, and even the most difficult issues became solvable. It was possible to implement the sovereign's long-planned ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages for the entire duration of the war - his conviction in the usefulness of this measure was stronger than all economic considerations.
The Emperor regularly traveled to Headquarters, visiting various sectors of his huge army, dressing stations, military hospitals, rear factories - everything that played a role in waging a grandiose war.
From the beginning of the war, the Emperor considered his tenure as Supreme Commander-in-Chief as the fulfillment of a moral and national duty to God and the people. However, the Emperor always provided leading military specialists with broad initiative in resolving all military-strategic and operational-tactical issues. On August 22 of the year, the sovereign left for Mogilev to take command of all the armed forces of Russia and from that day on he was constantly at Headquarters. Only about once a month did the Emperor come to Tsarskoe Selo for a few days. All important decisions were made by him, but at the same time he instructed the empress to maintain relations with the ministers and keep him informed of what was happening in the capital.
Imprisonment and execution
“If I am an obstacle to the happiness of Russia and all the social forces now at the head of it ask me to leave the throne and hand it over to my son and brother, then I am ready to do this, I am even ready to give not only my kingdom, but also my life for the Motherland. I think no one who knows me doubts this.".
“My renunciation is needed. The point is that in the name of saving Russia and keeping the army at the front calm, you need to decide to take this step. I agreed... At one o'clock in the morning I left Pskov with a heavy feeling of what I had experienced. There is treason and cowardice and deceit all around!”
For the last time, he addressed his troops, calling on them to be loyal to the Provisional Government, the very one that arrested him, to fulfill their duty to the Motherland until complete victory. The farewell order to the troops, which expressed the nobility of the Tsar’s soul, his love for the army, and faith in it, was hidden from the people by the Provisional Government, which banned its publication.
The Emperor accepted and endured all the trials sent down to him firmly, meekly and without a shadow of a murmur. On March 9, the emperor, who had been arrested the day before, was transported to Tsarskoe Selo, where the whole family was eagerly awaiting him. An almost five-month period of indefinite stay in Tsarskoe Selo began. The days passed in a measured manner - with regular services, shared meals, walks, reading and communication with family. However, at the same time, the life of the prisoners was subjected to petty restrictions - the sovereign was told by A.F. Kerensky that he should live separately and see the empress only at the table, and speak only in Russian, the guard soldiers made rude comments to him, access to the palace Persons close to the royal family were prohibited. One day, soldiers even took away a toy gun from the heir under the pretext of a ban on carrying weapons. Father Afanasy Belyaev, who regularly performed divine services in the Alexander Palace during this period, left his testimonies about the spiritual life of Tsarskoye Selo prisoners. This is how the Good Friday Matins service took place in the palace on March 30 of the year:
“The service was reverent and touching... Their Majesties listened to the entire service while standing. Folding lecterns were placed in front of them, on which the Gospels lay, so that they could follow the reading. Everyone stood until the end of the service and left through the common hall to their rooms. You have to see for yourself and be so close to understand and see how the former royal family fervently, in the Orthodox manner, often on their knees, prays to God. With what humility, meekness, and humility, having completely surrendered themselves to the will of God, they stand behind the divine service.”.
In the palace Church or in the former royal chambers, Father Athanasius regularly celebrated the all-night vigil and Divine Liturgy, which were always attended by all members of the imperial family. After the Day of the Holy Trinity, alarming messages appeared more and more often in the diary of Father Afanasy - he noted the growing irritation of the guards, sometimes reaching the point of rudeness towards the royal family. The spiritual state of the members of the royal family does not go unnoticed by him - yes, they all suffered, he notes, but along with the suffering their patience and prayer increased.
Meanwhile, the Provisional Government appointed a commission to investigate the activities of the emperor, but, despite all efforts, they could not find anything discrediting the king. However, instead of releasing the royal family, a decision was made to remove them from Tsarskoe Selo - on the night of August 1, they were sent to Tobolsk, allegedly due to possible unrest, and arrived there on August 6. The first weeks of my stay in Tobolsk were perhaps the calmest during the entire period of imprisonment. On September 8, the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the prisoners were allowed to go to church for the first time. Subsequently, this consolation extremely rarely fell to their lot.
“He made this decision [to renounce] only in the hope that those who wanted to remove him would still be able to continue the war with honor and would not ruin the cause of saving Russia. He was afraid then that his refusal to sign the renunciation would lead to civil war in the sight of the enemy. The Tsar did not want even a drop of Russian blood to be shed because of him... It was painful for the Emperor to now see the futility of his sacrifice and realize that, having in mind then only the good of his homeland, he had harmed it with his renunciation.”.
Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks had already come to power in Petrograd - a period had begun about which the Emperor wrote in his diary: “much worse and more shameful than the events of the Time of Troubles.” The soldiers guarding the governor's house warmed up to the royal family, and several months passed after the Bolshevik coup before the change in power began to affect the situation of the prisoners. In Tobolsk, a “soldiers’ committee” was formed, which, in every possible way striving for self-affirmation, demonstrated its power over the Sovereign - they either forced him to take off his shoulder straps, or destroyed the ice slide built for the royal children, and from March 1 of the year “Nikolai Romanov and his family were transferred to soldiers' rations." The letters and diaries of members of the imperial family testify to the deep experience of the tragedy that unfolded before their eyes. But this tragedy did not deprive the royal prisoners of fortitude, firm faith and hope for God’s help. Consolation and meekness in enduring sorrows were provided by prayer, reading spiritual books, worship and Communion. In suffering and trials, spiritual knowledge, knowledge of oneself, one’s soul increased. Aspiration towards eternal life helped to endure suffering and gave great consolation:
“...Everything that I love suffers, there is no end to all the dirt and suffering, but the Lord does not allow despondency: He protects from despair, gives strength, confidence in a bright future even in this world.”.
In March it became known that a separate peace with Germany had been concluded in Brest, about which the sovereign wrote that it was “tantamount to suicide.” The first Bolshevik detachment arrived in Tobolsk on Tuesday, April 22. Commissioner Yakovlev inspected the house, met the prisoners, and a few days later announced that he had to take the Emperor away, assuring that nothing bad would happen to him. Assuming that they wanted to send him to Moscow to sign a separate peace with Germany, the sovereign said firmly: “I’d rather let my hand be cut off than sign this shameful treaty.” The heir was ill at that time, and it was impossible to transport him, but the Empress and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna followed the emperor and were transported to Yekaterinburg, for imprisonment in the Ipatiev house. When the Heir's health improved, the rest of the family from Tobolsk were imprisoned in the same house, but most of those close to them were not allowed.
There is much less evidence left about the Yekaterinburg period of imprisonment of the Royal Family - there are almost no letters; basically this period is known only from brief entries in the emperor’s diary and the testimony of witnesses. Particularly valuable is the testimony of Archpriest John Storozhev, who performed the last services in the Ipatiev House. Father John served mass there twice on Sundays; the first time it was on May 20 (June 2), when, according to his testimony, members of the royal family “Prayed very earnestly...”. Living conditions in the “special purpose house” were much more difficult than in Tobolsk. The guard consisted of 12 soldiers who lived in close proximity to the prisoners and ate with them at the same table. Commissar Avdeev, an inveterate drunkard, worked every day together with his subordinates to invent new humiliations for the prisoners. I had to put up with hardships, endure bullying and submit to the demands of rude people, including former criminals. The royal couple and princesses had to sleep on the floor, without beds. During lunch, a family of seven was given only five spoons; The guards sitting at the same table smoked, brazenly blew smoke into the faces of the prisoners, and rudely took away their food. A walk in the garden was allowed once a day, at first for 15-20 minutes, and then no more than five. The behavior of the guards was completely indecent.
Only Doctor Evgeny Botkin remained near the royal family, who surrounded the prisoners with care and acted as a mediator between them and the commissars, trying to protect them from the rudeness of the guards, and several tried and true servants.
The faith of the prisoners supported their courage and gave them strength and patience in suffering. They all understood the possibility of a quick end and expected it with nobility and clarity of spirit. One of Olga Nikolaevna’s letters contains the following lines:
“The father asks to tell all those who remained devoted to him, and those on whom they may have influence, that they do not avenge him, since he has forgiven everyone and prays for everyone, and that they do not avenge themselves, and that they remember, that the evil that is now in the world will be even stronger, but that it is not evil that will defeat evil, but only love.”.
Most of the evidence speaks of the prisoners of the Ipatiev House as suffering people, but deeply religious, undoubtedly submissive to the will of God. Despite the bullying and insults, they led a decent family life in Ipatiev’s house, trying to brighten up the depressing situation with mutual communication, prayer, reading and feasible activities. One of the witnesses to their life in captivity, the heir’s teacher Pierre Gilliard, wrote:
“The Tsar and Empress believed that they were dying as martyrs for their homeland... Their true greatness stemmed not from their royal dignity, but from that amazing moral height to which they gradually rose... And in their very humiliation they were an amazing manifestation of that amazing clarity of the soul, against which all violence and all rage are powerless and which triumphs in death itself.”.
Even the rude guards gradually softened in their interactions with the prisoners. They were surprised by their simplicity, they were captivated by their dignified spiritual clarity, and they soon felt the superiority of those whom they thought to keep in their power. Even Commissar Avdeev himself relented. This change did not escape the eyes of the Bolshevik authorities. Avdeev was replaced by Yurovsky, the guards were replaced by Austro-German prisoners and people chosen from among the executioners of the “Chreka.” The life of its inhabitants turned into continuous martyrdom. On July 1 (14), Father John Storozhev performed the last divine service in the Ipatiev House. Meanwhile, in the strictest secrecy from the prisoners, preparations were made for their execution.
Along with the imperial family, their servants who followed their masters into exile were also shot: doctor