The Russian Revolution полностью

The first thing Iurovskii did upon taking charge of Ipatev’s house was to put a stop to the stealing: this indeed presented a danger from the point of view of security, because thieving guards could be bribed to carry messages to and from the prisoners outside Cheka channels and even help them escape. On his first day, he had the Imperial family produce all the valuables in its possession (minus those which, unknown to him, the women had sewn into their undergarments). After making an inventory, he placed the jewelry in a sealed box, which he allowed the family to keep but inspected daily. Iurovskii also put a lock on the shed where the family’s luggage was stored. Nicholas, always ready to think the best of others, believed that these measures were taken for his family’s benefit:

[Iurovskii and his assistant] explained that an unpleasant incident had occurred in our house; they mentioned the loss of our belongings.… I feel sorry for Avdeev that he is guilty of not having prevented his men from stealing out of the trunks in the shed.… Iurovskii and his assistant begin to understand what sort of people had surrounded and guarded us, stealing from us.*

Alexandra’s diary confirms that on July 4 the internal guards were replaced by a fresh crew. Nicholas thought they were Latvians, and so did the captain of the guard when interrogated by Sokolov. But at the time the term “Latvians” was applied loosely to all kinds of pro-Communist foreigners. Sokolov learned that Iurovskii spoke with five of the ten new arrivals in German.⁶⁹ There can be little doubt that they were Hungarian prisoners of war, some of them Magyars, some Magyarized Germans.† They had moved from the Cheka headquarters, housed at the American Hotel.⁷⁰

This was the execution squad. Iurovskii assigned them to the lower floor. He himself did not move into Ipatev’s house, preferring to stay with his wife, mother, and two children. Into the commandant’s room moved his assistant, Grigorii Petrovich Nikulin.

On July 7, Lenin instructed Ekaterinburg to grant the chairman of the Ural Regional Soviet, Beloborodov, direct wire access to the Kremlin. He acted in response to Beloborodov’s request of June 28 for such access “in view of the extraordinary importance of events.”⁷¹ Until July 25, when Ekaterinburg fell to the Czechs, all communications between the Kremlin and that city on military matters and the fate of the Romanovs were conducted by means of this channel, often in cipher.

Goloshchekin returned from Moscow on July 12 carrying the death warrant. On the same day, he reported to the Executive Committee of the Soviet on “the attitude of central authority toward the execution of the Romanovs.” He said that Moscow had originally intended to try the ex-Tsar, but in view of the proximity of the front, this ceased to be feasible: the Romanovs were to be executed.⁷² The Committee rubber-stamped Moscow’s decision.⁷³ Now, as afterward, Ekaterinburg assumed responsibility for the execution, pretending that it was an emergency measure to prevent the Imperial family from falling into Czech hands.^‡

The following day, July 15, Iurovskii was seen in the woods north of Ekaterinburg. He was looking for a place to dispose of the bodies.

The Imperial family suspected nothing because Iurovskii maintained a strict routine at Ipatev’s and with his solicitous manner even gained its trust. On June 25/July 8, Nicholas wrote: “Our life has not changed in any respect under Iurovskii.” Indeed, in some respects it improved, for the family now received all the provisions brought by the nuns, whereas Avdeev’s guards used to steal them. On July II, workmen installed iron railings on the single open window, but this too did not strike them as unusual: “Always fright of our climbing out no doubt or getting into contact with the sentry,” Alexandra noted. Now that the Cheka had given up its plan of a spurious escape, Iurovskii wanted to take no chances on a genuine escape. On Sunday, July 14, he permitted a priest to come and say mass. As he was leaving, the priest thought he had heard one of the princesses whisper: “Thank you.”⁷⁴ On July 15, Iurovskii, who had some medical knowledge, spent time with the bed-ridden Alexis, discussing his health. The next day he brought him some eggs. On July 16, two charwomen came to clean. They told Sokolov that the family seemed in fine spirits and that the princesses laughed as they helped them make the beds.

All this time, the Imperial family was still hoping to hear from their rescuers. The last entry in Nicholas’s diary, dated June 30/July 13, reads: “We have no news from the outside.”