Death of the Romanov Imperial Family. Didn't the execution of the royal family actually happen? The Romanovs and their servants in Ipatiev's house

Who refused to shoot the Tsar and his family? What did Nicholas II say when he heard the execution sentence? Who wanted to kidnap the Romanovs from the Ipatiev House? On the anniversary of the execution of the royal family, we remind you of the most important facts about this tragedy

Photo: RIA Novosti / Maya Shelkovnikova

Moscow. July 17.. in Yekaterinburg, the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II and all members of his family were shot. Almost a hundred years later, the tragedy has been studied far and wide by Russian and foreign researchers. Below are the 10 most important facts about what happened in July 1917 in the Ipatiev House.

1. The Romanov family and their retinue were placed in Yekaterinburg on April 30, in the house of retired military engineer N.N. Ipatieva. Doctor E. S. Botkin, chamberlain A. E. Trupp, the Empress's maid A. S. Demidova, cook I. M. Kharitonov and cook Leonid Sednev lived in the house with the royal family. Everyone except the cook was killed along with the Romanovs.

2. In June 1917, Nicholas II received several letters allegedly from a White Russian officer. The anonymous author of the letters told the Tsar that supporters of the crown intended to kidnap the prisoners of the Ipatiev House and asked Nicholas to provide assistance - to draw plans of the rooms, inform the sleep schedule of family members, etc. The Tsar, however, in his response stated: “We do not want and cannot escape. We can only be kidnapped by force, just as we were brought from Tobolsk by force. Therefore, do not count on any of our active help," thereby refusing to assist the "kidnappers," but not giving up the very idea of ​​being kidnapped.

It subsequently turned out that the letters were written by the Bolsheviks in order to test the royal family's readiness to escape. The author of the texts of the letters was P. Voikov.

3. Rumors about the murder of Nicholas II appeared back in June 1917 after the assassination of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich. The official version of the disappearance of Mikhail Alexandrovich was an escape; at the same time, the tsar was allegedly killed by a Red Army soldier who broke into the Ipatiev house.

4. Exact text of the verdict, which the Bolsheviks brought out and read to the Tsar and his family, is unknown. At approximately 2 o'clock in the morning from July 16 to July 17, the guards woke up the doctor Botkin so that he would wake up the royal family, order them to get ready and go down to the basement. According to various sources, it took from half an hour to an hour to get ready. After the Romanovs and their servants came down, security officer Yankel Yurovsky informed them that they would be killed.

According to various recollections, he said:

“Nikolai Alexandrovich, your relatives tried to save you, but they didn’t have to. And we are forced to shoot you ourselves.”(based on materials from investigator N. Sokolov)

“Nikolai Alexandrovich! The attempts of your like-minded people to save you were not crowned with success! And now, in a difficult time for the Soviet Republic ... - Yakov Mikhailovich raises his voice and chopping the air with his hand: - ... we have been entrusted with the mission of putting an end to the house of the Romanovs.”(according to the memoirs of M. Medvedev (Kudrin))

"Your friends are advancing on Yekaterinburg, and therefore you are sentenced to death"(according to the recollections of Yurovsky’s assistant G. Nikulin.)

Yurovsky himself later said that he did not remember the exact words he said. “...I immediately, as far as I remember, told Nikolai something like the following: that his royal relatives and friends both in the country and abroad tried to free him, and that the Council of Workers’ Deputies decided to shoot them.”

5. Emperor Nicholas, having heard the verdict, asked again:"Oh my God, what is this?" According to other sources, he only managed to say: “What?”

6. Three Latvians refused to carry out the sentence and left the basement shortly before the Romanovs went down there. The weapons of the refuseniks were distributed among those who remained. According to the recollections of the participants themselves, 8 people took part in the execution. “In fact, there were 8 of us performers: Yurovsky, Nikulin, Mikhail Medvedev, four Pavel Medvedev, five Peter Ermakov, but I’m not sure that Ivan Kabanov is six. And I don’t remember the names of two more,” writes G. in his memoirs .Nikulin.

7. It is still unknown whether the execution of the royal family was sanctioned by the highest authority. According to the official version, the decision to “execute” was made by the executive committee of the Ural Regional Council, while the central Soviet leadership learned about what happened only after. By the beginning of the 90s. A version was formed according to which the Ural authorities could not make such a decision without a directive from the Kremlin and agreed to take responsibility for the unauthorized execution in order to provide the central government with a political alibi.

The fact that the Ural Regional Council was not a judicial or other body that had the authority to pass a verdict, the execution of the Romanovs was for a long time considered not as political repression, but as a murder, which prevented the posthumous rehabilitation of the royal family.

8. After the execution, the bodies of the dead were taken out of town and burned, pre-watering with sulfuric acid to render the remains unrecognizable. The sanction for the release of large quantities of sulfuric acid was issued by the Commissioner of Supply of the Urals P. Voikov.

9. Information about the murder of the royal family became known to society several years later; Initially, the Soviet authorities reported that only Nicholas II was killed; Alexander Fedorovna and her children were allegedly transported to a safe place in Perm. The truth about the fate of the entire royal family was reported in the article “The Last Days of the Last Tsar” by P. M. Bykov.

The Kremlin acknowledged the fact of the execution of all members of the royal family when the results of N. Sokolov’s investigation became known in the West in 1925.

10. The remains of five members of the imperial family and four of their servants were found in July 1991. not far from Yekaterinburg under the embankment of the Old Koptyakovskaya road. On July 17, 1998, the remains of members of the imperial family were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. In July 2007, the remains of Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria were found.

Ekaterinburg. At the site of the execution of the royal family. Holy Quarter June 16th, 2016

Immediately behind, you can’t help but notice this tall temple and a number of other temple buildings. This is the "Holy Quarter". By the will of fate, three streets named after revolutionaries are limited. Let's head towards it.

On the way there is a monument to Saints Peter and Fevronia of Murom. Installed in 2012.

The Church on the Blood was built in 2000-2003. on the site where on the night of July 16 to July 17, 1918, the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II and his family were shot. There are photographs of them at the entrance to the temple.

In 1917, after the February Revolution and abdication, the former Russian Emperor Nicholas II and his family were exiled to Tobolsk by decision of the Provisional Government.

After the Bolsheviks came to power and the outbreak of the civil war, in April 1918, permission was received from the Presidium (All-Russian Central Executive Committee) of the fourth convocation to transfer the Romanovs to Yekaterinburg in order to take them from there to Moscow for the purpose of their trial.

In Yekaterinburg, a large stone mansion, confiscated from engineer Nikolai Ipatiev, was chosen as the place of imprisonment for Nicholas II and his family. On the night of July 17, 1918, in the basement of this house, Emperor Nicholas II, along with his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, children and close associates, were shot, and after that their bodies were taken to the abandoned Ganina Yama mine.

On September 22, 1977, on the recommendation of KGB Chairman Yu.V. Andropov and the instructions of B.N. Yeltsin's house, Ipatiev's, was destroyed. Later, Yeltsin would write in his memoirs: “...sooner or later we will all be ashamed of this barbarity. It will be a shame, but nothing can be corrected...”.

When designing, the plan of the future temple was superimposed on the plan of the demolished Ipatiev house in such a way as to create an analogue of the room where the Royal Family was shot. At the lower level of the temple, a symbolic place for this execution was provided. In fact, the place where the royal family was executed is located outside the temple in the area of ​​​​the roadway on Karl Liebknecht Street.

The temple is a five-domed structure with a height of 60 meters and a total area of ​​3000 m². The architecture of the building is designed in the Russian-Byzantine style. The vast majority of churches were built in this style during the reign of Nicholas II.

The cross in the center is part of a monument to the royal family going down to the basement before being shot.

Adjacent to the Church on the Blood is the temple in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker with the spiritual and educational center “Patriarchal Compound” and the museum of the royal family.

Behind them you can see the Church of the Ascension of the Lord (1782-1818).

And in front of it is the Kharitonov-Rastorguev estate of the early 19th century (architect Malakhov), which became the Palace of Pioneers in the Soviet years. Nowadays it is the City Palace of Children and Youth Creativity “Talentedness and Technology”.

What else is located in the surrounding area? This is the Gazprom tower, which was built in 1976 as the Tourist Hotel.

The former office of the now defunct Transaero airline.

Between them are buildings from the middle of the last century.

Residential building-monument from 1935. Built for railway workers. Very beautiful! Fizkulturnikov Street, on which the building is located, was gradually built up since the 1960s, and as a result, by 2010 it was completely lost. This residential building is the only building listed on a virtually non-existent street; the house is number 30.

Well, now we go to the Gazprom tower - an interesting street begins from there.

We do not claim the reliability of all the facts presented in this article, but the arguments given below are very interesting.

There was no execution of the royal family.The heir to the throne, Alyosha Romanov, became People's Commissar Alexei Kosygin.
The royal family was separated in 1918, but not executed. Maria Feodorovna left for Germany, and Nicholas II and the heir to the throne Alexei remained hostages in Russia.

In April of this year, Rosarkhiv, which was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture, was reassigned directly to the head of state. The change in status was explained by the special state value of the materials stored there. While experts were wondering what all this meant, a historical investigation appeared in the President newspaper, registered on the platform of the Presidential Administration. Its essence is that no one shot the royal family. They all lived long lives, and Tsarevich Alexei even made a career in the nomenklatura in the USSR.

The transformation of Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov into Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin was first discussed during perestroika. They referred to a leak from the party archive. The information was perceived as a historical anecdote, although the thought - what if it was true - stirred in the minds of many. After all, no one saw the remains of the royal family then, and there were always many rumors about their miraculous salvation. And suddenly, here you are - a publication about the life of the royal family after the alleged execution is published in a publication that is as far as possible from the pursuit of sensation.

— Was it possible to escape or be taken out of Ipatiev’s house? It turns out yes! - historian Sergei Zhelenkov writes to the President newspaper. - There was a factory nearby. In 1905, the owner dug an underground passage to it in case of capture by revolutionaries. When Boris Yeltsin destroyed the house after the decision of the Politburo, the bulldozer fell into a tunnel that no one knew about.

STALIN often called KOSYGIN (left) Tsarevich in front of everyone

Left hostage

What reasons did the Bolsheviks have for saving the life of the royal family?

Researchers Tom Mangold and Anthony Summers published the book “The Romanov Affair, or the Execution that Never Happened” in 1979. They started with the fact that in 1978 the 60-year secrecy stamp of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty signed in 1918 expires, and it would be interesting to look into the declassified archives.

The first thing they dug up were telegrams from the English ambassador reporting on the evacuation of the royal family from Yekaterinburg to Perm by the Bolsheviks.

According to British intelligence agents in the army of Alexander Kolchak, upon entering Yekaterinburg on July 25, 1918, the admiral immediately appointed an investigator in the case of the execution of the royal family. Three months later, Captain Nametkin put a report on his desk, where he said that instead of execution there was a re-enactment of it. Not believing it, Kolchak appointed a second investigator, Sergeev, and soon received the same results.

In parallel with them, the commission of Captain Malinovsky worked, who in June 1919 gave the following instructions to the third investigator, Nikolai Sokolov: “As a result of my work on the case, I developed the conviction that the august family is alive... all the facts that I observed during the investigation are "simulation of murder".

Admiral Kolchak, who had already proclaimed himself the Supreme Ruler of Russia, did not need a living tsar at all, so Sokolov received very clear instructions - to find evidence of the death of the emperor.

Sokolov can’t come up with anything better than to say: “The corpses were thrown into a mine and filled with acid.”

Tom Mangold and Anthony Summers believed that the answer should be sought in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk itself. However, its full text is not in the declassified archives of London or Berlin. And they came to the conclusion that there were points relating to the royal family.

Probably, Emperor Wilhelm II, who was a close relative of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, demanded that all the august women be transferred to Germany. The girls had no rights to the Russian throne and therefore could not threaten the Bolsheviks. The men remained hostages - as guarantors that the German army would not march on St. Petersburg and Moscow.

This explanation seems quite logical. Especially if we remember that the tsar was overthrown not by the Reds, but by their own liberal-minded aristocracy, the bourgeoisie and the top of the army. The Bolsheviks did not have any particular hatred for Nicholas II. He did not threaten them in any way, but at the same time he was an excellent ace in the hole and a good bargaining chip in negotiations.

In addition, Lenin understood perfectly well that Nicholas II was a chicken capable, if shaken well, of laying many of the golden eggs so necessary for the young Soviet state. After all, the secrets of many family and state deposits in Western banks were kept in the king’s head. Later, these riches of the Russian Empire were used for industrialization.

In the cemetery in the Italian village of Marcotta there was a gravestone on which Princess Olga Nikolaevna, the eldest daughter of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II, rested. In 1995, the grave, under the pretext of non-payment of rent, was destroyed and the ashes were transferred.

Life after death"

According to the President newspaper, the KGB of the USSR, based on the 2nd Main Directorate, had a special department that monitored all movements of the royal family and their descendants across the territory of the USSR:

“Stalin built a dacha in Sukhumi next to the dacha of the royal family and came there to meet with the emperor. Nicholas II visited the Kremlin in the uniform of an officer, which was confirmed by General Vatov, who served as Joseph Vissarionovich’s guard.”

According to the newspaper, in order to honor the memory of the last emperor, monarchists can go to Nizhny Novgorod to the Red Etna cemetery, where he was buried on December 26, 1958. The famous Nizhny Novgorod elder Gregory performed the funeral service and buried the sovereign.

Much more surprising is the fate of the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich.

Over time, he, like many, came to terms with the revolution and came to the conclusion that one must serve the Fatherland regardless of one’s political beliefs. However, he had no other choice.

Historian Sergei Zhelenkov provides a lot of evidence of the transformation of Tsarevich Alexei into the Red Army soldier Kosygin. During the thundering years of the Civil War, and even under the cover of the Cheka, this was really not difficult to do. His future career is much more interesting. Stalin saw a great future in the young man and far-sightedly moved him along the economic line. Not according to the party.

In 1942, the representative of the State Defense Committee in besieged Leningrad, Kosygin supervised the evacuation of the population and industrial enterprises and property of Tsarskoye Selo. Alexey had sailed around Ladoga many times on the yacht “Standart” and knew the surrounding area of ​​the lake well, so he organized the “Road of Life” to supply the city.

In 1949, during Malenkov’s promotion of the “Leningrad Affair,” Kosygin “miraculously” survived. Stalin, who called him Tsarevich in front of everyone, sent Alexei Nikolaevich on a long trip around Siberia due to the need to strengthen cooperation activities and improve the procurement of agricultural products.

Kosygin was so removed from internal party affairs that he retained his position after the death of his patron. Khrushchev and Brezhnev needed a good, proven business executive; as a result, Kosygin served as head of government the longest in the history of the Russian Empire, the USSR and the Russian Federation - 16 years.

As for the wife of Nicholas II and daughters, their trace cannot be called lost either.

In the 90s, the Italian newspaper La Repubblica published an article about the death of a nun, Sister Pascalina Lenart, who held an important post under Pope Pius XII from 1939 to 1958.

Before her death, she called a notary and said that Olga Romanova, the daughter of Nicholas II, was not shot by the Bolsheviks, but lived a long life under the protection of the Vatican and was buried in a cemetery in the village of Marcotte in northern Italy.

Journalists who went to the indicated address actually found a slab in the graveyard, where it was written in German: “ Olga Nikolaevna, eldest daughter of the Russian Tsar Nikolai Romanov, 1895 - 1976».

In this regard, the question arises: who was buried in 1998 in the Peter and Paul Cathedral? President Boris Yeltsin assured the public that these were the remains of the royal family. But the Russian Orthodox Church then refused to recognize this fact. Let us remember that in Sofia, in the building of the Holy Synod on St. Alexander Nevsky Square, lived the confessor of the Highest Family, Bishop Theophan, who fled from the horrors of the revolution. He never served a memorial service for the august family and said that the royal family was alive!

The result of the economic reforms developed by Alexei Kosygin was the so-called golden eighth five-year plan of 1966 - 1970. During this time:

- national income increased by 42 percent,

— the volume of gross industrial output increased by 51 percent,

— agricultural profitability increased by 21 percent,

— the formation of the Unified Energy System of the European part of the USSR was completed, the unified energy system of Central Siberia was created,

— development of the Tyumen oil and gas production complex began,

— the Bratsk, Krasnoyarsk and Saratov hydroelectric power stations and the Pridneprovskaya State District Power Plant came into operation,

— the West Siberian Metallurgical and Karaganda Metallurgical Plants started working,

— the first Zhiguli cars were produced,

— the provision of the population with televisions has doubled, washing machines - two and a half times, refrigerators - three times.

After the execution on the night of July 16-17, 1918, the bodies of members of the royal family and their associates (11 people in total) were loaded into a car and sent towards Verkh-Isetsk to the abandoned mines of Ganina Yama. At first they unsuccessfully tried to burn the victims, and then they threw them into a mine shaft and covered them with branches.

Discovery of remains

However, the next day almost the entire Verkh-Isetsk knew about what had happened. Moreover, according to a member of Medvedev’s firing squad, “the icy water of the mine not only completely washed away the blood, but also froze the bodies so much that they looked as if they were alive.” The conspiracy clearly failed.

It was decided to promptly rebury the remains. The area was cordoned off, but the truck, having driven only a few kilometers, got stuck in the swampy area of ​​Porosenkova Log. Without inventing anything, they buried one part of the bodies directly under the road, and the other a little to the side, after first filling them with sulfuric acid. Sleepers were placed on top for safety.

It is interesting that the forensic investigator N. Sokolov, sent by Kolchak in 1919 to search for the burial place, found this place, but never thought of lifting the sleepers. In the area of ​​​​Ganina Yama, he managed to find only a severed female finger. Nevertheless, the investigator’s conclusion was unequivocal: “This is all that remains of the August Family. The Bolsheviks destroyed everything else with fire and sulfuric acid.”

Nine years later, perhaps, it was Vladimir Mayakovsky who visited Porosenkov Log, as can be judged by his poem “The Emperor”: “Here a cedar has been touched with an ax, there are notches under the root of the bark, at the root there is a road under the cedar, and in it the emperor is buried.”

It is known that the poet, shortly before his trip to Sverdlovsk, met in Warsaw with one of the organizers of the execution of the royal family, Pyotr Voikov, who could show him the exact place.

Ural historians found the remains in Porosenkovo ​​Log in 1978, but permission for excavations was received only in 1991. There were 9 bodies in the burial. During the investigation, some of the remains were recognized as “royal”: according to experts, only Alexei and Maria were missing. However, many experts were confused by the results of the examination, and therefore no one was in a hurry to agree with the conclusions. The House of Romanovs and the Russian Orthodox Church refused to recognize the remains as authentic.

Alexei and Maria were discovered only in 2007, guided by a document drawn up from the words of the commandant of the “House of Special Purpose” Yakov Yurovsky. “Yurovsky’s note” initially did not inspire much confidence, however, the location of the second burial was indicated correctly.

Falsifications and myths

Immediately after the execution, representatives of the new government tried to convince the West that members of the imperial family, or at least the children, were alive and in a safe place. People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs G.V. Chicherin in April 1922 at the Genoa Conference, when asked by one of the correspondents about the fate of the Grand Duchesses, vaguely answered: “The fate of the Tsar’s daughters is not known to me. I read in the newspapers that they are in America.”

However, P.L. Voikov informally stated more specifically: “the world will never know what we did to the royal family.” But later, after the materials of Sokolov’s investigation were published in the West, the Soviet authorities recognized the fact of the execution of the imperial family.

Falsifications and speculation around the execution of the Romanovs contributed to the spread of persistent myths, among which the myth of ritual murder and the severed head of Nicholas II, which was in the special storage facility of the NKVD, was popular. Later, stories about the “miraculous rescue” of the Tsar’s children, Alexei and Anastasia, were added to the myths. But all this remained myths.

Investigation and examinations

In 1993, the investigation into the discovery of the remains was entrusted to the investigator of the General Prosecutor's Office, Vladimir Solovyov. Given the importance of the case, in addition to traditional ballistic and macroscopic examinations, additional genetic studies were carried out jointly with English and American scientists.

For these purposes, blood was taken from some Romanov relatives living in England and Greece. The results showed that the probability of the remains belonging to members of the royal family was 98.5 percent.
The investigation considered this insufficient. Solovyov managed to obtain permission to exhume the remains of the Tsar’s brother, George. Scientists confirmed the “absolute positional similarity of mt-DNA” of both remains, which revealed a rare genetic mutation inherent in the Romanovs - heteroplasmy.

However, after the discovery of the supposed remains of Alexei and Maria in 2007, new research and examination were required. The scientists’ work was greatly facilitated by Alexy II, who, before burying the first group of royal remains in the tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, asked investigators to remove bone particles. “Science is developing, it is possible that they will be needed in the future,” these were the words of the Patriarch.

To remove the doubts of skeptics, the head of the laboratory of molecular genetics at the University of Massachusetts, Evgeniy Rogaev (whom representatives of the House of Romanov insisted on), the chief geneticist of the US Army, Michael Cobble (who returned the names of the victims of September 11), as well as an employee of the Institute of Forensic Medicine from Austria, Walter, were invited for new examinations. Parson.

Comparing the remains from the two burials, experts once again double-checked the previously obtained data and also conducted new research - the previous results were confirmed. Moreover, the “blood-spattered shirt” of Nicholas II (the Otsu incident), discovered in the Hermitage collections, fell into the hands of scientists. And again the answer is positive: the genotypes of the king “on blood” and “on bones” coincided.

Results

The results of the investigation into the execution of the royal family refuted some previously existing assumptions. For example, according to experts, “under the conditions in which the destruction of corpses was carried out, it was impossible to completely destroy the remains using sulfuric acid and flammable materials.”

This fact excludes Ganina Yama as a final burial site.
True, historian Vadim Viner finds a serious gap in the conclusions of the investigation. He believes that some finds belonging to a later time were not taken into account, in particular coins from the 30s. But as the facts show, information about the burial place very quickly “leaked” to the masses, and therefore the burial ground could be repeatedly opened in search of possible valuables.

Another revelation is offered by the historian S.A. Belyaev, who believes that “they could have buried the family of an Ekaterinburg merchant with imperial honors,” although without providing convincing arguments.
However, the conclusions of the investigation, which was carried out with unprecedented rigor using the latest methods, with the participation of independent experts, are clear: all 11 remains clearly correlate with each of those shot in Ipatiev’s house. Common sense and logic dictate that it is impossible to duplicate such physical and genetic correspondences by chance.
In December 2010, the final conference dedicated to the latest results of the examinations was held in Yekaterinburg. The reports were made by 4 groups of geneticists working independently in different countries. Opponents of the official version could also present their views, but according to eyewitnesses, “after listening to the reports, they left the hall without saying a word.”
The Russian Orthodox Church still does not recognize the authenticity of the “Ekaterinburg remains,” but many representatives of the House of Romanov, judging by their statements in the press, accepted the final results of the investigation.

Nicholas II and his family

The execution of Nicholas II and members of his family is one of the many crimes of the terrible twentieth century. Russian Emperor Nicholas II shared the fate of other autocrats - Charles I of England, Louis XVI of France. But both were executed by court order, and their relatives were not touched. The Bolsheviks destroyed Nicholas along with his wife and children, even his faithful servants paid with their lives. What caused such bestial cruelty, who initiated it, historians are still guessing

The man who was unlucky

The ruler should be not so much wise, fair, merciful, but lucky. Because it is impossible to take everything into account and many important decisions are made by guessing. And it’s hit or miss, fifty-fifty. Nicholas II on the throne was no worse and no better than his predecessors, but in matters of fateful importance for Russia, when choosing one or another path of its development, he was wrong, he simply did not guess. Not out of malice, not out of stupidity, or out of unprofessionalism, but solely according to the law of “heads and tails”

“This means dooming hundreds of thousands of Russian people to death,” the Emperor hesitated. “I sat opposite him, carefully watching the expression of his pale face, on which I could read the terrible internal struggle that was taking place in him at these moments. Finally, the sovereign, as if pronouncing the words with difficulty, said to me: “You are right. We have no choice but to wait for an attack. Give the Chief of the General Staff my order to mobilize" (Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Dmitrievich Sazonov about the beginning of the First World War)

Could the king have chosen a different solution? Could. Russia was not ready for war. And, in the end, the war began with a local conflict between Austria and Serbia. The first declared war on the second on July 28. There was no need for Russia to intervene dramatically, but on July 29 Russia began partial mobilization in four western districts. On July 30, Germany presented Russia with an ultimatum demanding that all military preparations be stopped. Minister Sazonov convinced Nicholas II to continue. On July 30 at 5 p.m., Russia began general mobilization. At midnight from July 31 to August 1, the German ambassador informed Sazonov that if Russia did not demobilize at 12 noon on August 1, Germany would also announce mobilization. Sazonov asked if this meant war. No, the ambassador replied, but we are very close to her. Russia did not stop the mobilization. Germany began mobilization on August 1.

On August 1, in the evening, the German ambassador again came to Sazonov. He asked whether the Russian government intended to give a favorable response to yesterday's note about the cessation of mobilization. Sazonov answered negatively. Count Pourtales showed signs of increasing agitation. He took a folded paper out of his pocket and repeated his question again. Sazonov again refused. Pourtales asked the same question for the third time. “I cannot give you any other answer,” Sazonov repeated again. “In that case,” said Pourtales, choking with excitement, “I must give you this note.” With these words, he handed the paper to Sazonov. It was a note declaring war. The Russian-German war began (History of diplomacy, volume 2)

Brief biography of Nicholas II

• 1868, May 6 - in Tsarskoe Selo
• 1878, November 22 - Nikolai's brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, was born
• 1881, March 1 - death of Emperor Alexander II
• 1881, March 2 - Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich was declared heir to the throne with the title "Tsarevich"
• 1894, October 20 - death of Emperor Alexander III, accession to the throne of Nicholas II
• 1895, January 17 - Nicholas II delivers a speech in the Nicholas Hall of the Winter Palace. Statement on Policy Continuity
• 1896, May 14 - coronation in Moscow.
• 1896, May 18 - Khodynka disaster. More than 1,300 people died in the stampede on Khodynka Field during the coronation festival.

The coronation festivities continued in the evening at the Kremlin Palace, and then with a ball at a reception with the French ambassador. Many expected that if the ball was not cancelled, then at least it would take place without the sovereign. According to Sergei Alexandrovich, although Nicholas II was advised not to come to the ball, the tsar said that although the Khodynka disaster was the greatest misfortune, it should not overshadow the coronation holiday. According to another version, his entourage persuaded the tsar to attend a ball at the French embassy due to foreign policy considerations(Wikipedia).

• 1898, August - Nicholas II’s proposal to convene a conference and discuss at it the possibilities of “putting a limit to the growth of armaments” and “protecting” world peace
• 1898, March 15 - Russian occupation of the Liaodong Peninsula.
• 1899, February 3 - Nicholas II signed the Manifesto on Finland and published the “Basic provisions on the preparation, consideration and promulgation of laws issued for the empire with the inclusion of the Grand Duchy of Finland.”
• 1899, May 18 - the start of the “peace” conference in The Hague, initiated by Nicholas II. The conference discussed issues of arms limitation and ensuring lasting peace; Representatives from 26 countries took part in its work
• 1900, June 12 - decree canceling exile to Siberia for settlement
• 1900, July - August - participation of Russian troops in the suppression of the “Boxer Rebellion” in China. Russian occupation of all of Manchuria - from the border of the empire to the Liaodong Peninsula
• 1904, January 27 - beginning
• 1905, January 9 - Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg. Start

Diary of Nicholas II

— January 6th. Thursday.
Until 9 o'clock let's go to the city. The day was gray and quiet at 8° below zero. We changed clothes at our place in the Winter Palace. AT 10 O'CLOCK? went into the halls to greet the troops. Until 11 o'clock we set off for the church. The service lasted an hour and a half. We went out to see Jordan wearing a coat. During the salute, one of the guns of my 1st cavalry battery fired grapeshot from Vasiliev [sky] island. and it doused the area closest to the Jordan and part of the palace. One policeman was wounded. Several bullets were found on the platform; the banner of the Marine Corps was pierced.
After breakfast, ambassadors and envoys were received in the Golden Drawing Room. At 4 o'clock we left for Tsarskoye. I took a walk. I was studying. We had dinner together and went to bed early.
— January 7th. Friday.
The weather was calm, sunny with wonderful frost on the trees. In the morning I had a meeting with D. Alexei and some ministers on the matter of the Argentine and Chilean courts (1). He had breakfast with us. Received nine people.
The two of you went to venerate the icon of the Mother of God. I read a lot. The two of us spent the evening together.
— January 8th. Saturday.
Clear frosty day. There was a lot of work and reports. Fredericks had breakfast. I walked for a long time. Since yesterday, all plants and factories have been on strike in St. Petersburg. Troops were called from the surrounding area to reinforce the garrison. The workers have been calm so far. Their number is determined at 120,000 hours. At the head of the workers' union is a priest - the socialist Gapon. Mirsky arrived in the evening to report on the measures taken.
— January 9th. Sunday.
Hard day! Serious riots occurred in St. Petersburg as a result of the workers’ desire to reach the Winter Palace. The troops had to shoot in different places in the city, there were many killed and wounded. Lord, how painful and difficult! Mom came to us from the city right in time for mass. We had breakfast with everyone. I was walking with Misha. Mom stayed with us for the night.
— January 10th. Monday.
There were no major incidents in the city today. There were reports. Uncle Alexey was having breakfast. Received a delegation of Ural Cossacks who arrived with caviar. I was walking. We drank tea at Mama's. To unite actions to stop the unrest in St. Petersburg, he decided to appoint General-M. Trepov as governor-general of the capital and province. In the evening I had a meeting on this matter with him, Mirsky and Hesse. Dabich (d.) dined.
— January 11th. Tuesday.
During the day there were no major disturbances in the city. Had the usual reports. After breakfast, Rear Adm. received. Nebogatov, appointed commander of the additional detachment of the Pacific Ocean squadron. I was walking. It was not a cold, gray day. I worked a lot. Everyone spent the evening reading aloud.

• 1905, January 11 - Nicholas II signed a decree establishing the St. Petersburg Governor-General. Petersburg and the province were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Governor General; all civilian institutions were subordinate to him and given the right to independently call up troops. On the same day, former Moscow Chief of Police D. F. Trepov was appointed to the post of Governor General
• 1905, January 19 - Nicholas II received a deputation of workers from St. Petersburg in Tsarskoe Selo. The tsar allocated 50 thousand rubles from his own funds to help family members of those killed and wounded on January 9
• 1905, April 17 - signing of the Manifesto “On the approval of the principles of religious tolerance”
• 1905, August 23 - conclusion of the Portsmouth Peace, which ended the Russo-Japanese War
• 1905, October 17 - signing of the Manifesto on political freedoms, establishment of the State Duma
• 1914, August 1 - beginning of World War I
• 1915, August 23 - Nicholas II assumed the duties of Supreme Commander-in-Chief
• 1916, November 26 and 30 - The State Council and the Congress of the United Nobility joined the demand of State Duma deputies to eliminate the influence of “dark irresponsible forces” and create a government ready to rely on a majority in both chambers of the State Duma
• 1916, December 17 - assassination of Rasputin
• 1917, end of February - Nicholas II decided on Wednesday to go to Headquarters, located in Mogilev

The palace commandant, General Voeikov, asked why the emperor made such a decision when the front was relatively calm, while there was little calm in the capital and his presence in Petrograd would be very important. The Emperor replied that the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General Alekseev, was waiting for him at Headquarters and wanted to discuss some issues.... Meanwhile, Chairman of the State Duma Mikhail Vladimirovich Rodzianko asked the Emperor for an audience: “In that terrible hour that the homeland is going through, I believe “It is my most loyal duty as Chairman of the State Duma to report to you in full about the danger threatening the Russian state.” The Emperor accepted it, but rejected the advice not to dissolve the Duma and form a “Ministry of Trust” that would enjoy the support of the entire society. Rodzianko urged the emperor in vain: “The hour that decides the fate of you and your homeland has come. Tomorrow may be too late” (L. Mlechin “Krupskaya”)

• 1917, February 22 - the imperial train departed from Tsarskoye Selo to Headquarters
• 1917, February 23 - Started
• 1917, February 28 - the adoption by the Provisional Committee of the State Duma of the final decision on the need for the abdication of the Tsar in favor of the heir to the throne under the regency of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich; departure of Nicholas II from Headquarters to Petrograd.
• 1917, March 1 - arrival of the royal train in Pskov.
• 1917, March 2 - signing of the Manifesto abdicating the throne for himself and for Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich in favor of his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich.
• 1917, March 3 - refusal of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich to accept the throne

Family of Nicholas II. Briefly

• 1889, January - first meeting at a court ball in St. Petersburg with his future wife, Princess Alice of Hesse
• 1894, April 8 - engagement of Nikolai Alexandrovich and Alice of Hesse in Coburg (Germany)
• 1894, October 21 - anointing of the bride of Nicholas II and naming her “Blessed Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna”
• 1894, November 14 - wedding of Emperor Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna

In front of me stood a tall, slender lady of about 50 wearing a simple gray sister's suit and a white headscarf. The Empress greeted me kindly and asked me where I was wounded, in what case and on what front. A little worried, I answered all Her questions without taking my eyes off Her face. Almost classically correct, this face in its youth was undoubtedly beautiful, very beautiful, but this beauty, obviously, was cold and impassive. And now, aged with time and with small wrinkles around the eyes and corners of the lips, this face was very interesting, but too stern and too thoughtful. That’s what I thought: what a correct, intelligent, stern and energetic face (memories of the Empress, ensign of the machine gun team of the 10th Kuban Plastun battalion S.P. Pavlov. Being wounded in January 1916, he ended up in Her Majesty’s Own infirmary in Tsarskoe Selo)

• 1895, November 3 - birth of a daughter, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna
• 1897, May 29 - birth of a daughter, Grand Duchess Tatyana Nikolaevna
• 1899, June 14 - birth of a daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna
• 1901, June 5 - birth of a daughter, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna
• 1904, July 30 - birth of a son, heir to the throne, Tsarevich and Grand Duke Alexei Nikolaevich

Diary of Nicholas II: “An unforgettable great day for us, on which the mercy of God so clearly visited us,” Nicholas II wrote in his diary. “Alix gave birth to a son, who was named Alexei during prayer... There are no words to be able to thank God enough for the consolation He has sent in this time of difficult trials!”
German Kaiser Wilhelm II telegraphed Nicholas II: “Dear Nicky, how nice that you offered me to be your boy’s godfather! Good is what is waited for a long time, says the German proverb, so be it with this dear little one! May he grow up to be a brave soldier, a wise and strong statesman, may God's blessing always protect his body and soul. May he be the same ray of sunshine for both of you all his life as he is now, during trials!”

• 1904, August - on the fortieth day after birth, Alexei was diagnosed with hemophilia. Palace Commandant General Voeikov: “For the royal parents, life has lost its meaning. We were afraid to smile in their presence. We behaved in the palace as if in a house in which someone had died."
• 1905, November 1 - Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna met Grigory Rasputin. Rasputin somehow had a positive effect on the Tsarevich’s well-being, which is why Nicholas II and the Empress favored him

Execution of the royal family. Briefly

• 1917, March 3–8 - stay of Nicholas II at Headquarters (Mogilev)
• 1917, March 6 - decision of the Provisional Government to arrest Nicholas II
• 1917, March 9 - after wandering around Russia, Nicholas II returned to Tsarskoe Selo
• 1917, March 9-July 31 - Nicholas II and his family live under house arrest in Tsarskoe Selo
• 1917, July 16-18 - July Days - powerful spontaneous popular anti-government protests in Petrograd
• 1917, August 1 - Nicholas II and his family went into exile in Tobolsk, where the Provisional Government sent him after the July Days
• 1917, December 19 - formed after. The Soldiers' Committee of Tobolsk forbade Nicholas II to attend church
• 1917, December - The Soldiers' Committee decided to remove the Tsar's shoulder straps, which was perceived by him as humiliation
• 1918, February 13 - Commissar Karelin decided to pay from the treasury only soldiers' rations, heating and lighting, and everything else - at the expense of prisoners, and the use of personal capital was limited to 600 rubles per month
• 1918, February 19 - an ice slide built in the garden for the royal children to ride on was destroyed at night with pickaxes. The pretext for this was that from the slide it was possible to “look over the fence”
• 1918, March 7 - the ban on visiting church was lifted
• 1918, April 26 - Nicholas II and his family set off from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg