Nicholas and Alexandra

hello i'm jack perkins welcome to biography sometime on the night of july 16 1918 a chapter in russian history came to a violent close after 300 years in power the romanov imperial dynasty ended with the execution of czar nicholas ii by bolshevik revolutionaries the tragedy also was the heartbreaking end to a royal love story for along with the tsar his devoted wife the empress alexandra and at least three of their five children were also brutally murdered that night for nearly 75 years the soviet union kept the details of the murders under lock and key but with the lifting of the iron curtain the true story of nicholas and alexandra their lives and their deaths has finally come to light nicholas and alexandra the last tsar and zarina of russia came to power more than a hundred years ago in 1894. within 25 years they and their family were dead murdered by the bolsheviks the life and death of one of the world's most powerful dynasties has been shrouded in secrecy confused by communist propaganda only now is it possible to put together the jigsaw of the romanov tragedy an imperial family bound by blood love and politics here is a moment in history unthinkable until recently for the first time ever a british sovereign sets foot on russian soil the violent execution of nicholas and alexandre in 1918 deeply affected queen elizabeth's grandfather king george v a cousin of the czar they had close ties nicholas spent holidays in england with his english-speaking wife alexandra though born in germany alexandra was one of queen victoria's favorite grandchildren and stayed with her frequently as a child the queen's cousin his royal highness prince michael of kent is also closely related to both tsar nicholas and his wife alexandra i used to walk past this picture every day as a small child and it fascinates me it shows king george v my grandfather with tsar nicholas ii of russia with his son alex a with chariz it's extraordinary to see how it's very similar the cousins were of course we know that the tsar and his family were assassinated in 1918. i've always felt somewhere very close to them particularly because i have remand of blood through my grandmother who was herself a grand duchess so i've always wanted to know more about the tsar's family and what really happened to in an archive in moscow every facet of the life of the tsar and his family was secretly preserved by the communists that archive is now open the murder of nicholas and alexandra brought to an end a love affair that had lasted all their lives the archive contains an astonishing number of letters between the tsar and sarina they wrote to each other every day that they were apart for a period of about 20 years and all the letters were numbered this one was written by the tsar and the writing paper is headed novi imperiators which means the new imperial train and its number 128 a darling beloved sweet wifey not for a second as the vision of your angelic face leave my mind and whatever i do i always think you are somewhere near me my eyes suddenly become moist and a lump rises in my throat all that because poor hazy is alone this letter is from her to her husband dated 1899 from peterhof and that's number 154 my own precious darling hussy dear the night was a lonely one and each time i woke up and put my hand out i touched a cold pillow instead of a dear warm hand nobody to shake and poke and bother by waking up the family were most extraordinarily adept photographers and the huge amount of photographs and films survived here's a wonderful shot of them all actually loading a camera and they were wonderfully informal photographs because this is also the story of a czar who never wanted to rule and of a mighty empire he never understood dancing on the skull stand out there's a splendid shot of the celia which naval hat from the standout and it's the story of the tsar's son and heir stricken with an incurable disease that would help pull down the dynasty these are the daily diaries that the zhan sarina wrote right up to the end and this is the last page of alexandra's diary and she writes at the end here played physique with nicholas and harper's turn to bed 15 degrees three hours later alexandra was executed the czar ruled a mighty empire that covered one-sixth of the surface of the earth he had owned seven vast royal palaces had at his command fifteen thousand servants and officials had five royal trains and a fleet of yachts oh right all this ended tragically when in july 1918 the czar and his wife their four daughters and alexei their 13 year old son the future czar were brutally murdered the communists allowed no memorial of any kind to the murdered family but at this chapel in germany their memory was kept alive this is volksgarten the place where alex of hess later to become empress alexandra of russia spent her childhood summers with her sister ella alex and ella both married into the russian imperial family and both shared similar fates in the russian tragedy this this picture is all interesting because this is actually ella with grand duke surge and it was at their wedding that her sister alex first saw her future husband nicholas across the room this is an extraordinary photograph when it shows queen victoria surrounded by so many of her family this was the wedding of ellen's the brother of alix and their zaliks but look who's next to our leagues the young nicholas romanov and the thing is that that was the occasion on which they got engaged very much in love the young couple had to part with this separation they began the very first of their hundreds of letters to each other alex to nicholas letter number one may the second 1894 my own precious darling i'm lying in bed but cannot go to sleep before i've written to you as speak alas we cannot no good night kiss and blessing in june 1894 after six weeks apart nicholas sailed up the thames in the imperial yacht polar star he was there to meet alex on british soil and seek the blessing of queen victoria he wrote in his diary into the arms of my beloved who looked lovely and more beautiful than ever alex's elder sister victoria who was living in england had rented this house at wharton on terms for nicholas and his bride-to-be they loved that time together so much so that the couple sent this telegram to queen victoria in nearby windsor best love from nikki and we would so much like to spend only one more day here would arrive day after tomorrow for tea nikki and alex nicholas wrote in his diary we spent the entire day together rode on the boat was a true idol then we had to go to windsor although we cannot complain her grandmother was very kind and permitted as to go out without chaperones i admit i never expected that from her the bliss of their engagement was to be short-lived when nicholas was only 26 his father czar alexander died at lavadia palace before he had even married his fiancee with no experience or preparation nicholas found himself tsar of russia nicholas's diary 20th of october 1894. my god my god what a day the lord has called our adored precious deeply beloved my head is spinning i'm not prepared to be a czar i never wanted to become when i know nothing of the business of ruling i have no idea of even how to talk to the ministers alex was sent for their wedding hastily arranged at the winter palace only one week after the funeral nicholas's diary 10 minutes past 12 we began the entrance into the great church where i returned a married man alexandra wrote ominously our marriage seemed to me a mere continuation of the masses for the dead with this difference that now i wore a white dress instead of black official mourning lasted over a year the coronation of the young emperor and his wife now named alexandra did not take place until the year after that uh um the duke of conaut represented his mother queen victoria at the coronation of nicholas in 1896 and this is how he described the remarkable scene to his mother if you can imagine the most magnificent pageant that you've ever seen put on the stage coupled with the most gorgeous religious ceremony you've ever seen then that will give you an idea of nikki and alex's coronation it must have been an extraordinary event queen victoria herself after always hardly a stranger to pageantry and it's interesting because from the moment of his coronation the tsar became god's representative on earth the ceremony endowed him with so responsibility for the fate of his empire no one could take that from him it was an arrangement unknown in the rest of europe yeah you can see the tsar wearing the imperial russian crown at his coronation nicholas like all czars assumed the role of autocrat russia had no parliament or constitution but the absolute power that the 28 year old nicholas had inherited would not protect him from the new world of the 20th century celery dranks of soldiers and a sea of faces there was an even greater crowd waiting at hodinka field on the outskirts of moscow waiting for the traditional coronation gifts of mugs and sweet meats in the stampede that followed 1300 people were crushed to death czar's diary may the 18th 1896 today a great sin occurred the crowd waiting for food and mugs put pressure on the structures and there was a horrendous crush i must add terribly about 1300 people were trampled an acquaintance of mine told me that he had been there when he was 12 years old and they'd had to pull him out of the crowd he'd literally had to walk on people's heads the tragedy was compounded when the tsarans arena attended a sumptuous ball in their honor at the french embassy the same night they'd been recommended to go by family members who were more concerned about russia's ally france than the disaster trading this poor advice made the newly crowned couple very unpopular it was a difficult piece of protocol but the advice was surely wrong i said there was a little shell what made the adults in my family particularly indignant was that instead of announcing a period of mourning nicholas and his wife didn't cancel the ball they were to go to that day the unclaimed and unrecognizable bodies were buried in a mass grave ordinary russians took the tragedy as an omen that the new rain would end unhappily immediately after the coronation nicholas and alexandra toured europe first they visited balmoral where alexandra had a joyful reunion with queen victoria her grandmother but alexander found that in her new country the husband she loved was worshipped as a living god postcards of the day depicted nicholas as a divine figure no other monarch in europe was seen like that if i could just drove by i think he had a reddish beard all his life nicholas believed that azar he had a mystical link with his people he saw himself as their protector and savior in reality there was a huge gulf between him and them the tsar was not much closer to the court in saint petersburg his wife the new empress spoke very little of her new language she found the sophistication and scandal of russian court life a great strain my mother happened to be made of honor she was always struck by how shall the empress was and how she was covered with red sort of blotches of of redness on her face when she spoke to people when there was some theatrical performance the empress during the intervals sat with her friend in front of her face she literally didn't want you it would never have occurred to her to go out and talk to people she didn't even want to be seen the imperial couple withdrew from the russian court secluding themselves at zaraskoya cello their new home outside saint petersburg isolated and unpopular with high society alexandra was sustained by her passionate love for nicholas and their fast developing family of beautiful girls 3rd of november 1895 a day i'll always remember at exactly nine o'clock we heard a baby squawk we named her olga 29th of may 1897 second happiest day at 10 am the lord blessed us with a little girl tatiana in 1899 their third daughter maria was born and in 1901 a fourth daughter anastasia the daughters could not succeed to the throne in order to secure the romanoff line the imperial family needed a son in july 1904 the long-awaited heir to the throne alex a was born but this happy event was to have tragic consequences for the house of romanov the tsar's palace alexandria was neighboring our palace of zlam and kaneer peterhof which is the outskirts of petersburg and it's all said well the baby is all right fine beautiful there's a problem of bleeding at the navel and at that moment grandmother told me i knew then that he had hemophilia but i'm absolutely certain said my grandmother that that son did not know hemophilia threatened the life of the young heir to the russian throne a fall could kill him internal bleeding could bring terrible pain hemophilia is not a problem that we worry about any longer in my family although it certainly used to be it was queen victoria after all who transmitted it to her son prince leopold and later daughters of queen victoria passed the disease down to the russian family and thence to the young elixir not surprisingly alexandra the carrier of the disease was devastated alexandra to nicolas september 15 1904 forgive me those horrid tears won't keep back at what anguish it was not to let others see the knife digging in one thank god he is so well now in 1897 there was a census in russia the tsar like every other citizen filled in the form and when it came to describing his occupation he wrote and for his wife which means master and mysteries of the russian land and that says a lot about the system there were no constitutional or legal restraints on the power of the tsar his rule was absolute the autocratic system worked like this from his study in the winter palace the tsar had all the responsibility of a full-time head of state but was ill prepared for the task of governing and unwilling to trust others at times he did not even have a personal secretary the obsolete bureaucracy made his huge task impossible an autocrat was expected to run the country down to the tiniest detail the tsar would even spend time granting a divorce or a change of name to the humblest peasant to his most supreme most sovereign majesty emperor nicholas most merciful autocrat of all the russians a petition for divorce some time after our wedding my wife started leading a debauched life 12 years ago she got syphilis my name's fenin meaning pig is a source of constant undeserved jokes and insults thereby an obstacle to getting married so what was russia like at the turn of the century agriculture was the backbone of the tsarist economy peasants had been freed by nicholas's grandfather but they did not yet own all the land they worked their expectations were bitterly frustrated under nicholas's father factories had been built and cities were becoming industrialized but workers had no control over conditions so revolutionary theories made headway among an urban population with no rights and nowhere to express their grievances away from his family nicholas was happiest when he was with his immense armies previous tsars had been remarkably successful in extending the frontiers of the empire now nicholas was determined to defend his realm against internal threat this role was very much impressed on young recruits at propaganda classes the united states why does russia need an army as 90 of our platoon were illiterate we had to learn by heart to come out against external and internal enemies the socialists are members of the intelligence and cried down here securing his empire was an enormous commitment but nicholas still found time to escape to his wife and children he was very much a family man and they were his overwhelming joy every year the family took an extended cruise in the imperial yacht around the gulf of finland nicholas and alexandra were clearly deeply in love letter number 133 my alexey my beloved sweet wifeykins i love you passionately god bless you and our babies letter 155 my own sweet one how i miss you those orbs lashes where are they to gaze into i love you there were always expeditions and picnics ashore with the ship's company letter nicholas to his mother 1906 in the mornings we go out in the boats with the children how much i enjoy being able to live a little while for myself another letter to his mother picnics were a great success you can judge the gayety that prevailed by the fact that your 43 year old son ran about and took part in games with young sublimes with as much zest as they did themselves i have started bathing the water is only now becoming warm but the delight is complete most of all nicholas and his family liked to spend time at their favorite palace levadia on the black sea it was miles away from government and dangerous revolutionaries in saint petersburg and the family felt that here they could meet their subjects nicholas felt more comfortable with religious ritual than with politics at easter when all men were deemed equal he diligently kissed each soldier from his cossack regiments at lavadia easter monday the main easter greeting began at 2pm in the courtyard 920 men it ended at 3 p.m the mistress of russia was not above serving behind a stall whose proceeds went to help tb sufferers the empress asked my grandmother what would you like my grandmother replied i should be grateful for whatever your majesty gives me the empress as he had the cause of alexei's ill health hemophilia was a state secret a sailor derevyenko had the permanent task of watching over him at any moment he could fall and start bleeding through injury he looked after him very carefully like a flower they never took their eyes off him we were frightened that we'd push him or injure him that he'd fall and we'd have hurt him sometimes alexa was well and insisted on playing like a normal child even then divineko would put down a carpet of hay to catch the zaryaevich when he fell they event his name was he remember his name and he took part in everything and the boy that adult him really loved him he enjoyed his company i think was in many other friends the imperial household knew little about hemophilia and alexei was continually bruising himself for ten years the sailor debienko carried him when he was in pain only to betray him cruelly and desert him when the bolsheviks came to power in 1917 another sailor nagorney took over the task when the imperial family were interned he was shot for that a few days before alexei's own execution in january 1905 the winter palace was the focus for an event that changed the way people thought about the czar the day would become known as bloody sunday a peaceful demonstration of factory workers with women and children had set out for the palace to appeal to the czar their petition begged him to grant civil rights nicholas had decided that it was better not to be in the palace that day the army had no training in crowd control panicked and opened fire killing over a hundred people there is no film of the awful event but this is how soviet filmmakers reconstructed the shooting afterwards necklaces diary 9th of january 1905 a difficult day the troops had to fire and in various places in the city many were killed and injured lord it is so painful and hard blood was answered with blood shortly afterwards grand duke serge the husband of ella alexandra's sister was assassinated by a bomb outside their palace in moscow the event seemed to confirm the family's mystical beliefs two years earlier a nun had predicted sergi's death they went to visit a very very old nun who lived in a shabby shack in the wood and that old nun suddenly pointed her finger at him and said you there with a small head you have little to laugh because your head will go crack she said she made the gesture like that and two years later a bomb was slammed with him and practically nothing of the ganjuk's head was ever found as an act of mourning ella took up holy orders for the rest of her life in july 1918 on the same night that the imperial family were executed ello was thrown headlong down a mine shaft by bolsheviks as a result of bloody sunday an unprecedented number of strikes paralyzed russia street demonstrations struck at the heart of autocratic when we government at our estate in the summer of 1905 we discovered peasants not only on the boundaries but even in the park itself and they didn't take their hats off to us at one meeting the speaker said comrades in our lifetime we'll live to see these things the tsar was persuaded to do something an elected assembly was summoned and although the czar retained key functions like control of the army power in russia was no longer in the hands of one man but the violence still did not stop revolutionary councils known as soviets made a brief appearance in moscow and other cities armed uprisings were ruthlessly put down by the authorities the revolutionaries often students fed off the excesses of the secret police operating here in saint petersburg this organization refined by nicholas's father infiltrated the revolutionary movement one in 10 students was said to be an informer the authorities clamped down on the unrest agitators were exiled to bleaker corners of the empire others were executed in january 1906 almost 400 people were executed some around the tsar thought he was being too lenient your grandmother commented that the tsar wasn't hard enough on revolutionaries she did tell me that she thought that tsar was too lenient sending people to siberia was practically given a passport for freedom so grandmother in fact being a montenegran where well one is used to tougher ways of dealing with those who misbehave felt that those who were murderers should be should suffer capital punishment and the cell wouldn't do it not often enough according to grandmother underground magazine circulated pictures of the tsar surrounded by a sea of skulls the same cartoons predicted his demise radicals referred to the czar as nicholas the bloody the first cracks were beginning to appear in the imperial edifice within the imperial family itself was a secret helping to bring down the house of romanov the hemophilia of alexei the heir to the throne the constant threat to his life put strain on the judgment of both parents this bearing of cures from doctors his mother's religious fervor became extreme her bedroom contained 800 icons beyond the health of her son little else appeared to matter at alexander's instigation a cathedral was built on the grounds at sarcoia cello there she prayed to god for help so tsar's diary november the 1st 1905. we've got to know man of god gregory alexandra's prayers were answered through grigori rasputin thought to be a holy man with mysterious healing powers he was introduced into the household to help the sick alexei rasputin's strange powers probably came down to his ability to relax and reduce the level of stress in those around him on one occasion he appeared to heal the boy when he was ill simply by sending a telegram god has gazed on your tears and accepted your prayers be not sad your son will live the tsar's sister witnessed the effect of rasputin's presence i could not believe my eyes rasputin had not even touched the child but merely stood at the foot of bed and prayed soon rasputin became a confidant of alexandra she relied on him when alexei was ill their mother for her life has been blamed she and her sister for having introduced her as food into the czar but they didn't introduce a corrupt monk they introduced a simple peasant from beyond the mountains who spoke plain language to the powerful at his house in saint petersburg rasputin used a direct approach in his dealings with women too away from the imperial family he embarked on wild orgies the saint petersburg secret police kept regular watch on his apartment and recorded this january the 29th maria gill the wife of a captain in the 145th regiment slept at rasputin's about 1am rasputin brought an unknown woman to the house she spent the night with him but over the actress slept at rasputins changing character rasputin would hurry to this house at the gates of the palace at tsarskoya cello when summoned by the empress rumors largely unfounded that rasputin was having affairs within the court even with alexandra began to circulate around saint petersburg importantly rasputin because of his healing powers began to have increasing influence on alexandre and through her the czar few people saw nicholas any longer as a benign father czar a confused public unaware of the seriousness of the heirs illness simply couldn't understand the importance of rasputin to the tsar and zarina order had been restored in the wake of 1905 but much of the frustration that had provoked the turmoil had not been properly addressed the ground was fertile for revolution in 1913 a group of professional revolutionaries swore an oath at baku sentencing the czar to death mikhail medvedev's father was one of the authors of the proclamation five years later his father would kill the czar and his family in this proclamation the baku revolutionaries concluded that the romanov dynasty the outbreak of the first world war and a wave of patriotism which began at the winter palace saved the troubled imperial family for the time being nicholas's diary july 1914 a good day in the sense of an upsurge of spirit direct to the winter palace signed the declaration of war from the malachite room we went into saint george's hall the entire hall sang save us lord and many years then we went out onto the balcony in alexander square and bowed to the enormous mass of people the disastrous conduct of the war would mean that within three years the divine ruler of russia would be forced to abdicate a revolution would begin that would alter the course of world history with the imperial family murdered and the dynasty destroyed in 1913 nicholas and alexandra celebrated 300 years of czarist rule by the house of romanov it was a triumphant anniversary the romanovs it seemed would reign in russia forever how strange it is to think that after this extraordinary outpouring of support and affection for the couple the romanov dynasty had only five years to run all through the celebrations a cossack soldier carried alexey the heir to the throne who was ill with hemophilia a four-month tour of russia began with a tumultuous welcome for the imperial family at the river town of birthplace of the romanov dynasty my father was weeping like everyone around us everyone was so moved he said to me look here is our here is our zarina here is our air our future the four daughters of the imperial couple were also at the celebrations suddenly grown into beautiful young women what struck me was their wonderful big hats with ostrich feathers which fluttered as they bowed to the people there was a giant standing there or so it seemed to me holding the air to the throne alex day in a sailor's uniform the first world war really triggered the downfall of the romanov dynasty in 1914 russia had the mightiest army in the world but it was ill-prepared for the bloody battles that play ahead laid them under and another soldier was boarding a train for the war also leaving behind an anxious wife letter alexandra to nicholas september 20th 1914 oh my love it was hard bidding you goodbye and seeing that lonely pale face with big sad eyes at the wagon window my heart cried out take me with you by 1914 alexandra the empress had aged visibly from the shy young bride of 20 years earlier the ever-present threat to her son's life hemophilia had broken her physically and emotionally with the outbreak of war the empress established a hospital at the palace at sarskoya cello alexandra and her two eldest daughters olga and tatyana trained as nurses and threw themselves into the war effort letters alexandra to nicholas november 20th 1914. this morning we were present at our first big amputation her arm was cut off i washed and cleaned and painted with iodine and smeared with vaseline and bandaged all up november 25th 1914 during an operation a soldier died we all behaved well none lost their heads and the girlies were brave they had never seen a death he died in a minute how near death always is it was while they were nursing at the hospital that both olga and tatyana fell in love with the wounded young officer dimitri malamar they loved him they thought of him as one of their own being in hospital brought them particularly close the empress wrote to the tsar about dimitri says that one must say what a nice son-in-law he would make foreign in the first five months of the war the russian army lost one million men killed wounded taken prisoner in 1915 a disaster shortage of munitions led to crushing defeats the germans would be shooting at us and our artillery would just stand there in silence nicholas decided to take charge he appointed himself commander in chief of the russian army and moved to the front to boost morale the tsar took a risk with alexei's health and brought him to headquarters soon the heir to the throne was seen everywhere but the tsar was unwilling to delegate the running of the country to independent-minded ministers fatally he asked his wife alexandra to help him nicholas to alexandra will you not come to the assistance of your happy now that he is absent these are postcards from alexa at the front to his mother third of november 1916 it's time i was sent my pay i beseech you and he signs it loving and loved your corporal alexey romanov and in december of that year he begins to write as if he was embarrassed which roughly translates off noshing and then to the flicks alex alexa provided a distraction for the exhausted tsar i got the impression that the tsar's face was full of suffering it was so yellow tortured nicholas wrote in a letter to alexandra he brings much light into my life here in another letter to alexandra i say prayers with him every night he says his prayers too fast and it's difficult to stop him i read your letters aloud to him he listens lying in bed and kisses your signature inevitably alexa fell ill the emperor of all russia responsible for his country's fortunes in war was up at night tending a sick boy letter nicholas to alexandra baby has hurt his left arm he slept very restlessly kept on sitting up in bed groaning calling for you and talking to me this went on till 4am and in another letter the little one is suffering from a strained vein in the upper part of his right leg during the night he kept on waking and groaned in his sleep desperate letters came back from alexandra take care of baby's arm don't let him run about in the train so as not to knock his arms finally for his own safety the heir to the throne was sent home far from the palace the czar received letters from his wife on how to run the country determined to help nicholas preserve the autocracy for their son alexa zarina was forcing disastrous advice on the she relied on the word of rasputin who was there at the palace to heal her sick son a bewildering series of ministers came and went letter from alexandra to nicholas on whether ivan goriemenkin should be replaced as prime minister our friend rasputin has told me to wait about the old man coram wickham until he seems fussed off on thursday tomorrow grigori sees old fast off then i see him in the evening rasputin didn't like kvastoff and he wasn't appointed prime minister next boris sturmer became a candidate stormer would do he very much values grigori so boris sturmer became prime minister forgive me but i don't like the choice of minister of war polyvanov is he not our friend's enemy paul ivanov lost his job everyone in the palace was afraid of rasputin when he came everyone bowed to him they were scared to say the wrong thing on rasputin's advice alexandra began to intervene in the running of the war she suggested that the russian army's victorious assault through the carpathian mountains in 1916 be halted letter alexandra to nicholas august 8 1916 our friend hopes we won't climb over the carpathians and tried to take them but the attack still went ahead a further letter from alexandra to nicholas september 25th oh give your order again stop this useless slaughter your plan so wise was approved by our friend so the advance was stopped letters came from the front my father wrote about the dejected mood in the army as civilian government disintegrated bread and fuel ran short frustrated hungry people lashed out at the authorities especially alexandra it didn't help that she had been born in germany in 1916 when i was chewing for bread as a boy the person most under attack was alexandra fiona who was more or less accused of spying they use all kinds of obscenities the empress was simply called a prostitute people loved her she thought she always produced and spoke of the thousands of letters from well-wishers from all of russia which arrived at the palace sadly it was the minister of interior inept proto-popov who organized the police throughout the empire to have letters sent to the employees in the last days of 1916 there was a plot inside imperial circles to save russia prince yusupov one of the richest men in the country together with nicholas's cousin grand duke dimitri planned to murder rasputin rasputin was lured at night to the yusupov palace and given poison then an attempt was made to shoot him but rasputin still wasn't finished he managed to run out into the courtyard he was shot again then he was thrown into the freezing river alexandra letter to nicholas you can imagine our feelings our friend has disappeared we had a government called el prison she had to take these children every morning to that day soon when they came to a bridge over the canal she saw groups of people standing near a bridge and she saw a long black body the body of rasputin who had just been fished out of the canal the killing of rasputin solved nothing in st petersburg there was no bread or fuel spontaneous disturbances broke out in february 1917 lenin and other bolshevik leaders weren't even in the country people came into the streets shouting down with the german woman 500 miles away at military headquarters on his train the tsar was unaware of the seriousness of the situation on february 24th alexandra wrote desperately to nicholas strikes now in petrograd 80 000 workers have struck lines of the hungry have formed outside the bakeries on the same day nicholas was innocently writing back to his wife and so we have three children with measles the rooms at zasco cielo must be disinfected the undignified treatment was to shave the patient's head alexandra's letter to nicholas the next day my precious beloved treasure the city's strikes and riots are more than provoking at the same time the tsar was writing sunday february 28th mass at 10 am the day was clear and frosty in the evening played dominoes the next day nicholas received a frantic telegram from alexandra concessions inevitable street fighting continues many units gone over to the enemy alex only now did the tsar fully realize how grave things were he attempted to move his train back to st petersburg to take control but the train had to be diverted because mutinous soldiers blocked the line in just three days the entire imperial government had collapsed power transferred to the provisional government and a soviet made up of workers and soldiers deputies the tsar's train pulled into this station at piscoff 200 miles from saint petersburg the tsar found there a demand from the provisional government for his abdication it had been endorsed by his own generals no film cameras were present at the crucial event this is how it was reconstructed later the silly shulgin had been sent by the provisional government to accept the tsar's abdication his accent betrayed his nervousness i have decided to abdicate from the throne until three o'clock i had decided to abdicate in favor of my son alexey i have changed my decision i hope you will understand the feelings of the father nicholas wrote in his diary that night march the 2nd 1917 my abdication is necessary to save russia and keep the army at the front calm i agreed alexandra virtually a prisoner in sarskoya cello was still sending desperate letters and telegrams to verify the rumors from piscoff clearly they don't want to let you see me so above all you must not sign any paper constitution or other such horror you are without your army caught like a mouse in a trap after his abdication when the tsar's train finally arrived back at sarskoya cello nicholas was under arrest most of his staff fled the train at his palace nicholas romanov the ex-czar found the gates locked he had to ask for entry no film cameras were present for this but these reconstructions were all shot at their correct locations for the next six months the imperial family and almost a hundred advisers and servants were interned at the palace officially it was to protect the tsar and his family from revolutionaries who wanted a trial or worse one day we were walking past the alexander palace it was march but there was a lot of snow and you could see four or five people there one of them was dressed in khaki and he was shoveling snow away from the footpath i said my government what is the chart doing troubling snow ah she said he has been deposed it's a revolution you know it was so extraordinary the world was upside down march the 10th 1917 enjoyed working in the snow the weather was sunny the life the ex-imperial family now led had an unreal quality revolutionary guards sealed the palace and prevented news reaching them of debates raging in nearby saint petersburg about their future citizen romanov was head of a family suddenly doing mundane things the daughters their heads shaved after their attack of measles posed with guards as always they took photographs of each other even in captivity april the 1st yesterday we parted with 46 of our servants who at last were allowed to leave the alexander palace and go back to their families april 28th 1917 got to work creating a kitchen garden tatiana is carrying pete with one of the guards who's decided to work with us may the 13th a sunny day with a cool breeze the afternoon worked well in the garden july the 7th in the evening i glued the photographs of our life under arrest into my album there was a ray of hope on march 23rd nicholas wrote in his diary i have sorted out my things and books and have started to put aside everything i would like to take with me if i shall have to go to england it's known that various options were discussed about ways of rescuing the family from russia and arranging for them to live in various other countries including england the archives and the public records office here at queue contain correspondence on the subject moderates in the provisional government were desperately looking for ways to send the imperial family abroad they sent a secret message to britain to george v asking him to take the family concerned about his cousin nicholas george fifth sent back this secret reply to meet the request made by the russian government the king and his majesty's government readily offer asylum to the emperor and empress in england on april 6th there was an about face king george's private secretary lord stamfordham wrote two urgent letters to the foreign office the residents in this country of the ex-emperor and empress would be strongly resented by the public and would undoubtedly compromise the position of the king and queen we must be allowed to withdraw from the consent previously given king george was apparently concerned about hostility expressed by labour party supporters towards the autocratic czar and feared that the revolution might spread to britain was the king's decision to reject his cousin based on duty to his country or fear for his own position it's difficult to criticize a man who has to put what he sees as his duty to his country ahead of his family feelings it's very difficult and i i would not dare to to express the judgment but anyway it's immaterial that i would have never left russia first of all because his children were sick second because even if they were not sick he was against abandoning the ship and third because i don't think they would have let him safely through it was left to the prime minister lloyd george to signal back to his ambassador in russia the emperor should go to france when he's allowed to leave russia but there was no escape no exile abroad to freedom the imperial palaces at sarcoia cello were closed their treasures packed and stored the imperial family was moved for its own safety in the summer of 1917 the family together with 36 retainers was moved east by train under guard then by steamer to the river town of tobolsk in siberia for the next eight months nicholas and his family would be imprisoned in the governor's house in tobolsk tsar's diary august the 13th went to our new lodgings with the children we've taken the first floor i put my things in the study and dressing room which i'm sharing with alexei i knew that the tsar would come out of the governor's house and go into the fenced-off garden and so i ran to have a look at him he came out to cut firewood they were sawing the logs with an ordinary two-man sword nicholas's diary february 27 1918 we have to cut down substantially on our expenses for food and servants february the 28th we have to part with many of the household because we cannot afford to support all of those who are staying with us in tobolsk lunch menu soup cold macedoine of vegetables baked potato macaroni cheese apple tart the governor's house had been renamed freedom house revolutionary demonstrations made a point of marching past the family's prison and in moscow the provisional government had been outwitted by the bolshevik party of lenin their ruthlessness would seal the fate of the imperial family lenin's deputy sverdloff sent an experienced revolutionary vassily yakovlev to bring the czar to moscow to face possible trial yakovla's daughter on her father's description of nicholas's refusal to go to moscow nicholas said me where i shan't go yeah i've noticed that they've been but on its way to the capitol the train was diverted to ekaterinburg by the fiercely revolutionary euro soviet the euro bolshevik saw no reason to take orders from moscow maria one of the daughters had accompanied her parents leaving the other girls in tobolsk to look after the sick alexa if an armed brigade was brought there especially and my uncle was one of them a lot of undesirable people turned up they were frightened that something might happen they were imprisoned in a house owned by the merchant patief referred to as the house of special purpose by the bolshevik leaders nicholas meticulously recorded in his diary april the 30th 1918 we've been assigned four large rooms a very high wooden fence has been built around the house only the cross above the bell tower is visible from the rooms what nicholas couldn't see was the machine gun just below the cross in the belfry tower pointing at his window the brigade that guarded nicholas ii were living at the padilla's house my uncle guarded the fenced off house on certain days the guard was controlled by a sinister group of men stationed at the american hotel near the apatif house fanatical revolutionaries had assembled here to decide the fate of the romanovs men like the military commissar for the whole euros region philippe golashakin and two from the newly formed bolshevik secret police that check local man peter ermakov and the czech leader himself yaakov yurovsky by mid-may alexa and the three remaining daughters had been brought from tubolsk alexey was ill and the sailor nagorney was looking after him zara's diary may the 26th we slept well except alexey whose pains continued a dark gentleman came who we identified as a doctor that dark gentleman was yakov yourofsky the checker leader may the 27th after teen agorny was called for questioning of the district soviet the imperial family staff was now tiny anna demidova a maid alexei trump the footman a family doctor yvonne cartinova the cook and a young kitchen boy milk was delivered daily to the tsar and his family this letter was found by the tsar himself in one of the milk bottles it purported to have been written by one of a group of officers loyal to him who was offering to rescue him and his family he writes in french one of your windows will have to be unsealed so that you can open it please indicate to me precisely which window and the letter was signed an officer and nicholas unsuspectingly writes his reply on the back of the same letter also in french second window from the corner of the square has been open for two days there are 13 men armed with rifles revolvers and bombs opposite our window in a house on the other side of the street is a detachment of fifty men nicholas's diary june the 27th spent an uneasy night and kept vigil fully dressed all this because we've received two letters telling us to prepare to be abducted by some loyal people the days have passed though and nothing has happened what the xr didn't know was that jakov yourofsky the head of the secret police was reading his diary every night and it was the secret police that had written the rescue letter from the american hotel the bolsheviks were luring the imperial family with a fake escape plot in july the military commissar suddenly journeyed to moscow the escape plot would be used as a pretext for executing the prisoners july the 4th today there was a change of commandant during dinner we were told that instead of avdayev they were appointing the man we took for a doctor yurovsky evdeaf had suddenly been removed from his job commanding the guard at the patief house yourofsky believed he had spent too long fraternizing with the prisoners events were coming to a head the military commissar was back from moscow with an agreement at a secret meeting of checker and senior bolsheviks here in the american hotel a decree was passed to execute the romanovs yurovsky head of the checker would take charge and organize this on the next day nicholas rode in his diary july the 13th alexei took his first bath since tobolsk his knee is improving we have no news from the outside that was the tsar's last entry nicholas wrote no more words in his diary three days later events resolved themselves white russian troops were close to taking a caterinburg that would be used to justify carrying out the decree yourofsky had turned his attention to the cellar area of the apatif house two floors up during the afternoon alexandra wrote the last page of her diary july 16th baby has a slight cold olga and i arranged our medicines medicines was a code word for jewelry the daughters had been sowing diamonds and precious stones into their bodices for some time in case the promised liberation never came during the late afternoon yurovsky had assembled his team of cheka men together with air markov and selected soldiers they inspected their pistols it had been agreed that the young kitchen boy would be spared one of the guns used that day has been found now 75 years later it is being tested by the prosecutor investigating the crime this gun belonged to yeremikov one of the murderers of the tsar still needed final confirmation from moscow before the executions could be carried out on july the 16th at 9 29 in the evening this disturbing telegram was sent from yekaterinburg to sweden kremlin moscow copy to lenin due to military situation the trial agreed upon cannot be delayed we cannot wait if your opinion is different let gonna shock him no urgently the word trial was code for execution and this is the last page of the serena's diary and she writes eight o'clock supper suddenly and this is the name of the kitchen boy suddenly the boy was fetched to go and see his uncle and flew off wonder whether it's true and we should see the boy back again the thing is that only a few days earlier nagorney had disappeared for questioning and he hadn't reappeared and then she writes at the end here to help us turn to bed at one am the imperial family was awakened and asked to dress yourofsky told them they were in danger of attack for their own safety they should go to the cellar there were 11 of them seven members of the tsar's family and four retainers oh uh but they're too late and we are now obliged the bullets bounced off the corset stuffed with diamonds so the four daughters were horribly killed with bayonets at the end alexei was still alive he was dispatched by yourofsky with three bullets at close range on the afternoon following the assassination this telegram was sent to svetlov in moscow in view of the discovery of the white guard plot to kidnap the former tsar stop nicolas romanov was executed stop his family was evacuated to a safe place stop three days after the execution white russian troops recaptured ekaterinburg an investigator nicolas sokoloff began looking for the remains of the imperial family at the apatif house he and the cellar he found bullet marks against the wall but no bodies eyewitnesses had seen a truck moving out of a cotterenburg in the early hours of the morning it was assumed the corpses were on it circular photographed the tracks of a truck in a forest ten miles away next circle found personal objects in the remains of a bonfire at a nearby mine shaft but there were no bodies sokolov had drawn a blank the whereabouts of the seven bodies of the imperial family and their foreservants would haunt the russian people for the rest of the century 75 years later russian state prosecutor vladimir soloviev following in the footsteps of nicholas sokoloff has the task of piecing together what happened to the remains of the imperial family tragic allegedly belonging to the empress he had failed to investigate some mysterious timbers laid by the bolsheviks a mile away in the forest events now overtook sokolov's investigation the bolsheviks retook ekaterinburg and sokolov had to flee the apatiff house was renamed the house of the people's revenge visiting communist delegations delighted in being photographed against the bullet marks in the cellar the bodies were not found in the 1970s a group of geologists led by this man began surveying the forest outside ekaterinburg in great secrecy they used classified copies of party documents including the memoirs of yaakov yurovsky who had organized the executions this is the place where bolsheviks led by trying completely stripped of their clothing were thrown into the mind the water barely covered them clearly the corpses had to be moved to a different place we are now coming to the most important part midnight i decided to bury the corpses here this was the final grave jarofsky and his men were desperate they had been trying to hide the corpses for more than 36 hours white russian troops were closing in pots of sulfuric acid were brought and opened with gunfire in a further attempt to disfigure the corpses we put sleepers here to make a wooden platform in the had 1920s to the site for a boastful photograph so it was necessary to look for the sleepers we tried to find them using a special tool like a corkscrew we looked for acid concentrations as we knew that acid had been used in the process of hiding the remains after three years of searching avdonian's team discovered the sleepers or timbers in an area near the railroad they had sunk almost eight inches below the surface we only needed three hours to open it up and find human remains underneath we agreed to pass the secret on to the next generation immediately after the discovery i was very ill to keep that secret for 10 years was really frightening it was like a weight on one you couldn't share it with anyone because it was very dangerous in 1989 in the new era of gorbachev avdonian's group was able to reveal to the authorities and the world that they knew the burial place scientists are still excavating the site it is now flooded these are the remains of nicholas ii these are the bones of grand duchess tatiana and these are the most contentious they might be those of either grand duchess anastasia or of maria this is the skeleton of alexandria nine bodies were found in the grave four were those of the family retainers russian scientists conclude the two missing skeletons are those of alexa and maria but the search continues for traces of a fire near the final gravesite there was absolutely no opportunity for alex say or anastasia to survive the clean the mystery of the two missing skeletons in this pit becomes clear on reading his notes he writes that when they began to dig the grave as they died we built a in 1899 nicholas's younger brother grand duke george had died of tuberculosis he was buried in the peter and paul cathedral in saint petersburg nicholas wrote in his diary july the 10th 1899 see one's brother arrive in a coffin is a horrid idea we must as usual carry our cross patiently as jesus christ bids us but sometimes it is overwhelmingly hard today nearly a century later the remains of grand duke george are being exhumed at the cathedral it's to help scientists authenticate the bones of his brother nicholas murdered in nikaterenburg the state prosecutor in charge the official investigator into the murder is vladimir solofia the most important question we have to answer is whether the bodies found in yekaterinburg really are those of the tsar and his family oh dna tests have proven conclusively that the remains found were indeed those of nicholas alexandra and three of their daughters including anastasia so after all these years they will finally join the other romanoff monarchs lying in eternal rest in saint petersburg

Channel: Hielan Yorkie

Views: 255,791

Keywords: Tsar Nicholas II, Imperial Russia, Romanov, Nicholas II Of Russia (Saint)

Id: zC4f8qy4fAg

Length: 91min 44sec (5504 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 05 2014