Romanovs: Imprisoned, Murdered, Exhumed | A Shocking Story of Tragedy and Death

[Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] a provisional government seized power in march 1917. revolutionary councils known as soviets which were formed in the main cities called for the imperial family's arrest nicholas ii henceforth nikolai alexandrovich romanov and his family were detained at their summer palace in sarcois he thought that following his abdication he'd be able to live in crimea like any ordinary citizen that was his first proposal later in agreement with the provisional government it was planned he and his family would leave russia discussions were held with great britain but unfortunately it finally decided against helping nicholas the second [Music] in fact it was nicholas's own first cousin king george v of england who rejected the russian government's official request he feared his support for a deposed emperor would weaken the british monarchy all the more so because strikes and social movements were gaining ground in england thanks to the impact of the russian revolution on left-wing political circles other european countries including france also refused for various reasons to offer asylum to the romanovs who found themselves at the mercy of an ever more radical revolution nicholas's abdication only calmed the situation momentarily demonstrations soon spread calls for democracy were replaced by bolshevik slogans the troops refused to continue a war begun by a man they now referred to as the tyrant the soviets called for nicholas ii execution the minister of justice alexandre kerensky refused their demands he replied bombastically that he did not wish to be the maha of the russian revolution a radical socialist he became prime minister and minister of war in july he felt sympathetic towards the imperial family and decided it was no longer safe for them to remain so close to petrograd the soviets had blockaded the railway and so he chose to exile the family to tobolsk a peaceful siberian town far away from the revolutionary madness the family left sarcoiselo during the night of august 1 1917 and after six days journey arrived in tobolsk by boat [Music] they moved into the town governor's house once a day the romanovs were allowed to take a stroll in the courtyard that was surrounded by a high fence their domestic staff was reduced to the minimum they had no more money the inhabitants of tobolsk who still thought of nicholas ii as tsar provided the family with milk eggs and fruit the romanovs spent their time reading and writing [Music] although vladimir ilich lenin doubted the abdication in the february revolution would have any lasting effects he left his place of exile his journey from switzerland was arranged by the germans who are counting on lenin and bolshevik propaganda to put a stop to the war [Music] what really is it's a spread the revolution in russia [Music] 1917. the provisional government was powerless to prevent the coup d'etat even though he did not have the full support of the people [Music] conservatives and socialists tried to organize the opposition in order to regain control the bolsheviks formed their red army mobilizing it a few months later in order to supply much needed food to the major cities the new regime's secret police or chika forcibly confiscated the peasants hidden wheat supplies [Music] a few months earlier laning and the bolshevik party had seized power in the name of these peasants who soon became the victims of the new regime from 1918 onwards the bolsheviks chose terror as their preferred method of government they hounded any individual considered likely to turn against them and so began a wave of mass arrests and summary executions the prisons filled up the first gulags were built whole train loads of people were sent north [Music] [Applause] [Music] me nicholas ii situation became increasingly precarious the commissar of war leon trotsky who was a far more popular figure than lenin called for the bloody tyrants trial in 1918 inspired by the french revolution of 1789 he intended to stage a spectacular trial with himself as public prosecutor which would put an end to any remaining support for the monarchy in russia he knew such a trial would have significant repercussions particularly since the bolsheviks had begun a nationwide campaign to destroy the symbols of the former regime [Music] trotsky sent a regiment of czechist to tobolsk led by the revolutionary vasiliyakovlith who carried a warrant signed by lenin their mission was to bring nicholas back to moscow but the soviet of yekaterinenborg capital of the euros wanted nicholas to be tried in siberia it hijacked yakulis's train on hearing the train's destination had been changed nicholas declared i'll go anywhere except the euros he felt fear for the first time the romanovs arrived in yekaterinburg on april 30th 1918. the conditions of their imprisonment confirmed their worst fears held in the home of a local merchant called ipatieff they suffered at the hands of their guards who allowed them no privacy covered the walls with obscenities repeatedly searched the rooms and stole everything they could [Music] nicholas drew the layout of the apartment in his diary they had never lived in such close quarters before the four grand duchesses shared one room and nicholas and alexandra shared theirs with a legacy at the beginning of july the euro soviet appointed a new chief of detachment jacob yourofsky a bolshevik and member of the chekha he was responsible for guarding ipatiev's house [Music] as the noose tightened around the imperial family the bolshevik situation also worsened thanks to foreign aid the counter-revolutionaries or whites had successfully organized themselves and were now fighting on the northern southern and eastern fronts at omsk where many members of the russian aristocracy had taken refuge an anti-bolshevik coalition formed the provisional government of siberia yekaterinburg which was held by the reds found itself in danger [Music] it was obvious that the whites were heading towards ikaterinenberg nobody knew how much time was left two weeks maybe a month was bound to fall and the question was what should be done with the czar we had no written documents about the discussions but it's thought nicholas second's fate was decided at this point full agreement the regional military commission went to moscow a few days before the execution he stayed lost the two almost certainly broached the subject when discussing capital punishment as one of the powers of the people's courts as the whites approached the outskirts of yekaterinburg the euro soviet took the decision to execute the imperial family it sent a telegram to moscow addressed to lenin and jakov sverdloff the new regime's number two this telegram stated that owing to the military situation the trial could not take place and that the soviet had decided to execute nicholas ii it also requested moscow to inform the soviet immediately if it disagreed with this decision as time was short the telegram was not sent in code the kremlin received it but sent no reply the soviet waited until midnight and then at around 1am the order was given to wake the family and servants [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] this is jakovsky's personal account of the execution [Music] nicholas turned to the commandant and stammered what what the firing began and lasted two or three minutes nicholas was killed instantly followed by alexander fiodorovna and the servants then alexey three of his sisters were still alive something had made the bullets ricochet and fly around the room it took almost 20 minutes to complete the task when we undressed the corpses we discovered that the sisters had been wearing garments full of jewels that had not been pierced by the bullets [Music] the next morning the leaders of the ural soviet sent a coded telegram to lenin confirming the execution moscow announced nicholas's death in the press adding that his family had been evacuated lenin and sverdloff were kept constantly informed of events in yakatelinenborg but they chose to leave no trace of their decisions this policy of leaving things unsaid soon became part and parcel of the soviet system after i can recall my grandmother leaning on a windowsill with her eyes closed she remembered the death of nicholas and used the tell us how on hearing the news her parents had cried and had locked themselves in their bedroom exactly the same thing was happening again the romanov execution marked the beginning of the new proletarian form of justice at the start of the civil war the whites made considerable advances and recaptured bolshevik occupied cities where they discovered the victims of the great red terror they showed no mercy themselves atrocities were committed on both sides [Music] the whites recaptured katarinenburg a week after the imperial family's execution nicholas sokolov a judge during nicholas's reign was ordered to investigate what had happened in the pacific's house he began a thorough inquiry he discovered that the imperial family had indeed been executed on the night of july 17 and that the corpses had been taken out of the city to be incinerated before being totally destroyed by sulfuric acid he didn't have time to complete his inquiry as the red army was approaching yekaterinburg at least not in any direct way [Music] officer and personal adviser to the minister of interior took up sokkalov's investigation 50 years later was a very honest kind-hearted man and above all a real professional but he was a man of a bygone age he belonged to what we in russia call the silver age worked if sokolov did not find the grave it's because he knew nothing about their mentality he was in the right place and yet he didn't find it he would never have imagined men capable of concealing naked corpses under a road i knew they were and that makes all the [Music] difference the romanovs execution was soon forgotten the new leaders focused all their attention on the great famines which had decimated the population the peasants uprisings and the difficulties of building a communist state guided tours of the imperial palaces were organized for the workers and peasants they were known as museums of proletarian vengeance an image of the tauras as drinkers of the people's blood gradually emerged [Music] embodied by the new father of the people joseph viseryanovich stalin the bolshevik dictatorship took root in the former russian empire which became the soviet union [Music] thirty years of purges and communist propaganda created a new people or rather a new [Applause] conformity people like and the geologist alexander f dhonin who still asked questions about the romanov's fate risked being treated as dissidents [Music] the first breakthrough in this veritable police inquiry involved jakov yourofsky the commandant of the patief's house i learned that jarofsky's eldest daughter was still alive that she occasionally visited yekaterinburg and that she lived in leningrad on my return to moscow i got the militia to look for her they located her and i went to see her in leningrad she was a fat old what do you expect me to say nicholas ii was the bloodthirsty man the party gave an order and my father executed it seeing that i was bitterly disappointed she added he said i'm going to offer you the note my father wrote at the time his personal account that is held in the government archives he gave me a copy once i'd read it i knew i'd found the burial place during the night of july 17th the naked corpses of the romanovs and their servants were thrown into a derelict well some 30 kilometers from the town the next morning yurovsky realized that the whole town knew about it so the following night he decided to dig up the corpses and since there wasn't much time ordered his men to hastily bury them under the road his men poured 170 liters of sulphuric acid into the grave before covering it up and camouflaging it with brushwood the secret was kept for 60 years riyabov and avdonin did not find the mass grave until 1979. [Music] exhuming a grave is always heart-wrenching digging up corpses was something i'd already experienced in the militia i have to admit that i did it a couple of times i took a look i thought to myself that's not a bit of metal it's a skeleton ethernet we knew then that if anyone saw us we would be i knew my life was hanging by a thread do you recall the conversation between pontius pilate and christ says to christ your life is hanging by a thread only i didn't know which thread my life was hanging by i was very frightened indeed [Music] did not mention their fine until 1989. in july 1991 an official decision was made to exhume the corpses the imperial family's remains were dug up without the media's knowledge the team consisted of kgb specialists yekaterinburg policemen and a few scientists alexander of donan was also present it took two whole days and nights to remove the bones of the nine skeletons which were half destroyed after almost 80 years in a damp earth such a significant find could not be hidden from the public and when the news broke it caused a wave of protest about the handling of the affair people suspected the kgb of manipulation a judicial inquiry was conducted in order to officially authenticate the [Music] bones [Music] the remains were genetically analyzed four times once in great britain once in the united states in the pentagon laboratory and twice in russia all four analysis came up with the same results the skeletons were those of the imperial family however as two corpses were missing it was necessary to positively identify each of the exhumed skeletons a whole series of special photographic and plastic studies was conducted the institute for space research developed a computer program for matching computer generated images of the skulls with photos of the imperial family the nine skeletons were those of the star nicholas his wife three of their daughters and four of their servants the missing corpses were those of the heir alexei and his sister maria corpse number six was identified as anastasia thus putting pay to another myth about a grand duchess having survived sergey nikitin a specialist from the center of forensic science successfully reconstructed the external features of their heads using the skulls i had a far greater contact with them than any of the other experts here after matching the photos and skulls on the computer i embarked on the very long process of reconstructing the skulls i also had to number all the bones basically i was in very close contact with them for a number of months they compared and examined photographs and films as if they were alive i saw them dancing bathing playing rather than thinking this is skeleton number four and refer to them as nikolai alexandrovich romanov naturally i feel immensely moved by their fate [Music] the remains were exhibited at the regional police center where numerous experts and visitors including the grand duchess leonida were able to see them leonida is the wife of one of nicholas's nephews considered by many russians as the heir to the throne my first visit was an extremely moving experience the bones were in plastic when i returned just recently they'd been moved into glass cases but i still felt sad as there was not a single candle icon or flower i have to say that it was one of the most painful moments in my life i had the impression that they were all looking at me and were searching for some sign an indication that god would welcome them as they deserved to be welcomed [Music] was demolished in 1977 on the orders of boris yeltsin then leader of the catalinburg branch of the communist party however the spot on which it stood had become a place of pilgrimage for the many russians who want to renew ties with their country's pre-revolutionary past and to forge a new identity following the collapse of the soviet regime [Music] 1991 marked a turning point in russia's history the decision was taken to call leningrad by its old name of saint petersburg as heir to the throne the grand duke vladimir kerilovich was officially invited for the occasion it was the first time that a romanoff had stepped foot on russian soil since the october revolution [Music] the grand duke vladimir was so overcome with emotion that just as we were climbing into the plane he turned around made the sign of the cross and said to me [Music] if anything should happen to me have me buried here i have found my true home here this is my homeland [Music] [Music] the grand duke was welcomed with the honor due to his rank although 70 years of communism have not managed to race the memory of the romanov family in people's minds some russians cannot see the point of restoring the monarchy yes traditionally the russian orthodox church has never opposed governmental decisions during the soviet era it was a question of survival today it is a question of having survived nevertheless it is divided over the internment of the romanovs is this due to doubts about the remains identity or because it is wary of becoming too involved in clearing the name of a dynasty it's supported unquestioningly [Laughter] it is important that the internment takes place that it not be a symbolic tomb full of unidentified bones but rather the tomb of the romanovs who were persecuted and tortured to death it's important because a civil war has been raging here in russia ever since july 1917 [Music] who led the red army and certainly knew a thing or two about executions would tremble if he could see russia today above all this internment is important because it will put an end to the savagery it's a form of repentance by the people of russia quite independently of the question of religion or nationality it represents a refusal by the people to accept murder as a principle of existence as an instrument the people must renounce violence in russia the internment of the romanovs also raises the question of lenin's tomb in 1924 the government decided to exhibit his corpse so that each citizen could pay their respects to the leader of the international revolution over the past 74 years more than 70 million people have filed past lenin's mummified corpse [Music] in 1924 the idea behind the mausoleum was to give the population the possibility of paying their last respects to the leader of the international proletariat i don't think people have finished doing this even today [Music] if you had asked me that question a few years ago i would have angrily replied that the mausoleum i now think it is far better to leave lenin where he is lenin is a monument to our unscrupulous barbaric behavior of the past lenin is a monument or rather a symbol of all the base and vile acts we perpetrated we can indeed we must come to terms with the past and keep the symbol as a reminder [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: The Romanov Royal Martyrs

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Rating: 4.8655224 out of 5

Keywords: romanovs, Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia, Royal Family, Romanov execution, Romanov dynasty, Romanov family, Romanoffs, Four sisters, Ekaterinburg, Anastasia Romanov, Alexandra Feodrovna, Royalty, British Royalty, romanov family death, romanov sisters, romanov saints, romanov book, National Geographic, Lenin, Trotsky, Soviet Union, King George V, DNA, Romanov documentary, Russian Civil War, Russian Revolution, vladimir lenin, tsar nicholas ii, otma, tsarevich alexei, rasputin

Id: NEHNpqydBbo

Length: 37min 41sec (2261 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 04 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Mattia_von_Sigmund]

True, that youtube channel is very good at describing this. But tbh im not going to see it in order to not get nightmares