Chapter X: “without Trace”

There has probably not been another instance in the whole history of crime of precautions to escape detection half so elaborate as in the Romanov murder case. All sorts of subterfuges have been tried by lesser criminals with more or less success. Here every ruse was combined. The murderers carried out the following comprehensive programme:--(1) They gave out a false announcement of the “execution”; (2) they destroyed the bodies; (3) they invented a mock funeral; and (4) they staged a mock trial. The thoroughness of their methods reminds one of their masters, the Germans. It is a case of “_spurlos_.” However, in this, as in the other instance, detection followed. The criminal always gives himself away. The very complexity of the Soviet “precautions” proved their undoing.

In vain they drew innumerable herrings of their own colour over the trail, suborning false witnesses to give misleading information about the whereabouts of the bodies, announcing officially that the family had been removed to a “safe place,” etc. Sokolov has run them into the open.

The murder accomplished, all the bodies were carried into the courtyard and placed on the waiting lorry. The corpses were not subjected to a thorough search--as we shall see--because Yurovsky was anxious to get away from the city before daybreak. They were rolled up in old coats and covered with mats to conceal the “cargo” from prying eyes. Yankel Yurovsky, Ermakov, and Vaganov went with them.

As soon as they had gone, Medvedev summoned the Russians to “wash up.” They had not been trusted to do the other work, and Yankel had even deprived them of their revolvers--the “Letts” had their own--perhaps because he did not feel quite sure how they might behave during the murder. Even now, Medvedev, his henchman, called up the Syssert workmen--his own particular friends--to remove the tell-tale traces of the crime. They washed and swabbed the floor and the walls in the death-chamber and in the other rooms through which the bodies had been borne. (So much blood had flowed that the marks of the red-stained swab were distinctly visible a year later when I visited Ipatiev’s house, and experts found unmistakable evidence of its being human blood.) The stones in the courtyard were also scoured.

Meanwhile the lorry, with its tragic burden, was making its way to the appointed place in the woods, a remote corner of some disused iron mines, once the property of Countess Nadezhda Alexeievna Stenbok-Fermor and now of the Verkh-Isetsky Works. This place is situated northeast of the Perm and Ural railway lines, about 11 miles out of the city, near the forest road leading to the village of Koptiaki.

Ermakov (military komisar for the district) placed a cordon of Red Guards all round the wood. During that and the two following days and nights all passage through it was stopped. As will be seen later, this “precaution” defeated its purpose.

Let us return for a few days to Ekaterinburg. Yankel Yurovsky had reappeared in the death-house in the morning of July 17th. None of the Russian guards knew where he had been. Medvedev had heard vaguely that he had “gone to the woods.” At the same time there appeared the reprieved thief Beloborodov and his master, Isai Goloshchekin.

The movables belonging to the murdered family went to satisfy their rapacious instincts. Some of the witnesses describe tables laden with precious stones, jewellry, and all sorts of other articles scattered about the Commandant’s room. Everything had been ransacked, and what was not found to be worth keeping was thrown away or destroyed in the fireplaces, which were blazing despite the summer heat.

Yurovsky and Goloshchekin travelled by motor-car to the woods on the 17th, 18th, and 19th, remaining for many hours--in fact whole days--at the iron pits. But all this time the sentries were on duty outside the death-house as if nothing had

SHOWING ROAD BY WHICH THE BODIES OF MEMBERS OF THE IMPERIAL FAMILY
WERE CARRIED, AND THE PIT WHERE THE ASHES WERE BURIED.

DISTANCES: EKATERINBURG, 11 MILES, PIT TO KOPTIAKI, 3 MILES.
]

happened, so that the people should suspect nothing. They were removed only on the fourth day, when the cordon around the wood was also raised.

Only then (on July 20th) was the announcement made at Red meetings and in official proclamations that “Nicholas the Sanguinary” had been executed. The news was simultaneously transmitted by the wireless stations of the Bolshevist Government, and appeared in _The London Times_ of July 22, 1918, in the following form:--

“At the first session of the Central Executive Committee elected by
the Fifth Congress of the Councils a message was made public,
received by direct wire from the Ural Regional Council, concerning
the shooting of the ex-Tsar, Nicholas Romanov.

“Recently Ekaterinburg, the capital of the Red Ural, was seriously
threatened by the approach of the Czecho-Slovak bands. At the same
time a counter-revolutionary conspiracy was discovered, having for
its object the wresting of the tyrant from the hands of the
Council’s authority by armed force. In view of this fact, the
Presidium of the Ural Regional Council decided to shoot the
ex-Tsar, Nicholas Romanov. This decision was carried out on July
16.

“The wife and son of Romanov have been sent to a place of security.
Documents concerning the conspiracy which were discovered have
been forwarded to Moscow by a special messenger.

“It had been recently decided to bring the ex-Tsar before a
tribunal, to be tried for his crimes against the people, and only
later occurrences led to delay in adopting this course. The
Presidency of the Central Executive Committee, after having
discussed the circumstances which compelled the Ural Regional
Council to take the decision to shoot Nicholas Romanov, decided as
follows:--The Russian Central Executive Committee, in the persons
of the Presidium, accept the decision of the Ural Regional Council
as being regular.

“The Central Executive Committee has now at its disposal extremely
important material concerning the Nicholas Romanov affair; his own
diaries which he kept almost to the last days; the diaries of his
wife and children; his correspondence, amongst which are letters by
Gregory Razputin to Romanov and his family. All these materials
will be examined and published in the near future.”

Every word of this official statement is important, for every phrase contains a lie, and every lie shows up in more glaring colours the diabolical nature of the plot hatched and carried out by Yankel Sverdlov and his tools and accomplices. I take the falsehoods _seriatim_:--(1) The message made public at the Tsik as coming from the Ural sovdep was in reality concocted by Sverdlov; (2) the Czechs entered Ekaterinburg on the 25th, nine days after the “execution,” and there was no armed plot; (3) the Presidium of the Ural sovdep did not “decide” to shoot the ex-Tsar, for that “decision” was dictated from Moscow; (4) the “wife and son” were not sent to a “place of security,” but were basely murdered; (5) no “later occurrences” supervened that could by any stress of the imagination be construed into a justification for not bringing the ex-Tsar before a tribunal, even supposing there had ever been any real intention to do so (as a matter of fact, this story of a “tribunal” was invented); (6) the Imperial correspondence taken with other “loot” from the murdered Family has _not_ been published to this day.[9]

Here is a translation of the official announcement as it was made to the people of Ekaterinburg:--

DECISION OF THE PRESIDIUM OF THE REGIONAL SOVIET OF WORKMEN’S,
PEASANTS’ AND RED-GUARDS’ DEPUTIES OF THE URAL.

“In view of the fact that Czecho-Slovak bands are threatening the Red capital of the Urals, Ekaterinburg; in view also of the fact that the crowned hangman (_palách_) may escape the people’s assizes (a Whiteguard plot to capture the whole Romanov family has been discovered), the Presidium of the Regional Soviet in fulfilment of the will of the revolution has decided (_postanovil_) that the former Tsar Nicholas Romanov, guilty before the people of innumerable sanguinary crimes, shall be shot.

“On the night of the 16th to the 17th of July, the decision (_postanovlenie_) of the Regional Soviet was carried into execution.

“The family of Romanov has been transferred from Ekaterinburg to another and safer place.

“The Presidium of the Reg. Soviet of W., P., and R. Dep. of the Ural.

* * * * *

DECISION OF THE PRESIDIUM OF THE ALL-RUSSIAN CENTR. EX. COM. OF
18TH JULY A.C.

“The All-Russian Centr. Ex. Com. of Soviets of W., P., R. and
Cossack Deputies in the person of its Presidium approves the action
of the Presidium of the Reg. Sov. of the Ural.

“The President of the Tsik, Y. Sverdlov.”

* * * * *

The discrepancies between the Moscow and the Ekaterinburg announcements are interesting and significant, but they need not be discussed at this stage. I would call attention only to the date of the Tsik’s “decision” and to the fact that it was kept secret for two days after its ostensible issue. As a matter of fact the whole murder had been directed from Moscow, and even the text of the “announcement” had been previously approved by Sverdlov, so it is not surprising that Beloborodov disregarded dates. But the real reason was that the Red chieftains feared the people and, above all, sought to obscure the facts.

I now return to the woods. On the 17th, 18th, and 19th large quantities of petrol and sulphuric acid were taken from the city to the iron pits; at least 150 gallons of the former and eleven pouds (400 lb.) of the latter. Ekaterinburg being the centre of the platinum industry required large stocks of sulphuric acid to generate the intense heat necessary for melting this hardest of metals. The Komisar of Supplies was Voikov, ex-passenger in Lenin’s German train. He it was who furnished the acid to Yurovsky as his friend Sverdlov’s agent. (I remember I wanted to order a platinum ring at a local jeweller’s during my stay in the city. He could not carry out the order because there was no sulphuric acid “since the previous year.”)

There is not the shadow of a doubt as to what happened around the iron pit, as the reader will convince himself after reading the next chapter. Yurovsky’s acolytes cut up the bodies, steeped them in petrol, and burned them. The sulphuric acid was used to dissolve the larger bones.

I have spoken of the mock funeral invented by the murderers to deceive public opinion in Russia and abroad. Here is the telegram that appeared in _The London Times_ of September 23, 1918:--

“Amsterdam, Sept. 22.--According to a telegram from Moscow, the _Izvestua_ gives the following description of the obsequies of the ex-Tsar, which, according to newspaper reports, were solemnly carried out by troops of the People’s Army (_sic_) at Ekaterinburg.

“‘The body of the ex-Tsar, which had been buried in a wood at the place of execution, was exhumed, the grave having been found through information supplied by persons who were acquainted with the circumstances of the execution. The exhumation, says the Soviet journal, took place in the presence of many representatives of the supreme ecclesiastical authorities in Western Siberia, the local clergy, and delegates from the People’s Army, Cossacks, and Czecho-Slovaks. The body was placed in a zinc coffin, encased in a costly covering of Siberian cedar and the coffin was exposed in the Cathedral at Ekaterinburg under a guard of honour composed of the chief commanders of the People’s Army. The body will be temporarily buried in a special sarcophagus at Omsk.’”

* * * * *

Comment is superfluous. The fourth and last of the “precautions” against conviction followed a year later, perhaps under stress of circumstances, but certainly without any regard for the Soviet’s own previous announcements:--

Here it is:--

“On September 17, 1919, in the House of the Executive Committee of the Soviet at Perm, the Bolshevists brought to trial twenty-eight persons arrested on the accusation of having murdered the Tsar and his family. The following report of the proceedings is taken from the Bolshevist paper _Pravda_:--

“‘The Revolutionary Tribunal has considered the case of the murder of the late Tsar Nicholas Romanov, his wife, the Princess of Hesse, their daughters Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, and their suite. In all eleven persons were assassinated. Of the twenty-eight persons accused three were members of the Ekaterinburg Soviet--Grusinov, Yakhontov, and Malutin; among the accused were also two women, Maria Apraksina and Elizaveta Mironova. The account of the murder as gathered from the material under the consideration of the Revolutionary Tribunal is as follows:--

“‘The Tsar and all the members of his _entourage_ were shot--no mockery and no cruelties took place. Yakhontov admitted that he had organised the murder in order to throw the discredit of the crime on the Soviet authorities, whose adversary he became after having joined the Socialist revolutionaries of the Left Wing. The plan of murdering the Tsar was conceived during the latter’s stay at Tobolsk, but the Tsar was too strictly watched. In Ekaterinburg, when the Czecho-Slovak troops were approaching the town, the Soviet authorities were panic-stricken to such a degree that it was easy for him to avail himself of his position as chairman of the Extraordinary Commission (for combating counter-revolution) and to give the order to murder the Tsar and his family. Yakhontov admitted that he personally participated in the murder, and that he took upon himself the responsibility for it. He, however, said that he was not responsible for the robbery of the belongings of the Tsar’s family. According to his deposition, Tsar Nicholas said before he died, “For the murder of the Tsar Russia will curse the Bolshevists.” Grusinov and Malutin stated that they did not know anything about Yakhontov’s plans, and only carried out his orders. Yakhontov was found guilty of the murder and sentenced to death. Grusinov, Malutin, Apraksina, and Mironova were found guilty of robbery committed on the murdered members of the Tsar’s family. They were sentenced to death too. The death sentence was carried out the following day.

“‘Several objects belonging to the household of the Tsar were discovered with a thief named Kiritshevsky, who stated that these things had been given to him by a man named Sorin, who was the chairman of the Local Extraordinary Commission. At the time of the murder Sorin was the commander of a revolutionary battalion. Sorin was a personal friend of Beloborodov, who also participated in the assassination of the Emperor.’--_Rossia_ (Paris), No. 1, December 17, 1919.”[10]

I have carefully compared the names given above with the list of 164 persons mentioned in the _dossier_ as being implicated or even suspected of having acted any part whatsoever in the tragedy; I have perused the cognomens of the twenty-four members of the Ekaterinburg Sovdep presidium. There is not one name in the mock trial that even resembles any of them (one cannot possibly identify Yakhontov with Yurovsky); the very charge is farcical if one compares this report with the text of the official announcement of the “execution.” Alone Beloborodov’s name is familiar. He was nominally president of the Ural sovdep at the time of the murders. I explained his real position--that of a mere helot, a thieving workman, kept in office to serve as a screen for the rulers of Sovietdom. After the murders he was “promoted” to the Tsik, the highest honour of Sovdepia. But they do not stand on ceremony with Russian komisars in the land where Yankel Sverdlov rules, and we read of him in the _Pravda_ as being stigmatised as (1) a thief, and (2) a party to the very murder for which he was promoted--the very same appalling crime that Sverdlov had ordained--the stain whereof haunts the chieftains of the Soviet like a Nemesis, so that they utter things without sense.

Besides, the Soviet of Moscow received a lion’s share of the loot! Between July 20th and 22nd it was taken from Ipatiev’s house and removed to the Red Metropolis. The Bolshevists were fleeing before the advance of the Siberian troops. Yankel Yurovsky, evidently in a hurry to leave Ekaterinburg, took farewell of the death-house on the night of the 19th. His driver thus describes the exodus. That night he had by Yurovsky’s orders called at the _chrezvychaika_, and thence conveyed two young men, one of them a Jew, to Ipatiev’s house, where Yankel was waiting. These youths went into the house and brought out seven pieces of baggage, among them being a black leather trunk covered with seals. When he had taken his seat in the vehicle, Yurovsky gave his orders to the young men:--“Set everything to rights. Leave twelve men on sentry duty and send the remainder to the station.”

The guard at Ipatiev’s house remained till the 23rd, but even after that, on the 24th and 25th, some of the Russian ex-warders still visited the house. The Whites entered Ekaterinburg on the 25th, and occupied the house on the following day.