EKATERINBURG THE MURDER OF THE IMPERIAL FAMILY
DURING THE NIGHT OF JULY 16-17th, 1918
 
ON our arrival at Tioumen on May 22nd we were at once taken, under a strong escort, to the special train that was to take us to Ekaterinburg. Just as I was getting into the train with my pupil I was separated from him and put in a fourth-class carriage, guarded by sentries like the others. We reached Ekaterinburg in the night, the train being stopped at some distance from the station.
About nine o’clock the next morning several carriages were drawn up alongside our train, and I saw four men go towards the children’s carriage.
A few minutes passed and then Nagorny, the sailor attached to Alexis Nicola?evitch, passed my window, carrying the sick boy in his arms; behind him came the Grand-Duchesses, loaded with valises and small personal belongings. I tried to get out, but was roughly pushed back into the carriage by the sentry.
I came back to the window. Tatiana Nicola?evna came last, carrying her little dog and struggling to drag a heavy brown valise. It was raining, and I saw her feet sink into the mud at every step. Nagorny tried to come to her assistance; he was roughly pushed back by one of the commissaries.... A few minutes later the carriages drove off with the children in the direction of the town.{270}
How little I suspected that I was never to see them again, after so many years among them! I was convinced that they would come back and fetch us and that we should be united without delay.
But the hours passed. Our train was shunted back into the station, and then I saw General Tatichtchef, Countess Hendrikof, and Mlle. Schneider being taken away. A little later it was the turn of Volkof, the Czarina’s valet-de-chambre, de Kharitonof, the chef, Troup, the footman, and little Leonide Sednief, a kitchen boy of fourteen.
With the exception of Volkof, who managed to escape later, and little Sednief, whose life was spared, not one of those who were led off that day was destined to escape alive from the hands of the Bolsheviks.
We were still kept waiting. What was happening? Why didn’t they come for us too? We gave ourselves up to all sorts of hypotheses, when, about five o’clock, Commissary Rodionof, who had come to Tobolsk to fetch us, entered our carriage and told us we were not wanted and were free.
Free! What was this? We were to be separated from the others? Then all was over! The excitement that had sustained us up to now gave place to deep depression. What was to be done? What was to be the next move? We were overwhelmed.
Even to-day I cannot understand what prompted the Bolsheviks to this decision to save our lives. Why, for instance, should Countess Hendrikof be taken to prison while Baroness de Buxh?veden, also a lady-in-waiting to the Czarina, was allowed to go free? Why they and not ourselves? Was there confusion of names or functions? A mystery!
On the next and following days I and my colleague went to
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IPATIEF’S HOUSE AT EKATERINBURG, IN WHICH THE IMPERIAL FAMILY WERE INTERNED AND SUBSEQUENTLY MASSACRED.
Seen from the Vosnessensky Prospekt after the first fence had been erected.
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see the English and Swedish consuls[70]—the French consul was away; at all costs something had to be done to help the prisoners. The two consuls relieved our minds by telling us that proceedings had already been taken and that they did not think there was any imminent danger.
I walked past Ipatief’s house, of which the tops of the windows could be seen above the wall of boards that hemmed it in. I had not yet lost all hope of effecting an entry, for Dr. Derevenko, who had been allowed to visit the boy, had heard Dr. Botkin ask Commissary Avdief, the commandant of the guard, on behalf of the Czar, that I should be allowed to rejoin them. Avdief had replied that he would refer the matter to Moscow. Meanwhile, my companions and I, except Dr. Derevenko, who had taken lodgings in the town, camped in the fourth-class carriage which had brought us. We were destined to remain there for more than a month!
On the twenty-sixth we were ordered to leave the territory of the Perm Government—which includes Ekaterinburg—without delay and return to Tobolsk. Care had been taken that we should only have one document between us, to keep us together and so facilitate supervision. But the trains were no longer running. The anti-Bolshevik movement of the Russian and Czech volunteers[71] was spreading rapidly, and the line was{272} exclusively reserved for the military units that were being hurried to Tioumen. This meant further delay.
One day when I was passing Ipatief’s house, accompanied by Dr. Derevenko and Mr. Gibbes, we saw two carriages drawn up and surrounded by a large number of Red Guards. What was our horror at recognising in the first Sednief (the valet-de-chambre of the Grand-Duchesses) sitting between two guards. Nagorny was going to the second carriage. He was just setting foot on the step with his hand on the side of the carriage when, raising his head, he saw us all there standing motionless a few yards from him. For a few seconds he looked fixedly at us, then, without a single gesture that might have betrayed us, he took his seat. The carriages were driven off, and we saw them turn in the direction of the prison.
These two good fellows were shot shortly afterwards; their sole crime had been their inability to hide their indignation on seeing the Bolshevik commissaries seize the little gold chain from which the holy images hung over the sick bed of Alexis Nicola?evitch.
A few more days passed, and then I learned through Dr. Derevenko that the request made on my behalf had been refused.
On June 3rd our carriage was coupled to one of the many trains loaded with starving people from Russia coming to look for food in Siberia. We made for Tioumen, where, after various wanderings, we finally arrived on the fifteenth. A few hours later I was placed under arrest by Bolshevik headquarters, where I had been forced to apply for a visa that was indispensable to my companions and myself. It was only by a lucky combination of circumstances that I came to be released in the evening and was able to get back to the railway carriage, in
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YOUROVSKY, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH PRODUCED AT THE ENQUIRY.
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THE GRAND-DUCHESSES’ ROOM AS I SAW IT ON ENTERING IPATIEF’S HOUSE. ON THE FLOOR ARE THE ASHES FROM THE STOVES.
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which they were waiting for me. The following days were days of indescribable anxiety, at the mercy of any chance that might call attention to us. Probably what saved us was that we were lost in the crowd of refugees who filled Tioumen station, and so managed to pass unnoticed.
 
On July 20th the Whites, as the anti-Bolshevik troops were called, captured Tioumen and saved us from the fanatics who had so nearly claimed us as victims. A few days later the papers published a reproduction of the proclamation that had been placarded in the streets of Ekaterinburg, announcing that the sentence of death passed on the ex-Czar Nicholas Romanoff had been carried out on the night of July 16th-17th and that the Czarina and her children had been removed to a place of safety.
At last, on July 25th, Ekaterinburg fell in its turn. Hardly was communication re-established—which took a long time as the permanent way had suffered severely—when Mr. Gibbes and I hastened to the town to search for the Imperial family and those of our companions who had remained at Ekaterinburg.
Two days after my arrival I made my first entry into Ipatief’s house. I went through the first-floor rooms, which had served as the prison; they were in an indescribable state of disorder. It was evident that every effort had been made to get rid of any traces of the recent occupants. Heaps of ashes had been raked out of the stoves. Among them were a quantity of small articles, half burnt, such as tooth-brushes, hairpins, buttons, etc., in the midst of which I found the end of a hair-brush on the browned ivory of which could still be seen the initials of the Czarina, A. F. (Alexandra-Feodorovna.). If it was true that the prison............