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- After 1918 -
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The first days after the Romanovs'
execution, Ipatiev house was guarded as usual. A few days later, on July 18, the news of
the execution was announced in a contradictory way. In fact, bolshevicks first announced
the killing of the Czar saying that other members of the family had been transfered in a
safe place. Gradually, other rumours about the execution of the whole family started.
An investigation on the
missing Romanovs was opened and entrusted first to judge Alexander
Namiotkine ,
then to judge Ivan
Serguéiev. |
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Ipatiev house, returned to his owner after bolshevicks departure,
was again occupied by white army for investigation needs but Nikolai Ipatiev was allowed
to use three rooms of the ground floor. Namiotkine's, then Serguéievs's investigators,
examined all the house rooms and especialy cellar room where traces of bullets were very
numerous.
They also inspected the pit mine
after accounts of people who had seen bolshevicks soldiers here the night of
the drama. In pits mines, investigators found a lot of little objects,
pieces of clothes and small human remains. |
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In October, General Gajda, commander of the west white army decided to
establish his headquarters in the house. In spite of judge Serguéiev's
protests, Ipatiev house was invested including former Romanov's sealed rooms
under. Only the cellar room could been saved and still kept sealed. But, on several occasions, General Gadja entered it to have his guests visit it. From this moment, we can seriously doubt about the authenticity of the words found on cellar room wall ! They could have been written during that period. On January 23, 1919, judge Serguéiev was replaced by Sokolov by order of General Ditherikhs. |
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Nikolai Alexéïevitch Sokolov was born in Mokshane, near Penza in 1882. After teaching right in Karkov, he became judge and judicial investigator. After the revolution, he ran away not to serve the bolshevicks and reached Omsk in Siberia. With other monarchist people, he took part in several attempts to free the Romanov family without success. On February 7, 1919, he was officially appointed by Koltchak admiral to investigate about the Romanovs' murder. In 1920, at the white army defeat, Sokolov, like a lot of people, left Russia and emigrated to France in the small city of Salbris (41300 - Loir et Cher). Sick, without resources, he had just time to finish to write the results of his investigation before dying out on November 23, 1924, letting a 23 year old widow and two little children. The same year, his book "Enquête judiciaire sur l'assassinat de la famille impériale Russe" (In French) was published by Payot. In this book, he concluded that the whole Romanov family has been murdered in Ipatiev house and their bodies had been entirely destroyed. These conclusions had historic value until the bodies were discovered in 1989.
Others photos
and signature of
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Sokolov, after having examining
proofs found by his predecessor, started a very strict and complete investigation. He
questionned again a lot of witnesses, including former Ipatiev house red guards captured
by white army. |
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As a conclusion, Sokolov's investigation was perfect. His only error was to
consider that Yurovsky and his men had succeeded in completely burning the
11 bodies in only two days and two nights. |
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He
emigrated to France in the small city of Salbris (Loir et Cher).
Here, he finished to write the conclusions of his investigations. Without any financial resources, like other Russian emigrants, he had to accept the inhabitants help. Sick, Sokolov died in 1924 of an heart attack, letting a young widow and two children. He was buried on the village cemetery where his grave can still be seen (photo above). His book ; "Enquête judiciaire sur l'assassinat de la famille impériale Russe" (In French) was published by Payot shortly after his death. This book is still considered as a reference on this subject. |
![]() Sokolov's former house in Salbris (Picture kindly provided by Christian Dureau) |
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Almost as soon as the execution was
announced, rumors began spreading that some members of the imperial family had survived.
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"most famous" Anastasia
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But the
discovery of only 9 skeletons in Ekaterinburg woods, whereas 11 people had been murdered,
is still feeding theories that two children could have survived, despite Yurovsky's
testimony that these bodies have been burned and buried separately. At the moment, they are still all over the world a lot of people saying they had met Anastasia or Alexei who survived. For example, Vadim Petrov, Igor Lyssenko and Georgi Egorov claim in their book, "The escape of Alexei, son of Czar Nikolai II" that Alexis had not been killed and lived in the Russian city of Chadrinsk under the name of Vassili Filatov... A Canadian journalist, John Kendrick, has put the history of another Alexei nammed Heino Tammet, who lived in Canada. You can learn more about all this people on the pretenders chapter of the site. |
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In Russia, Ipatiev house remained for a long time unoccupied. In 1927, for the 10th anniversary of the revolution, was opened in Ipatiev House a museum dedicated to the revolution and about the murder of Romanov family. People could visit rooms of the first floor but access to cellar room was not allowed because it was used to store documents of the local soviet. Some postcards of the house were even published. This museum was closed in 1932. After 1945, Ipatiev house was used on different ways: archives of the local party, museum of the atheists local association, |
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Ipatiev house was still forbiden to people but still visited by officials
and their friends. And the house carried on attracting people's curiosity: For example, some furniture of the house had been offered to a famous musician visiting Ekaterinburg. A professor from Leningrad received a railing from the staircase as a souvenir. The wall where the Romanovs were murdered was even sold to an English collector. And each 17 of July, flowers are put in front of the house by people. In 1974, the house was classified as historical monument but the year after, dependences and floor rooms were destroyed. |
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Heavenly Hymns In The Ipatiev
House (Article) The story was told to Archbishop Melchizedek, who had then been the hierarch of katerinburg for many years. At the time of the fall of the Soviet government in 1990, an old woman came to his office. Although she was not a believer, she felt that she was going to die soon and said that she had something she wanted to tell him. After the death of the Czar and his family, the Ipatiev house had been turned into the "Museum of the Workers' Revenge,"to commemorate the death of the family. This woman, Anna, had been the night guard in the museum for several decades, and although the rest of the house was open during the day for visitors, the basement site of the family's murder was always kept barred and locked. No one, including the guards, ever went down there. Anna told the Archbishop that many times during her years of working there she could hear beautiful singing and see light streaming from the basement door when night fell. She said that the singing was as of many voices, and definitely church music. She would often creep up to the door to listen but was too frightened to go into the basement to look. She did not tell anyone, since she knew that if she reported such things she would be dismissed and possibly arrested. Archbishop Melchizedek asked Anna if she would sign an affidavit attesting to the truth of her story, but she refused, saying that she was too afraid of the KGB to sign anything that might get her in trouble. (Source: Orthodox Word, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, Platina, Ca., Vol. 34.No.5 (202), Sept.-Oct., 1998., pp. 235-236). |
In 1977,
it was decided to destroy Ipatiev house. This decision was taken in Moscow
by Michaïl Souslov, member of the politburo. This order was transmited to
the first secretary of the party of the region of Sverdlovsk, someone named
Boris Eltsine who was forced to execute it.
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![]() 1991 : The "eight ends" cross |
Officially, this destruction aimed at improving car traffic in this part of
the city but the real goal of this destruction was to put an end to this
house which symbolized people's interest in the Romanov tragic death. Since this day, the site of Ipatiev house remained vacant. Although Romanov death was a very sensitive subject, a lot of people went there secretly and put flowers.
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"This letter
is written to you by the Cossack Vladimir. I would like to tell you about a
manifestation (sign) that took place at the
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![]() 1999 : A new wooden chapel has replaced the old one.
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The cross was taken from the vehicle and placed on the ground and then set
in place. One of the people present, Alexei by name, went off to one side to take a look at how the cross had been set up, and whether it was leaning. Suddenly Alexei said, 'Look up!' We all raised our heads, and sort of tremor or fear passed through our bodies. Above us - that is, directly above the cross - the heavens parted and a ray of light fell upon the cross from a round clear spot in the sky." "The sun was not visible, and the opening in the clouds was rotating to the right: and on the earth, around the cross within a radius of 150 - 300 feet, there was a circle brightened by this ray of light from the heavens, and no snow was falling. |
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All this
continued for about thirty to forty minutes, while the cross was being set
in place and fixed with concrete, and then the opening in the clouds closed
up. (Source: Russian Herald, 1995, nos. 11-14. And reprinted in: Orthodox Word, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, Platina, Ca., Vol. 34, No.5 (202), Sept.- Oct., 1998., p.236). |
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Nota : This article is especialy focused on the belonging of the rare relics from Ipatiev house which still exist and can contain some repetitions regarding other romanov-memorial.com website articles
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![]() The wallpaper piece with the Hein Poem during the TranSiberian exposure in Brussel |
After the Romanov execution,
when Yekaterinburg was shortly occupied by the white army and during the
time of the investigations made by Koltchak Admiral team about the Romanov
killing, some house’s elements were picked up to inquiry purpose. Then, on all known photos of the cellar room taken during this period, and contrary to a tough legend, the damages on the wall are not the result of the squadron firing but due to the investigator work which collected some wall and floor pieces to extract bullets. Some of this piece, part of the Sokolov files were saved from this time and still exist somewhere. |
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For example, the well known wallpaper piece with the Hein sentence found in cellar room was exposed lately at Brussels during the TranSiberian exposure between October 2005 and February 2006 and I had the opportunity to see it at this occasion.
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At this time,
Romanov’s relative, who escaped the Romanov tragic end collected also some
Imperial Family relics found on the woods or in the Ipatiev house like the
former Romanov children English teacher, Charles Sydney Gibbes, who recover
a large number of icons, some slightly charred, from the fireplaces and
dustbins, a pair of the tsar's felt boots.
He also took exercise books of Marie and Anastasia, a pencil case and bell of the tsarevich and the chandelier which hung in the bedroom shared by Grand Duchesses in Ipatiev house and bring it after to Great Britain where he established in 1931 in Marston Street, Oxford. Here, he had settled in his house a little chapel gathering some of these Imperial Family relics. After his death in 1963, the house became the property of his son, who sold the building and its contents to a family who owned a great house called Luton Hoo, with a specialised collection of Russian memorabilia, including that of the Imperial Family. |
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When Luton
Hoo was recently sold off for conversion to a
posh hotel , the Wernher Collection
was rehoused at Ranger's House, Greenwich, that is, except for the Gibbes
Romanov Collection which was retained by the Wernher Foundation…
After the end of
the civil war, Ipatiev house remained for a long time unoccupied. In 1927,
for the 10th anniversary of the revolution, was opened in the house a museum
dedicated to the revolution and about the murder of Romanov family. People
could visit rooms of the first floor but access to cellar room was not
allowed because it was used to store documents of the local soviet. Some
postcards of the house were even published. This museum was closed in 1932. |
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Just before
the order execution, some scientific employees from the city museum came
into Ipatiev house during night. They disassembled the fireplace, cut a part
of stairs ladders, removed a door accessories and transferred all this
things to the museum At end, on September, 16th, 1977, around of the house, a wooden fence was installed and some bulldozers and other machines started to destroy the house. But it was uneasy – the house was robust and the destruction took about two days. The first one, they have taken down the small porch, and for the third day the most part of the house was on city dumps… |
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Officially, this destruction aimed at improving car traffic in this part of
the city but the real goal of this destruction was to put an end to this
house which symbolized people's interest to the Romanov tragic death. Since
this day, the site of Ipatiev house remained vacant. Although Romanov death
was a very sensitive subject, a lot of people still went there secretly and put
flowers. It is only in the middle of 90th years it has been decided to restore and expose the fireplace in a constant exhibition. |
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