On the night of July 16-17, 1918, there was a brutal murder of Emperor Nicholas II, his wife (Alexandra Fedorovna), as well as all the offspring and servants (according to some sources 11, according to others 12 people). The execution was carried out after 78 days of the imprisonment of the royal family in the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg.
Without trial and investigation
The terrible event was preceded and facilitated by a meeting of the Uralsovet presidium, held on July 12, 1918. At the meeting, not only a fateful decision was made on the proper execution of the royal family, but also a thorough crime plan was developed, including considerations for the destruction of bodies and further concealment of evidence.
Four days later, people appointed to carry out the sentence arrived at the Ipatiev house. Among those sentenced were: Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra Fedorovna, Olga (22 years old), Tatyana (20 years old), Maria (18 years old), Anastasia (16 years old), Alexey (14 years old). In addition, members of the retinue were involved in the investigation: the family doctor Botkin, the cook Kharitonov, the second cook, whose identity was never established, Trupp's footman and the room girl Anna Demidova. Around midnight, all these people were asked to get dressed and go down to the lower chambers. In order not to arouse unnecessary suspicion, the request was motivated by the alleged attack of the White Guards on the Ipatiev house. So, the Romanovs and their retinue were escorted to the basement room, which had been designated for the execution of the verdict. Then a decision was made by the Regional Council …
Before dawn, all the corpses were wrapped in blankets, secretly carried out and loaded into a car, which proceeded further to the village of Koptyaki. Before reaching Yekaterinburg, the car turned towards the area known as "Ganina Yama". The corpses were thrown into one of the mines, after which they were removed and destroyed. Everything was so thoroughly furnished and executed that the next few years of excavations, designed to find the burial places of the executed, did not give fruitful results.
Exhumation
The alleged hiding place for the remains of the murdered was established in 1979. At the same time, a burial was found in the area of the Koptyakovskaya road, from which it was possible to extract three skulls.
The story of the discovery of the remains caused a resonance, thanks to which the first official Russian commission was created in 1991 to clarify the circumstances of the death of the Romanov family. Of course, this fact was not hidden from the gaze of the press. However, in addition to reliable facts, the masses received a huge amount of dubious information that did not have a solid foundation.
The end of the investigation fell on July 27-28, 1992 and was crowned with a closed conference, in which only forensic scientists, physicians and historians, who worked independently, took part. Russian, American and British scientists (on the basis of, among other things, molecular genetic studies) agreed on the belonging of the remains to the royal family and confidants. However, the controversy continues to this day.
