that the people didn't have money to support the Tsar's family.
From now on, the Tsar's family should live at their own expense. They were given an apartment and a soldier ration per person. At the same time, they were not allowed to spend more than 600 rubles per person of their expense per month. Cream, butter, coffee, and sweets disappeared very quickly from the table of the crown-bearing family. They received half a pound of sugar per month each…
Kolchak turned to the investigator. Sokolov with his unemotional voice continued to describe the financial adversities of the Imperial family. Maybe, it's the right way – to make the report in an aloof and unemotional manner. Otherwise, the nerves would snap. But he, Kolchak, is not able to react like this. There is still a long way until the horrible end of the report, and his heart is already aching. The admiral raised the carafe to get some water.
– …After the murder of the Tsar's family in Yekaterinburg, they found the military trousers of the former Emperor. The trousers were patched in several places, and in the left pocket they found two labels, "Manufactured on August 4, 1900" and "Repaired on October 8, 1916"…
He was parsimonious, the last Russian Tsar. Maybe, even avaricious. He took after his father Alexander III – his trousers were totally worn out. But Nicholas II managed to dilapidate the heritage of his father to the last mite!
Kolchak felt somewhat better after having drunk some water. He knew that the report would be very difficult to listen to and ordered the report to be read out to him only with the doors closed. He sat down again and gazed unseeingly at the opposite wall.
The investigator was reading on. He didn't make any stops and didn't accentuate any words or sentences.
– …Around midnight, when the Imperial family was sleeping, Yurovsky himself woke them up and ordered under a certain excuse the Imperial family and all those who were with them to go down to the basement. His Majesty the Emperor was bearing Crown Prince Alexei in his arms.
The investigation authorities believe that the excuse used by Yurovsky to entice the Imperial family into the basement was the departure from Yekaterinburg. His Majesty the Emperor and Crown Prince Alexei were sitting in the middle of the room. Doctor Botkin was standing next to them. Behind them at the wall there were Her Majesty the Empress and three of the Princesses. Suddenly, ten people who had been mentioned before and who had come together with Yurovsky entered the room. Yurovsky, his assistants Nikulin and Medvedev were in the room, too. All of them were armed with revolvers…
The supreme governor of Russia started twiddling the pencil in his hands even faster. Kolchak could see this scene as if he saw it with his own eyes. He could scent the perfume of Nicholas' young daughters. He could see the heir to the throne and his face, which was adultly serious…
– …The Empress was peering at the chekists, who entered the room. Doctor Botkin gave a short cough and covered his mouth with his palm, stroking mechanically his beard and moustache. Nicholas was silent.
Kolchak could see everything himself. He wanted to shout, to warn them about the end coming. But the scream curdled in his throat. He was short of air…
Yakov Yurovsky shook his head and took a piece of paper out of his pocket. He looked at it briefly, looked up and straight into the face of the former Emperor.
– Your relatives wanted to save you but they failed, and we have to shoot you down ourselves.
Nicholas's eyes opened wide with horror.
– What?
– I tell you what, – Yurovsky sneered, aiming his revolver at Nicholas's head. Other executioners fired theirs, too…
The broken pencil cracked plaintively.
– Everyone's death was instantaneous except that of Alexei and a Princess, apparently, Anastasia, – the voice of the investigator brought Kolchak back from the chilly basement into his warm and light office. – Yurovsky finished off Alexei, shot him from his revolver. The princess was stuck with bayonets.
The heir was 14years old. Quite a child. Anastasia Nikolayevna was a young lady, a teenager. Shy and a bit chubby.
– With bayonets, – whispered the supreme governor of Russia. – With bayonets…
And asked in a loud voice:
– Who were the other killers?
– According to some facts, discovered during the preliminary investigation, I'm sure that the majority of those ten were German prisoners of war. Yurovsky, who could speak German, was speaking to them in German.
– Be more precise, please, Nikolay Alexeyevich.
– Most likely, they were Magyars. We haven't managed to determine the nationality of other criminals. But they spoke Russian well enough.
– Good. Go on, please.
– After the villainy had been performed, the corpses of the Imperial family and of the others were put on a truck, and Yurovsky together with some other people known to us transported them out of Yekaterinburg to a godforsaken mine…
The report of the Major Case Investigator Sokolov was approaching its end. But Admiral Kolchak wasn't listening anymore. The beautiful princesses, the stern face of the Empress, and the always calm face of the Emperor floated in his memory. Kolchak had seen Nicholas only thrice. He saw him two times, when Nicholas visited the ships of the Baltic Navy, and the third long lasting conversation took place when Kolchak was appointed the commander-in-chief of the Black Sea Navy. It was not the face of the perished Emperor that the supreme governor of Russia saw in his mind, but the face of the boy, the heir to the throne Alexei. The death of Nicholas's family is a warning, it's a horrible nightmare!
The boy's face…
…Kolchak has left his family in Paris. His son Rostislav, Slavushok, stayed there. His wife and his son are in a quiet place.
He will fight to the end the rascals killing children. He may perish, but Rostislav Kolchak must stay alive.
The admiral pulled out the upper drawer of his desk. Rostik smiled and looked at him, sitting with his mother on a chair. That was the best photo of his son…[4]
Chapter 2
Liquidation of the Romanovs
The first condition of immortality is death.
The victims of the Civil War amount to millions. The warring parties have committed numerous crimes against the civilians, against the soldiers of the enemy, and against those who were suspected of sympathizing the enemy. Yet, the most famous link in the long chain of crimes of the Revolution times is the execution of the family of Nicholas II. Kolchak, the supreme ruler of Russia, appointed Nikolay Sokolov, the investigator of special cases, to investigate this atrocity. And the admiral did not make a mistake about choosing him: despite his somewhat strange appearance, Sokolov gave his all in order to find the truth. After the end of the Civil War, Nikolay Sokolov moved to Europe and settled down in Paris. Even after Kolchak's death and after the Whites had been defeated he continued to collect the information and to examine witnesses. Finally, based on the evidence he had collected, he wrote a book called "The Assassination of the Tsar's Family." However, the mystery, which the 42-year old investigator was trying to unravel, was utterly dangerous. In 1924, he was found dead near his home.
The original text of the report of the Investigator Sokolov to Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna was used here. Kolchak was the first one to find out the results of the investigation (http://www.romanov-center.narod.ru/Documents/Sok.htm).
