ROMANOV's MEMORIAL. EKATERINBURG, RUSSIA.

ROMANOV'S FAMILY

In 2006 the Sverdlovsk (Ekaterinburg) Regional Museum, Russia has opened a museum in memory of the last Russia czar Nikolai the II, his family and Romanov dynasty. The permanent exhibition features documents and exhibits related to life and death of the last Russian Emperor Nikolai the II and his family.

The exposition with its unique documents unveils the murder of the tsar`s family and the circumstances surrounding this crime.

Visitors can also learn here about the history of the exploration of the development of the Ural region during the reign of the Romanov dynasty.

The initiator of the museum is Alexander Avdonin, the head of the foundation Obreteniye (“Discovery”). It was he with his friends who found the remains of the Emperor`s family in Ganina Yama (Ganina Pit) in 1978. Later Alexander Avdonin went on with his research about life and death of the last Russian Emperor and provided part of the displays of the new museum.

SHORT HISTORICAL NOTES.

When it was decided to imprison the Romanov family in Ekaterinburg, the Bolsheviks chose a house located in the historical center of the city on Voznessenski Street to be used as a jail : Ipatiev house, after its owner's name, Nicholas Ipatiev. This man lived here with his family on the first floor of the house and used the ground floor rooms of his house as offices to his metallurgy business. It was a spacious (18 by 31 square meters), modern, and comfortable house with electricity, a telephone, and even a bathroom and lavatory. The house also had a terrace and a little garden with some trees and bushes like poplar, birch, and lime.

The house was built on ground with a double slope and part of the ground floor rooms on Voznessenski Street were almost in the basement.

The house was built in 1897 by a man named Andrei Redikortsev, who was an engineer in the iron mines. But Andrei Redikortsev was involved in corruption cases and was forced to sell his house to another man, IG Charaviev. This man also worked in platinum mines in the west of the Urals. Later, in 1908, IG Charaviev sold the house to Nicholas Ipatiev for 6000 rubles.


IPATIEV HOUSE

Ten years later, on Saturday, the 27th of April, the Bolsheviks asked Nicholas Ipatiev to leave his house with two days notice after having stored his belongings in a closed, small room on the ground floor. On the map, it's the little room next to the cellar room.

After Nicholas Ipatiev's departure, the Bolsheviks built a high wooden fence all round the Ipatiev house, transforming the house into a fortress. The house had become "the house of special purpose," ready to welcome the Romanov family...

On July, 17, 1918, shortly after midnight, Yakov Yurovsky, the head Bolshevik captor of the royal family awoke his prisoners and asked them to go down in the house basement to take shelter. He said that the white army were encircling the city and that battle was imminent.
Former Czar Nicholas II, his wife Aleksandra, their four daughters, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, Tsarevich Alexei, and their faithful: Doctor Botkin, lady-in-waiting Anna Demidova, cooker Kharitonof and footman Trupp quickly woke up.

After getting themselves ready, the prisoners went down in the house basement under Yurovsky's leadership to a cellar room where he asked them to wait so that he could prepare their departure towards a safer place.
Outside, the Romanovs could hear an engine noise. Yurovsky disappeared.
For the prisoners, the waiting was prolonged. Aleksandra asked for some chairs. Someone brought them two. Suddenly, Yurovsky entered the room with 10 militia, armed with rifles and pistols, who formed a killing rank...


'Execution du Tsar а Ekaterinenbourg le 17 juillet 1918'
by the french painter Sarmat.

Then, they reloaded the bodies on trucks (including the 4 which were chared) in order to bury them in another deeper pit mine located not far from there.
But after some miles, the Fiat truck got stuck in the mud. As they were near a level crossing, they took here wood planks so that the truck might get over the mud and decided to bury the bodies in this place, under the road.
They started to dig a hole, quickly put the bodies in it, recovered it with wood planks and left the place, expecting to finish the work later.
But events did not leave them the time to end their task because some days after, on 25 th July, Ekaterinburg felt to the advancing white army...

I would like to thank Royal Russia News and Romanovs Memorial for this material