Alapayevsk martyrs. Day of execution of the royal family. Canonicalization and rehabilitation

Alapaevskimi martyrs are called eight people (six Romanovs and two of their approximate), criminally killed by the Bolsheviks on July 18, 1918. These are the brothers, princes of the Imperial blood of Konstantinovichi (John, Constantine and Igor), Vladimir Paley, Sergei Vladimirovich, the sister of Empress Elizabeth Feodorovna, as well as the nun Varvara and the assistant to one of the princes Feodor Remez. All of them were deprived of life the next night after the execution of the royal family of Nicholas II.

The Romanovs' reference to the Urals

Immediately after coming to power, the Bolsheviks set about isolating the former royal family. The tragic fate of Nicholas II, his wife and children is most known to the inhabitants of the city. However, even after the two revolutions in Russia there remained many Romanovs and, in addition to the family of the renegade monarch. In the beginning of 1918 the Soviet government was in turmoil. The war with Germany continued, and the German units were already approaching the two capitals. In this alarming situation, the leaders of the Bolsheviks decided to forcibly send the Romanovs deep into the country, so that they could not rally around the counter-revolution.

At the end of March 1918, almost all the Alapaevsk martyrs were sent to Vyatka. They were princes Konstantin, Igor and John Konstantinovichi, Vladimir Pavlovich, and also Sergey Mikhailovich. Soon they were all transferred to Ekaterinburg. The fate of the exiles was controlled by local Ural Bolsheviks, who received direct instructions from the government in Moscow and Petrograd.

The arrest of the Grand Duchess

In May 1918, the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna was arrested in the Mother See of Dzerzhinsky by a detachment of Latvian riflemen and security officers. The sister of the Empress Alexandra was detained in the Marfo-Mariinsky monastery founded by her. Elizabeth Feodorovna spent all her money on the creation of this monastery after in 1905 a terrorist killed her husband - Grand Duke Sergey Alexandrovich.

Arrest fell on the third day of Easter. Half an hour before the appearance of the Latvian riflemen, the monastery was visited by the newly elected Patriarch Tikhon. He tried to secure the release of the Grand Duchess, however, despite everything, Elizabeth Feodorovna, together with her cell-mate, Varvara Yakovleva, was deported to Ekaterinburg. She was the last remaining representative of the former royal house. Concentration of the Romanovs in the Urals was a planned action. The Bolshevik leadership sought to send them to one place in order that, if necessary, it would be easier to manage the fate of the members of the dynasty.

The way to Alapaevsk

On April 30, Nicholas II, his wife and one of the daughters, Maria were brought to Ekaterinburg. Two weeks later, the rest of the monarch's family arrived. The Bolsheviks feared too many Romanovs in the city and decided to resettle them. On May 20, the Alapayevsk martyrs arrived in Alapaevsk, 146 kilometers from Yekaterinburg.

In 1918 it was a 10-thousand-strong town with a 200-year history. The settlement became one of the first-born of the Urals metallurgy Peter I. Alapaevsk was even slightly older than Yekaterinburg. Most of all he was known for the branded roofing iron produced at the local factory. The city contacted the Yekaterinburg and Nizhny Tagil railway.

Telegrams to Moscow

The cadets were placed in the school on the city outskirts. At first they enjoyed relative freedom-they could walk around Alapaevsk, go to church, correspond and not worry about their safety. The Romanovs often rested in the garden, broken near the school, where they liked to drink tea. Deeply religious Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna prayed a lot.

Men treated their position with a certain relaxed attitude. Especially did not lose heart young princes Konstantinovich and Vladimir Paley. Anxiety was only beaten by Sergei Mikhailovich. Before deportation to Alapaevsk, he sent a disgruntled telegram to Lenin and Sverdlov. In the message, the Grand Duke complained about his rheumatism and severe climate, asking him to transfer him to Vyatka or Vologda. His telegram was ignored.

Departure of Elena Petrovna

The last months of their life Alapaevskie martyrs held in the building of the school, consisting of two small and four large rooms. They were connected by a common corridor. In addition to the Romanovs, the school housed guard on duty from the Red Army.

The corner room was occupied by John Konstantinovich and his wife Elena Petrovna. She was the daughter of the Serbian King Peter I. Since Elena Petrovna was not Romanova, the Bolsheviks did not arrest her. Wife voluntarily went to exile after her husband. Shortly before the denouement of the Alapayev tragedy, she went to Moscow to solicit the release of the Romanovs.

On July 7, Elena Petrovna was arrested in Yekaterinburg. She did not divide her husband's fate only thanks to the Serbian embassy, who connected diplomatic levers of pressure on the Soviet government. Already after the death of her husband Helen Petrovna in a state of psychoneurosis returned to Moscow. Soon she left Russia.

Toughening the content regime

On the night of June 13, 1918, the Bolsheviks killed Mikhail Alexandrovich, who was exiled to Perm. The massacre was covered by the myth of the attempt of the younger brother of Nicholas II to flee. Soon the echo of the Permian events reached other Romanovs. Alapaevskie martyrs were under even greater supervision. The regime of their maintenance was toughened by an order of magnitude. The Romanovs confiscated all personal things: clothes, money, gold. Prisoners were left only with dresses, removable sets of linen and shoes. Correspondence and walks around the city were banned, the ration was significantly reduced.

Sudden searches became routine. The situation of the Romanovs in Alapaevsk developed according to the same scenario as during the last days of the life of Mikhail Alexandrovich and Nicholas II. If before the guard behaved correctly enough, now it has become sharp and rough. Until this moment, the Grand Dukes were their lackeys, and Elizaveta Fedorovna was accompanied by nuns. This retinue was ordered to leave Alapaevsk.

The execution of the family of Nicholas II

The murder of Mikhail Alexandrovich was the first in a series of murders of the Romanovs, organized by the Bolsheviks. Soon after the death of the Grand Duke, the day of the execution of the royal family came. Nicholas II and his relatives kept in the house of Ipatiev. On the night of July 17, 1918, the crowned family was sent to the basement, where the firing squad opened fire on it. Before that, the commandant Yakov Yurovsky had read the death sentence. According to the scattered memories of the participants of that scene, Nikolai only had time to ask: "What?" Or "Ah?" The Tsar did not understand what was the matter, and the next second Yurovsky gave the command, and the shooters opened fire.

The children of the Romanovs did not die at once. It is believed that the last to die was Tsarevich Alexei. Employees of the Cheka for the sake of confidence killed their victims with bayonets. Even before the execution to the house of Ipatiev drove specially prepared trucks, into which the bodies were loaded. They were buried outside the city. That night the Alapaevsk martyrs were still alive. The Bolsheviks decided on their fate the next day.

Murder at the mine

The Grand Dukes never heard of the murder of Mikhail Alexandrovich and his elder brother. The day of execution of the royal family in Alapaevsk passed, as usual. On the night of July 18, people arrived to the building of the school in which the Romanovs were kept, who announced the need to urgently go to a safe place because of the threat of air raids (Civil War was on). Women have done everything that they demanded of them. The Romanovs tied their hands and tied their eyes. For the exiles, special carts were prepared. In the men's company, everything went wrong. Prince Sergei Mikhailovich refused to obey. He was shot in the arm and forced into the carriage. The brothers Konstantinovichi and Vladimir Paley did not resist.

The carts with the Romanovs went outside the city. The place of their fatal stop was the Lower Selimskaya mine. Connected prisoners led to the descent into one of the abandoned mines. Further interpretations of the event diverge. According to one version, the Romanovs were killed and thrown into the slaughter already dead. According to another, the prisoners were stunned by the ax's butt and then pushed into the abyss. It is known for sure that the mine was pelted with grenades. After that, the hole was filled with logs and covered with earth.

The investigation of Kolchak

The circumstances of the death of the Romanovs (both in the Alapayevsk mine and in the Ipatiev house) are known thanks to the white, briefly established power in the Urals during the Civil War. In October 1918, the Bolsheviks lost control of Yekaterinburg. On the fact of the death of members of the royal family, a case was initiated. Admiral Alexander Kolchak took the investigation under personal control.

Soon it was possible to find the participants of the murder near Alapayevsk. One of them was Bolshevik Vasily Ryabov, who gave valuable testimonies for the investigation. The mine was dug up. The condition of the corpses showed that not all the martyrs of the Alapayevsk mine died at once. So, the body of Vladimir Paley resided in a sitting position. Prince John Konstantinovich was tied up with a part of the apostle Elizabeth Feodorovna. In addition, in the surrounding villages for a long time there were rumors that after the massacre in the abandoned mine area, muffled sounds of prayer were heard.

The myth of the abduction of the princes

The Ural Bolsheviks decided to cover up their crime with throwing in disinformation. The day after Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich and the other Romanovs disappeared, all Alapayevsk was informed of the abduction of the exiles by the White Guards. The same version was defended in a telegram sent by the local executive committee to Yekaterinburg.

Based on this information, a message was written to Sverdlov, Uritsky, and Zinoviev. Soon the Bolshevik vertical formulated an official view of what had happened. It was reported that the White Guards not only kidnapped the Romanovs, but also killed one of the guards. For a visual dramatization, a corpse of an unknown person was left near the school, which for some time had already been lying dead in the dead. After the "disappearance" of the Romanovs, the Red Army men opened fire on the prearranged plan and raised the alarm, imitating the attack of the White Guards. A month later the Soviet authorities conducted an investigation of this episode, which, of course, did not yield any results.

Destiny of the remains

In June 1919, the Red Army launched a counter-offensive against Yekaterinburg. The ROC decided to send coffins with the remains of the Romanovs found in the Alapayevsk mine to the east. When it became clear that the Civil War was lost, they were transported to China. The coffins were buried in the Beijing temple. After World War II, Communists came to power in the Heavenly Empire. The abbots of the temple walled up the remains in such a way that their tracks were completely lost. Chinese temples of the ROC were soon destroyed. Already in the new era, Russian specialists specially came to Beijing to find the remains of the Romanovs, but all attempts ended with nothing.

Even during her lifetime, Elizaveta Fyodorovna said that she wanted to be buried in the Holy Land. Therefore, in 1920, her remains were transferred from Beijing to Palestine. Assistant Grand Duchess - the Monk Martyr Nun Varvara - also found the last rest in Jerusalem.

Canonization

In 1981 the dead in the mine near Alapaevsky were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church abroad. For a long time there was a question about a similar procedure at home. The Russian Orthodox Church listed as saints only two Alapayevsk martyrs (Elizabeth Feodorovna and the nun Varvara). The canonization took place in 1992, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Rehabilitation

The late official view of the USSR on the fate of the murdered Romanovs was that their death was the result of the arbitrariness of the Ural Bolsheviks and workers. The Soviet government throughout its existence refused to recognize the fact that the murders in Alapaevsk, Perm and Yekaterinburg were initiated at the very top of state power. Modern research and disclosed documents showed that the Romanov issue was decided personally by Lenin and Sverdlov.

Prince Igor Konstantinovich and other victims of Alapaevsky were not rehabilitated for a long time. The process of returning their good name began when the head of the Romanovs' house Maria Vladimirovna filed an application to the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation. The official decision on rehabilitation was adopted by this department on June 8, 2009. In the message of the Prosecutor General's Office it was noted that the Romanovs and their proxies had become victims of the Cheka's crime.