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“At least a hundred Romanovs must have their heads chopped off in order to unlearn their descendants of crimes” (Lenin). That is why the tsar and his family were doomed the moment they arrived at the Ekaterinburg station.

Yakov Yurovsky in 1918: a high-cheekboned face on a short neck; important, unhurried speech; a black leather jacket, black beard, black hair—he really was the “dark gentleman.” He evidently had already learned from the “spy” that Nicholas was keeping a diary in the old style. That was why he came to the door on the thirteenth “old style.” He knew that the mystic tsar noted omens. He appeared before him, the “dark gentleman” did, on that unlucky day like an ominous augury. Like advancing vengeance. He went to see him in the guise of a physician. As a medic, it was easy for him to play that role. Even Derevenko, a doctor, believed it and would later say how professionally he had examined the heir’s leg. In fact, this was more of the same revolutionary symbolism. They were healing this world with revolvers. Carrying out the great mission bequeathed to them in the name of the future by their teacher Marx: “Hasten the agony of the outlived classes.” In the name of this bright future, the tsar’s family had to die.

They began to prepare the Romanovs for the end.

“14 [27] May.… The guard under our window shot at our house when he thought someone was moving by the window after 10 at night. In my opinion he was just fooling around with his rifle the way guards always do.”

I am leafing through a big black notebook in the archive. This is the watch journal: “June 5 at post no. 9 guard Dobrynin fired accidentally, having left off the safety. The bullet went through the ceiling and stuck without causing any damage.

“8 June. Due to the incaution of the guard on duty a bomb exploded. No victims or injuries.”

The comrades handled their weapons artlessly and freely. So the tsar was correct in his entry.

But the guard’s “fooling around” immediately turned into a story about the tsar’s daughters giving someone signals from the windows and a vigilant rifleman immediately shooting at the window. That was how Avdeyev described the incident in his memoirs.

They were making their case.

The valiant Nagorny and the servant Sednev were taken from the house.

“14 [27] May [continued]. After tea Sednev and Nagorny were called in for questioning to the District Soviet.”

At that time, hanging around the Ipatiev house, Gilliard saw Red Army soldiers putting the arrested Nagorny and Sednev into droshkies. They silently exchanged looks but did nothing to betray the Swiss’s presence.

They never came back.

“16 [29] May. Supper at 8 in daylight. Alix went to bed earlier because of migraine. No word about Sednev or Nagorny.”

The Cheka was already at work, combing and weeding out, cutting back the doomed company around the family. To minimize confusion on the decisive night. It was approaching—that night!

They lived their usual life. And kept their diaries.

He: “20 May [2 June]. At 11 o’clock we had vespers. Alexei attended, lying in bed. The weather was magnificent, hot.… It was unbearable to sit that way, locked up, and not be in a position to go out into the garden when you wanted and spend a fine evening outside. The prison regime!”

She: “May 23 (June 5). Wednesday. Get up at 6.30, now at 8.30 by the watch. [That day they changed the clock to the new time.] Glorious morning. Baby did not sleep well. Leg ached probably more because Vlad[imir] Nik[olaevich, Dr. Derevenko] carried him out before the house and put him in my wheeling chair. I sat out with him in the sun … he went to bed as leg ached much for dressing and carrying about. Lunch only brought at 3 o’clock, are putting yet higher planks before all our windows so that not even the top of trees can be seen.”

So, they were “putting yet higher planks before all our windows.” The house was already being readied for something, but what?

At that point Nicholas took to his bed. From the