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Everything went just as the grand duke’s valet had told Volkov: Michael refused to go with the men, demanding that Cheka Chairman Malkov (the “important Bolshevik”) be telephoned and citing “the decree on my free choice of residence.”

While Michael was defending his rights, the men waiting outside were growing exasperated.

“Armed with a revolver and a bomb, I entered the room, having first cut the telephone line in the hall,” Markov continued. “Michael Romanov was still being stubborn, citing illness, and demanding a doctor and Malkov. Then I ordered him taken as he was. They threw whatever came to hand on him and started to take him away, after which he began to get ready and asked whether he needed to take any things with him. I told him someone else would collect his things. Then he asked to take along at least his personal secretary, Brian Johnson. Since that was in our plans, we consented. Michael Romanov threw on a raincoat. N. V. Zhuzhgov grabbed him by the collar and told him to go outside, which he did. Johnson followed voluntarily. Michael Romanov was put in a phaeton. N. V. Zhuzhgov sat behind the coachman, and V. A. Ivanchenko next to Michael Romanov.”

They bravely grabbed the grand duke by the collar (not the shoulder as the valet had testified, concealing the gentleman’s humiliation)—five armed against three unarmed men. To his death—by the collar!

“We rode as far as the kerosene storehouses,” Markov recounted, “which is 5 versts [3.5 miles] from the village of Motovilikha. We went another verst from the storehouses and turned right into the forest.… We met no one on the road [it was night]. When we had gone 100–120 sazhens [750 feet], Zhuzhgov shouted: ‘Get out.’ I jumped out quickly and demanded that my rider Johnson get out, too. As soon as he got up to get out of the phaeton I shot him in the temple; he swayed and fell. Kolpashchikov fired at Johnson, too, but his bullet stuck in his pistol. Zhuzhgov was doing the same thing, but he only wounded Michael Romanov. Romanov ran toward me with his arms spread open begging to say goodbye to his secretary. Zhuzhgov’s drum got stuck in his revolver [his bullets were homemade]. I had to make the second shot at a rather close distance (about a sazhen) from Michael Romanov’s head and felled him on the spot.

“… We couldn’t bury the corpses since it was growing light quickly and it was so close to the road. We just dragged them together to one side, heaped them with twigs, and returned to Motovilikha. Zhuzhgov and a very reliable policeman went back that night to do the burying.”

Tall, thin Michael, after taking a bullet, his arms spread wide, runs, begging to say goodbye, and in reply—another bullet!

After the murder Markov took the watch off the murdered Johnson, “a souvenir,” as he explained to Alikina. We will have cause to recall this tradition of murderers: taking watches off the slain.

Alikina recorded a most interesting detail at the end of the conversation. “Andrei Vasilievich Markov said at the end that after the execution of Michael Romanov he went to Moscow. With the help of Sverdlov he was received by Lenin, whom he told about the event.”

Such was the “lynching” in which the leaders of the local Cheka, the police, and the head of one of the Soviets participated. And about which they went with pride to tell the head of state.

WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE HAPPENED?

As they put an end to Michael, the unsuspecting family was feverishly preparing for the trip to Moscow.

We now know how Michael’s individual trip went. We can also imagine how the group trip of Nicholas and his family proceeded.

——

A month later, according to the scenario worked out in Ekaterinburg, a group trip for some other Romanovs would be carried out. Alix’s sister Ella, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, the sons of Grand Duke Konstantin—Ioann, Igor, and Konstantin—young Prince Oleg Paley, and their servants had all been held since May on the outskirts of Alapaevsk.

On July 18 a local cook would see them all get into wagons very