Alexander II_ The Last Great Tsar - Edvard Radzinsky [179]
Upon his return from Moscow, Goloshchekin called a meeting of the Ural Soviet Executive Committee.
The loyal Goloshchekin did not say a word about his agreements with Moscow: only the most restricted circle knew about them—the Ural Soviet presidium. The Soviet’s rank-and-file members were certain that today they themselves would decide the Romanovs’ fate. The Whites were advancing. All of them realized what this decision might mean in their lives.
Nevertheless, they passed the decree unanimously. The Ural Soviet’s decree of execution.
From a letter of Alexander Kruglov in Perm:
“My father kept a copy of the text of the decree on shooting the tsar, which was posted around town after the execution:
“ ‘Decree of the Ural Executive Committee of the Soviet of Worker, Peasant, and Red Army Deputies. Possessing information that Czechoslovak bands are threatening the Red capital of the Urals, Ekaterinburg, and bearing in mind that the crowned hangman could hide and escape the people’s tribunal, the Executive Committee, carrying out the will of the people, has decreed to execute the former tsar Nicholas Romanov, guilty of countless bloody crimes.’”
Implementation of the decree was entrusted to Yakov Yurovsky, commandant of the “House of Special Designation.”
“WE HAVE NO NEWS FROM THE OUTSIDE”
Nicholas’s diary:
“30 June [13 July]. Saturday. Alexei took his first bath since Tobolsk. His knee is improving, but he cannot bend it completely. Weather is warm and pleasant. We have no news from the outside.”
With this hopeless sentence, the day after the execution decree, as if he had sensed something, Nicholas closed his diary (see Appendix).
What follows are empty pages carefully numbered by him to the end. There is something awful in those blank pages.
All these days she had been waiting. Waiting for more news from the suddenly silent “Russian army officer.”
She listened and listened to the sounds outside the window.
Alix’s diary:
“June 29 (July 12).… Constantly hear artillery passing, infantry & twice cavalry, during the course of two week. Also troops marching with music—twice. It seems to have been the Austrian prisoners who are marching against the Czechs (also our former prisoners), who are with the troops coming through Siberia & not far from here now. Wounded daily arrive to the town….
“June 30 (July 13). At 6½ Baby had his first bath since Tobolsk. He managed to get in and out alone, climbs also alone in & out of bed, but can only stand on foot as yet.… Rained in the night. Heard three revolver shots in the night.”
THE FINAL THREE DAYS
Three days before their end, Nicholas broke off his diary. She continued hers. She took their story to its end.
“July 1 (14). Sunday. Beautiful summer’s morning. Scarcely slept because of back & legs. 10½. Had the joy of a vespers—the young Priest for the 2nd time.”
It was Sunday. And while the new leader of the country, the atheist Ulyanov, was relaxing at his dacha in Kuntsevo, the former leader of the country, prisoner Romanov, received permission for a service.
Father Storozhev was invited to serve the vespers the family had ordered. Father Storozhev had already held services once in the Ipatiev house, and Yurovsky agreed to call him a second time.
The commandant’s room was slovenly and filthy; grenades and bombs littered the piano. Grigory Nikulin was sleeping on the bed fully clothed after his shift. Yurovsky was slowly drinking his tea and eating his bread and butter. While the priest and deacon arrayed themselves, they began to talk.
“What’s wrong with you?” asked Yurovsky, noticing that Father Storozhev kept wringing his hands.
“I have pleurisy.”
“I had active tuberculosis, too.”
Yurovsky began giving him advice. He was a medic, and he loved dispensing medical advice. In addition, only he understood the importance of the moment: he, a tailor’s pupil from a poor Jewish family, was allowing the last tsar his last service. His last—that he knew for certain.
When Father Storozhev walked into the family’s quarters,