Alexander II_ The Last Great Tsar - Edvard Radzinsky [192]
“During his shift [from twelve midnight to four in the morning] the tsar and tsaritsa, all the tsar’s children, and the servant were brought downstairs … and taken to that room next to the storeroom. Strekotin explained that he saw Commandant Yurovsky read a piece of paper and say, ‘Your life is over.’
“The tsar didn’t quite hear and asked him to repeat it, and the tsaritsa and one of their daughters crossed themselves. At that moment Yurovsky shot the tsar, killing him on the spot, then the Latvians and the guard commander began firing.”
In the barracks on July 18, Letyomin saw the driver Lyukhanov, who told him that he had taken the slain away in the truck and added that they had almost not made it: “It was dark and there were lots of little stumps.” But where he took the corpses, Lyukhanov did not say.
The investigator interviewed Yakimov, the head of the guard:
“At dawn, at four o’clock, Yakimov was awakened by the guards Kleshchev and Deryabin and told the following:
“Medvedev and Dobrynin had come to them at their posts and warned them the tsar would be shot that night. At this news, they both went over to the windows.
“Kleshchev went to the window of the downstairs entry, next to his post. Through that window, looking toward the garden, he could see the door to the room where they were going to be shooting. The door was open, and Kleshchev could see everything going on in the room.
“Deryabin’s post was next to the other window, the only barred window of the execution room. He saw what happened, too.
“Through their windows they saw men going into the room from the courtyard. In front were Yurovsky and Nikulin, behind them the sovereign, his wife and daughters, as well as Botkin, Demidova, the lackey Trupp, and the cook Kharitonov. Nicholas was carrying the heir. In the rear walked Medvedev and the Latvians, whom Yurovsky had signed out from the Cheka. They arranged themselves like this: to the right of the entrance was Yurovsky, to the left of him stood Nikulin, the Latvians stood right in the doorway, and behind them was Medvedev [Pavel]. Through the window Deryabin could see part of Yurovsky’s body but primarily his arm. He saw Yurovsky saying something and waving his arm. What exactly he said Deryabin could not tell. He said he could not hear the words. Kleshchev, though, stated positively that he did hear Yurovsky’s words: ‘Nicholas Alexandrovich, your relatives have tried to save you, but they have not succeeded, and we are forced to shoot you ourselves.’ Immediately after Yurovsky spoke several shots rang out, followed by a woman’s wail, shouts, and several female voices. Those being shot began to fall one after the other: first the tsar, after him the heir. Demidova was rushing about. Both of them told Yakimov that she shielded herself with a pillow. According to them she was stabbed with bayonets.
“When all had fallen, they began to examine them and finish off a few of them with a shot or a stab. But of those with the name Romanov, they cited only Anastasia as being stabbed with bayonets. When they all had fallen, someone brought a few sheets from the family’s rooms. They began winding the slain in the sheets and carrying them out to the truck, where they put the corpses on a cloth from the storeroom and covered them all with that same cloth.”
But again, these are not eyewitness statements. This is still a story at second hand.
At long last, though, the investigation took the first and only statement from someone who himself had been in that half-cellar room.
——
From the investigator’s interview with Pavel Medvedev,