Alexander II_ The Last Great Tsar - Edvard Radzinsky [216]
In fact, at the Soviet Yurovsky was dealt a cruel blow, which he concealed in his Note.
The son of Chekist Medvedev:
“In the morning my father went to the bazaar and heard from the local merchants a detailed account of where and how the bodies of the tsar’s family had been hidden. That is the real reason why the bodies were buried a second time.”
——
Ermakov’s lads could not hold their tongues. Now they had to start all over. Find a new place, think of where to hide the bodies. They had run out of time—the Whites were on the threshold.
Yurovsky: “The commandant found out from Chutskaev (the chairman of the Municipal Executive Committee) that there were some very deep mines suitable for burying the Romanovs located at verst 9 along the Moscow highway.… The commandant started out but had only gotten partway when his car broke down. He reached the mines on foot. He did indeed find three very deep mines filled with water, where he decided to drown the bodies, having first attached stones to them. Since there were watchmen around who made awkward witnesses, it was decided that along with the truck carrying the bodies a car would come with Chekists, who on the pretext of a search would arrest all the spectators. The commandant had to drive back on a pair of horses he happened to appropriate en route. In the event the plan with the mines did not work out, it was decided to burn the bodies and bury them in the clayey, water-filled pits, after first taking the precaution of disfiguring them beyond the point of identification with sulfuric acid.
“When they finally got back to town it was nearly eight in the evening on July 17, and they began getting together everything they needed—kerosene, sulfuric acid. Driverless carts and horses were taken from the prison.… They did not set out until 12:30 on the night of July 17–18. To isolate the mines (one a prospector’s mine) for the duration of the operation, an announcement was made in Koptyaki that Czechs were hiding in the woods and the forest was going to be searched, so no one should go there for any reason. It was decreed that anyone who broke through the cordoned area would be shot on the spot.”
Steal a pair of horses from a peasant they happen to run into, shoot an inhabitant who accidentally sets foot on the protected zone—all in the name of the shining future.
THE HIDDEN GRAVE
At midnight, the commandant returned to the original nameless mine.
The son of Chekist Medvedev:
“They lit the mine shaft with torches. Vaganov the sailor climbed down into the mine shaft and stood below in the darkness in the icy water, which was up to his chest. A rope was lowered. He tied the bodies to it and sent them up.”
Once again the commandant saw the tsar’s entire family in torchlight. At the same time in Alapaevsk they were killing Ella and the other Ural Romanovs.
Yurovsky: “Meanwhile it was growing light. It occurred to me to bury some of the bodies right there by the mine. We started digging a pit and had almost finished when a peasant Ermakov knew rode up and explained that he could see the hole. We had to abandon that idea and decided to take the bodies to the deep mines.”
The bodies set off once again, on carts at first and then in the truck. With them went Yurovsky. For three whole days he had been living alongside these corpses, “evacuating them to a safe place.”
Yurovsky: “Since the carts proved unstable and were falling apart, the commandant went to town for some vehicles—one truck and two cars for the Chekists. We managed to get on our way only at eight in the evening; we crossed the railroad tracks about half a verst away and moved the bodies onto the truck. We had a hard time, planking over treacherous spots with boards, and still getting stuck several times. At about four-thirty on the morning of July 19 the vehicle got permanently stuck. Since we weren’t going to get as far as the mines, all we could do was either bury them or burn them.… One comrade, whose last name the commandant has