CHAPTER XVTHE RED KAISER

“FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH”The above group was taken at Tobolsk during the captivity. All except M. Pierre Gilliard, the French tutor (in the centre), died for their loyalty to the Imperial family. Countess Hendrikova is seated on the right with Mlle. Schneider by her side. Their mangled bodies were found outside Perm. Count Tatishchev (left) and Prince Dolgoruky (right) “disappeared” at Ekaterinburg. Two bodies, supposed to be theirs, were found outside the city, one bearing documents of “citizen Dolgorukov.”

“FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH”

The above group was taken at Tobolsk during the captivity. All except M. Pierre Gilliard, the French tutor (in the centre), died for their loyalty to the Imperial family. Countess Hendrikova is seated on the right with Mlle. Schneider by her side. Their mangled bodies were found outside Perm. Count Tatishchev (left) and Prince Dolgoruky (right) “disappeared” at Ekaterinburg. Two bodies, supposed to be theirs, were found outside the city, one bearing documents of “citizen Dolgorukov.”

THE FAULTS OF THE EARLIER INQUIRYN. A. Sokolov, pointing to the wall of Ipatiev’s house, calls attention to a serious omission made by his predecessor. General Diterichs (seated) listens. The other auditor is M. Magnitsky, Prokuror (Public Prosecutor) of the Ekaterinburg Court. Photograph taken in the garden, beside the terrace.

THE FAULTS OF THE EARLIER INQUIRY

N. A. Sokolov, pointing to the wall of Ipatiev’s house, calls attention to a serious omission made by his predecessor. General Diterichs (seated) listens. The other auditor is M. Magnitsky, Prokuror (Public Prosecutor) of the Ekaterinburg Court. Photograph taken in the garden, beside the terrace.

AT THE GANINA MINEOn the left, Mr. Sydney Gibbes, the Tsarevich’s tutor; on the right, looking down the shaft, Mr. Robert Wilton, “The London Times” Special Correspondent. At the bottom of this shaft was a false floor beneath which the ashes of the victims were cunningly concealed. The bodies had been cut up near the shaft and burned on two pyres, one next to this spot.

AT THE GANINA MINE

On the left, Mr. Sydney Gibbes, the Tsarevich’s tutor; on the right, looking down the shaft, Mr. Robert Wilton, “The London Times” Special Correspondent. At the bottom of this shaft was a false floor beneath which the ashes of the victims were cunningly concealed. The bodies had been cut up near the shaft and burned on two pyres, one next to this spot.

THE PYRE AT THE BIRCH TREEN. A. Sokolov, General Domontovich and his A. D. C. pose at the limits of the larger pyre, where most of the bodies and clothing were cremated. Alongside stands the tree with the tell-tale inscription.

THE PYRE AT THE BIRCH TREE

N. A. Sokolov, General Domontovich and his A. D. C. pose at the limits of the larger pyre, where most of the bodies and clothing were cremated. Alongside stands the tree with the tell-tale inscription.

THE HAND OF THE RED JEW MURDERERSThe above is a facsimile of the original message filed at the Ekaterinburg telegraph office by the local Soviet chiefs to the Moscow Tsik (Centr. Ex. Committee) on July 4, 1918, twelve days before the murder. In it, Beloborodov, the Russian “dummy” president, informs Sverdlov through Goloschekin that Syromolotov is hastening to Moscow to take final instructions for the “affair” and that the Russian Guards have been replaced by “others”, i.e. by German soldiers.

THE HAND OF THE RED JEW MURDERERS

The above is a facsimile of the original message filed at the Ekaterinburg telegraph office by the local Soviet chiefs to the Moscow Tsik (Centr. Ex. Committee) on July 4, 1918, twelve days before the murder. In it, Beloborodov, the Russian “dummy” president, informs Sverdlov through Goloschekin that Syromolotov is hastening to Moscow to take final instructions for the “affair” and that the Russian Guards have been replaced by “others”, i.e. by German soldiers.

at Ekaterinburg. They were quite positive about it. They even pointed out the place where “Anastasia” had been buried. The bodies—there were many—were exhumed; the only one that was a young woman’s was unmistakably identified by the local police as that of “Nastia Vorovka” (the thief Nastia)—a well-known criminal.

The Komisar Safarov, afterwards editor of the official “Izvestiya,” wrote an article on the “execution” which figures in thedossieras an interesting sidelight on the motives of the crime and its methods. It is only fair that the accused should speak for themselves. I here give a plain, unvarnished rendering of this “defence”:

“In the places seized by the Czecho-Slovaks and bands of White-guards in Siberia and the Southern Ural, authority has fallen into the hands of Black-hundred pogromists composed of purest Monarchists by profession. The real intentions of the White-guards of the Quadruple Entente are made plain by the mere fact that at the head of them all, as supreme war-lord, stands the Tsar’s general Alexeiev, the most devoted servant of Nicholas the Sanguinary, himself a convinced blood-shedder (palách)....“Around Nicholas all the time was spread an artful network of conspiracies. One of them was discovered during the transit from Tobolsk to Ekaterinburg.” (Safarov here suggests that Yakovlev was a traitor, and passes over in silence the whole history of the interrupted journey. This compels the inference, which is borne out by scores of direct evidences that the Tsik, i.e., Sverdlov, deliberately sent the Romanovs into a death-trap.) Safarov continues: “Another plot was discovered just before the execution of Nicholas. The participants in the last conspiracy to deliver the murderer of workmen and peasants out of a peasant-workman’s prison clearly identified their hopes with the hope that the Red capital of the Ural would be occupied by Czecho-Slovak-Whiteguard pogromists.“General Alexeiev wanted to bring over into his Stavka (G.H.Q.) his own Tsar.” (The General had long been dead when Safarov wrote this article.) “His calculations have not been justified. The people’s assizes (narodny sud) have judged the All-Russian murderer and anticipated the plans of the counter-revolution. The will of the Revolution has been accomplished although many of the formal aspects ofbourgeoislegal procedure were infringed, and the traditional, historical ceremonial of the execution of ‘crowned personages’ was not observed. The peasant-workingman’s authority here also expressed itself in a form of extreme democratism;[14]it made no difference for the All-Russian murderer and had him shot just like an ordinary robber (razboinik). Nicholas the Sanguinary is no more, and the workmen and peasants may with full right say to their enemies: You played your stake on the Imperial crown. You have lost. Take your change—an empty crowned head.”

“Around Nicholas all the time was spread an artful network of conspiracies. One of them was discovered during the transit from Tobolsk to Ekaterinburg.” (Safarov here suggests that Yakovlev was a traitor, and passes over in silence the whole history of the interrupted journey. This compels the inference, which is borne out by scores of direct evidences that the Tsik, i.e., Sverdlov, deliberately sent the Romanovs into a death-trap.) Safarov continues: “Another plot was discovered just before the execution of Nicholas. The participants in the last conspiracy to deliver the murderer of workmen and peasants out of a peasant-workman’s prison clearly identified their hopes with the hope that the Red capital of the Ural would be occupied by Czecho-Slovak-Whiteguard pogromists.

“General Alexeiev wanted to bring over into his Stavka (G.H.Q.) his own Tsar.” (The General had long been dead when Safarov wrote this article.) “His calculations have not been justified. The people’s assizes (narodny sud) have judged the All-Russian murderer and anticipated the plans of the counter-revolution. The will of the Revolution has been accomplished although many of the formal aspects ofbourgeoislegal procedure were infringed, and the traditional, historical ceremonial of the execution of ‘crowned personages’ was not observed. The peasant-workingman’s authority here also expressed itself in a form of extreme democratism;[14]it made no difference for the All-Russian murderer and had him shot just like an ordinary robber (razboinik). Nicholas the Sanguinary is no more, and the workmen and peasants may with full right say to their enemies: You played your stake on the Imperial crown. You have lost. Take your change—an empty crowned head.”

The Russian peasants at Ekaterinburg looked at the matter differently. They caught Vaganov, one of the regicides, and killed him on the spot. It was very distressful to the Investigating Magistrate, but he could not prosecute the peasants; there were too many of them, and they would not have understood. It had appeared to them the right thing to do, to slay the Russian who had laid hands upon the Tsar.

But Safarov eludes issues he himself raises. Why not have sent the Tsar for trial to the capital, to Moscow? Surely, that was the place where the “will of the Revolution” could have been properly displayed! All these wonderful conspiracies of which he speaks made it all the more necessary to send him there and save the Ural Soviet from all responsibility. The approach of the Whites should have caused the local chieftains not to delay one single day. Why not? Because Sverdlov had already sent for Syromolotov to arrange the murder....

The cynical references to “bourgeoislegal procedure” and to “historical ceremonial” will, it is to be hoped, put an end for ever to the legend of a “trial.”

Yankel Sverdlov conversed with his agents in Ekaterinburg over the direct wire before and after the murder, giving directions when necessary. They forgot to destroy all evidence of these conversations. When the investigation was confided to experienced and fearless hands, one of the first measures taken was to thoroughly overhaul the records of the Telegraph Office. It yielded astonishing results. I give some of the documents in this and the following chapters.

Here is the record of a conversation between the Red Tsar and, apparently, Beloborodov, the former in Moscow, the latter in Ekaterinburg. This record was written in pencil on the backs of telegram blanks. There are six such blanks. The writing is evidently of one and the same person. It consists of questions asked by Sverdlov and answers thereto. The record was made obviously on the 20th July, three days after the murder. Here it is, textually translated:—

“What is heard with you?

“The position on the front is somewhat better than it appeared yesterday. It is ascertained that the opponent has denuded all fronts and flung all his forces on Ekaterinburg. Can we hold Ekaterinburg long? It is difficult to say. We are taking all measures to hold it. Everything superfluous has been evacuated from Ekaterinburg. Yesterday a courier left with the documents that interest you. Communicate the decision of the Tsik, and may we acquaint the population by means of the text that you know?

“At a meeting of the Tsik presidium on the 18th it was decided (postanovleno) to recognise the decision of the Ur. Reg. Sovdep as regular (pravilnym). You may publish your own text. With us yesterday, in all the newspapers was inserted a corresponding announcement. I have this instant sent for the exact text and will communicate it to you (tebié,i.e., to thee. Sverdlov is speaking to an inferior).

. . . . . .

“This moment I shall hand over the exact text of our publication....”

I do not reproduce it. There is no need. The “wireless” printed inThe London Timesof July 22, 1918, is the exact and accurate translation of the text given in this conversation recorded in Ekaterinburg two days previously. (The Moscow and the Ekaterinburg texts are given in Chapter X.) What better evidence could be found of the genuineness of the above record? It stops there. But it tells us volumes. It is the language of conspirators, of accomplices in a crime, and of a superior whose orders and whose initiative alone count. Yankel Sverdlov assumes his true proportions. He and the Bolshevist Government in which he was omnipotent as president of the Central Executive Committee (Tsik) and virtually chief also of the Red Inquisition are forever identified with the murders that have been described in this work. The courier referred to is Yurovsky. We know that he left on the 19th with the plunder and, it is believed, the “heads.” The Whites were beginning to concentrate their forces. That was four days after the “execution.”

But why all these precautions? If the people are so anxious to try and to punish their late ruler, why resort to all manner of subterfuges, both in committing the “execution” and in acquainting the people of the death of their “oppressor”? The answer is a simple one: Sverdlov and his associates were not sure of the people. The reason of that is equally simple: they were not Russians; theywere Jews. They were “internationalists,” repudiating all nationality, yet disguised under Russian names. The Russians in their midst were dupes or dummies. Krassin might come to clear the ground, but Apfelbaum-Kamenev appeared for the serious work. What happened in London in 1920 is comparable in a modest way with the Red mechanism in Russia itself.

Taken according to numbers of population, the Jews represented one in ten; among the komisars that rule Bolshevist Russia they are nine in ten—if anything, the proportion of Jews is still greater.

There has been no intention here to ascribe the murder of the Romanovs to a race vendetta: it is the Jewish organisations in this and other countries that have emphasised this aspect of the Soviet crimes by their persistent attempts to prove that no Jews took part in them. Why do they not follow the example of the bold Rabbi who excommunicated Laiba Braunstein, alias Leo Trotsky, for the abominable crimes that Jew had committed against humanity and against civilisation? Why are they trying to screen the sinister Red Tsar Yankel Sverdlov and his host of Jewish assassins—the Isai Goloshchekins, the Yankel Yurovskys?

They feared the Russian people, they feared the Romanovs because they were Russians, they feared Nicholas Romanov because he had been a Russian Tsar and when he refused to be seduced from his loyalty to his people and to the Allies they resolvedthat he should die—he and all the Romanovs. This resolve was carried out when the advance of anti-Bolshevist forces gave a reasonable hope of sophisticating the crime and avoiding a just punishment.

And so definite was Jew-ruled Moscow on the necessity of the ex-Tsar’s death that a whole month before the murder, the report persisted that Nicholas II. was dead. On the 21st June the Komisar of the Press, named Stark, telegraphed to the Presidium of the Sovdep at Ekaterinburg: “Urgently inform regarding authenticity reports Nicholas Romanov killed”; on the 23rd, Bonch-Bruevich, the secretary of the Sovnarkom (Council of people’s Commissaries of which Lenin is president), telegraphed to the President of the Ekaterinburg Sovdep (i.e., Beloborodov): “Information circulating Moscow alleging former Emperor Nicholas the Second killed. Send any available information.” A certain Boyard arrived in Ekaterinburg on the 9th July and telegraphed to the French Consul in Moscow: “Am staying meanwhile at British Consulate. Reports about Romanov false.”

The Germans knew what they were doing when they sent Lenin’s pack of Jews into Russia. They chose them as agents of destruction. Why? Because the Jews were not Russians and to them the destruction of Russia was all in the way of business, revolutionary or financial. The whole record of Bolshevism in Russia is indelibly impressed withthe stamp of alien invasion. The murder of the Tsar, deliberately planned by the Jew Sverdlov (who came to Russia as a paid agent of Germany) and carried out by the Jews, Goloshchekin, Syromolotov, Safarov, Voikov and Yurovsky, is the act not of the Russian people but of this hostile invader.

The Jewish domination in Russia is supported by certain Russians: the “burgess” Ulianov alias Lenin, the “noble” Chicherin, the “dissenter” Bonch-Bruevich. They are all mere screens or dummies behind which the Sverdlovs and the thousand and one Jews of Sovdepia continue their work of destruction; having wrecked and plundered Russia by appealing to the ignorance of the working folk, they are now using their dupes to set up a new tyranny worse than any that the world has known.

Sovietdom has consecrated three heroes to whom monuments have been erected: to Karl Marx, to Judas Iscariot, and to Leo Tolstoi, the three names that are associated with Revolution, Apostacy and Anarchism; two of them Jews.

When the Jew Kanegisser assassinated the Jew Uritsky, the Soviets ordained a Terror throughout the land. Rivers of Russian blood had to wipe away the stain caused by a Jew who dared to oppose the Jewish rulers of unhappy Russia.

When Yakovlev failed to remove the Tsarevich from Tobolsk and to “convert” the Tsar, he disappointed Mirbach more than he disappointed Sverdlov.

The Jews feared the Russians, but the Germans wanted to use them. The Red Tsar planned to exterminate the Romanovs, but the Red Kaiser proposed to reinstate Nicholas.

For a time their respective schemes assumed divergent courses; in the end, Wilhelm’s agents realised that they could not dissociate themselves from the Red Tsar, and it was the latter’s plan that prevailed. But, morally as well as practically, the German hand which had brought the Jew murderers into Russia controlled and directed the assassins’ work. Only when Berlin realised that the Romanovs were irrevocably on the side of the Entente did they release the hands of the murderers.

The proposal that Yakovlev brought to Tobolsk was much more insidious than the Tsar understood it to be. Nicholas was not only to endorse the peace concluded at Brest; he was to seize the reins of power with the help of German bayonets and togive his only son to be a lawful Tsar under German tutelage.

This meant the intervention of Russia in the war again, but on the German side. The Red Kaiser and his staff did not trust their Red agents any more.

While Yakovlev went to Tobolsk as envoy extraordinary of the Tsik (but in reality of the German G.H.Q.) the official representative of Germany to the Soviet Government, with which she was in treaty and in virtual alliance, was summoning a secret conference of Anti-Soviet Russians to arrange for the advent of the “new government” desired by Ludendorff.

It was a very pretty scheme, quite on German lines. But it failed at every point. The Germans once more had shown a total incapacity to understand human nature. Nicholas scorned the base overtures; the Russianintelligentsiadisplayed, on this occasion, a sound understanding of their duties and interests.[15]The illness of Alexis was another obstacle, though in itself it made no difference.

Sverdlov was not disturbed by Yakovlev’s failure to bring Nicholas and Alexis to Moscow. He had his agents everywhere. While Soloviev acted as watch-dog over the captives of Tobolsk so that no stranger to German plans should spirit them away, innumerable Red Solovievs hemmed the captives in. The common herd of the Soviets knewnothing, of course. The strings were cunningly, discreetly pulled from Moscow according to the best methods of Potsdam and the Wilhelmstrasse.

No sooner had Yakovlev started on the terrible rush of 160 miles over bogs and rivers running deep water over breaking ice to Tiumen than the Jewish conclave in Ekaterinburg received its orders—to stop the travellers at all costs. Omsk was at once “stampeded” by the false statement that Yakovlev was trying to arrange a rescue. Yakovlev was really seeking to escape the North Ural net by taking the south Ural route. He did not have to go through Omsk at all, but to change from the Perm on to the Samara line. There was no escaping out of the country by that route then. It could lead only to Moscow. Nevertheless, this train was turned back to Ekaterinburg. Sverdlov did not really want the Romanovs to go further. He could not afford to quarrel openly with his former paymasters, but he was probably shrewd enough and sufficiently well informed to suspect their secret designs.

The talk of a trial in Moscow did not begin till much later, when Moscow rumour reported the Tsar as already defunct, and solely as an antidote to those rumours, as they threatened to upset the plan of murder.

Sakovich, formerly surgeon in a hussar regiment and ex-ultra-monarchist, appertained to the Ural Regional Sovdep as Komisar of Health. He deposed afterwards that he had overheard Goloshchekin, Safarov and Voikov discussing with Beloborodov the alternative of wrecking the train with Nicholas Romanov or of “arranging” an accident. In the former case, the responsibility would be placed on “counter-revolutionaries” trying to effect a rescue. He did not listen to all the details as it did not concern his department. But the Jews did not have to carry out the plan then. The Germans were still in favour of the survival of Nicholas. The idea was utilised some months later at Alapaevsk. I have a copy of the message sent afterwards to Moscow and Petrograd in which the murderers seriously describe the “rescue” staged by them after the murder as having been the cause of the grand ducal “disappearance.”

The Romanovs were suffered to live. A German mission (ostensibly Red Cross) came to Ekaterinburg at the end of May to ascertain all about the life of the “residents of Ipatiev’s house,” as the Imperial prisoners were officially styled. These spies went straight to Berlin with their report. The Red Kaiser knew full well what torments were being endured by those whom he had professed to cherish, who after all were his kith and kin. He could have saved them at any time. But ... they would not be saved by him....

Mirbach’s death did not, perhaps, introduce any modification of the plan of slaughter. He was assassinated one week before the event. The Bolsheviks declared that his death was an act of provocation committed by their Socialist opponents and gravely resolved that they must not quarrel with Germany, because that would only be playing into the hands of the assassins. This solemn farce had a deeper meaning.

During the summer of that year the Siberian anti-Bolshevist units began to grow in numbers and strength. The Germans had themselves foolishly promoted this reaction by arresting the departure of the Czechs and compelling them to fight. A Siberian Army was quickly springing into existence. It might drive the Red Tsar out of Moscow and thus, instead of an ally or agent there, the Red Kaiser would find himself confronted by a hostile Russia. The war was slowly dragging to its fateful end; every battalion counted. The Entente knew what the assistance of Russia meant, so the Entente went to the aid of the Czechs and Siberians.

Ludendorff does justice to this tragic dilemma in his book of “War Memories” “...the Entente, realising that they could not work with a Government which looked for support to Germany, took action against Bolshevism, and instead of sending these troops (the Czechs) to France, held them up along the Siberian railway on the frontier between Russia and Siberia, in order to fight the Government in Moscow. In addition to this, by garrisoning the railway, the Entente prevented the return of our prisoners of war from Siberia. This wasunquestionably a serious loss to us.” (Vol. II, p. 654.)

The holding up of the Czechs was Ludendorff’s own work. He is ashamed to admit it, and puts the cart before the horse in pleading that the Entente displayed such far-sighted activity. Moreover, it was precisely the German-Magyar prisoners of war who, rallying to the appeal of their Kaisers, stopped the departure of the Czechs. Ludendorff is too modest. But his statement makes one point crystal-clear: that in the German view the plan to get rid of the played-out Red Tsar, to put a subservient White Tsar in his place, had to be dropped. The Red Tsar might be useful yet. As Dr. Ritzler had remarked: “The Bolsheviks are still necessary.”

The usefulness of the Bolsheviks was to be twofold: (1) to defend the German front in Russia; (2) to prevent the White Tsar from joining the Russian forces of the Entente.

This being the story of the Tsar’s murder, we are concerned chiefly with the second part of Yankel Sverdlov’s German programme. How was it to be carried out, so that there should be no possible mistake? Obviously, there was only one way—through death’s dark portals. To bring the Tsar or the Tsarevich to Moscow would involve risks. The Jews were in a fright; telegrams discovered in Ekaterinburg show that they trusted none of the Russians in their employ. That is why the Romanovs remained in Ekaterinburg.

Four days before Mirbach’s assassination, consequently while the Red Tsar had his daily audiences with the representative of the Red Kaiser, Goloshchekin was already in Moscow, had discussed the murder with Sverdlov, and had telegraphed to Beloborodov to send another member of the Conclave to Moscow.

The Germans approved the murder; there can be no doubt on this point. The position held by Mirbach in Moscow, his daily reports from the members of the Red Inquisition, which naturally had the closest connection with the arrangements for the murder, such as the sending to Ekaterinburg of the ten Magyar-German “Letts” as executioners, are conclusive evidences. The Red Tsar and the Red Kaiser were in accord.

But it was absolutely essential that no Russians should be left inside the house where the Romanovs were to die. Whether the Germans assented to the wholesale slaughter that took place remains in doubt. By that time Mirbach had gone to his last account, and the bloodthirstiness of the Jewish murderers perhaps exceeded the German design, and therein may be found a good reason for the report of the “safety” of the family, but the Red Kaiser cannot escape responsibility for the whole crime, any more than can the Red Tsar who planned it and the Sovietrégimethat rendered such a crime possible.

Here is a translation of the original typewrittentelegram found in the archives of the Telegraph Office in Ekaterinburg and included in thedossier:

“Moscow.“To President ofTsik SverdlovforGoloshchekin.“Syromolotov has just gone for organisation of affair in accordance with directions of Centre. Apprehensions unfounded stop Avdeiev superseded, his assistant Moshkin arrested. Yurovsky replaces Avdeiev. Interior guard all relieved replaced by others. stop. 4558.“Beloborodov.”

“Moscow.“To President ofTsik SverdlovforGoloshchekin.

“Syromolotov has just gone for organisation of affair in accordance with directions of Centre. Apprehensions unfounded stop Avdeiev superseded, his assistant Moshkin arrested. Yurovsky replaces Avdeiev. Interior guard all relieved replaced by others. stop. 4558.

“Beloborodov.”

Below the text in black ink is marked the date: “4/VII” and further, in ink of the same colour: “Telegram received,” after which in black pencil is the signature: “Komisar To ...” (the rest of the name illegible), this representative of the Soviet being in charge of the telegraph office and endorsing all official messages as they were handed in for transmission.

This message needs no explanation. It is a full and crushing confirmation of all that has preceded: Fear of the Russians; preparation of the murder; direction of the plan from Moscow; and eagerness of the local Jews to anticipate the signal for the butchery. The horrible servility of the dummy president Beloborodov is disclosed in all its nakedness. He hastens to assure his Jewish masters thattheir “apprehensions” are “unfounded.” The German-Magyars who had done their best to carry out the Red Kaiser’s behest to capture Siberia and to crush any hope of Russia’s military revival, they were now called in to consummate the Red Kaiser’s plan by murdering the Tsar.

For all that has been stated in these chapters there is unimpeachable authority. There is thedossier. And there is the overwhelming corroboration of the horrible realities that have converted a large part of Europe into a charnel, Russia into a pest-house and the rest of the world into a hot-bed of unrest.

And pre-eminent among the Doers of Evil, murderers and despoilers, has been the Red Kaiser.

When, in 1915, he wrote to the Tsar, asking him to recall the days when they were friends, and Nicholas, mindful of the bitter lessons that friendship had entailed, replied that those days must forever be forgotten, Wilhelm of Hohenzollern started the machinery that was to sweep out of existence the Tsardom and Russia, and the hapless Romanovs.

In the autumn of 1915 there assembled in Vienna the representatives of the German and Austrian General-Staffs to discuss a plan for the promotion of a revolutionary movement in Russia. It was then that all the outlines of the “Russian” revolution were laid down; it was at this meeting that the leading actors in the Red tragedy were chosen:the Lenins and the Sverdlovs and the host of Jewish wreckers, who spent the interval between their engagement and their appearance on the Russian stage in the calm of Swiss resorts, studying and rehearsing their parts.

The money that financed the “Russian” revolution was German money, and—I say it on the strongest evidence which can be corroborated in the German secret archives—Yankel Sverdlov Received a Salary From the Germans Till November 7, 1917, when, becoming Red Tsar of All the Russias, he had at his disposal loot unimaginable.

And thus it came to pass that the Germans who slew the Tsar and the Jews who organised, aided and abetted the murder each left his mark upon the walls of Ipatiev’s house.

Many hundreds of relics were collected in and around Ekaterinburg by the law, and more particularly by the military, officers of the White government. The larger number had no value as clues. They were personal belongings—jewelry, clothing, linen—that had been stolen before and after the murder. By Admiral Kolchak’s orders, this property was taken to Vladivostok by General Diterichs in February, 1919, and sent to the Tsar’s sister the Grand Duchess Xenia as next-of-kin.

Those of the Romanovs who had not been in the power of the Soviets and had succeeded in leaving the country were destitute. The total fortune belonging to the Tsar in England amounted to £500.

Two days after the murder, the Soviet government issued a decree declaring all the property and possessions of the Romanovs forfeited to them. This act had a double purpose: to afford any banks holding funds to the credit of the family a pretext for non-payment; to “legitimise” the robbery of the corpses in the wood and the appropriation of the valuables left in Ekaterinburg.

The ropes of pearls and the matchless pearl necklaces snatched from the bodies have been the objects of barter on the Continental and London markets. Red missions smuggled in a huge quantity of jewels belonging to the Crown and to the Romanovs personally as well as to other individuals—all “forfeited” in the same manner.

Among the relics was a private code that was found in the ventilator of the Ipatiev lavatory. It bore the following inscription in the Empress’s hand: “For my own beloved Nicky, dear, to use when he is absent from his ‘spitzbu.’ Fr. his lovingly, Alice. Osborne, July, 1894.” The German word had been erased and rewritten in Russian! The owner of this little book had evidently prized it above everything else and fearing that it might be taken away from him had hidden it—hoping, no doubt, to claim it some day.

Also among the mementoes from her funeral pyre came a ruby that belonged to the murdered Empress. It was identified by her maid who told the following story: “The Emperor gave Her Majesty a ruby ring when she was only fifteen. They fell in love even then. It was at the wedding of her sister the Grand Duchess Elizabeth. After that they thought about each other for eight years. The Empress always wore the ruby ring hanging on a chain on her breast.”

The spaniel Joy also came to England. Both the dogs that were most highly prized by the Imperial family were of English breeds. Jemmy, whodied with his masters, was a diminutive black-and-tan King Charles, so small that he could not mount the Ipatiev stairs unaided.

The sufferings of the Romanovs in Ipatiev’s house were so terrible that it is not seemly to misrepresent them, as some writers have done, in sordid fashion. I have the inventory of the house and its contents, signed by Ipatiev and the Komisars; I have theprocès-verbalof Sergeiev’s inspection, made within a fortnight of the murder; lastly, I have the evidence of my own eyes. The house itself contained every comfort and convenience: electric light, excellent stoves, a well appointed bath-room and lavatory, electric bells everywhere, plenty of good and even luxurious furniture. The bath was in working order and, when Sergeiev visited it contained: firewood for the heater, sheets bearing the Imperial monogram and a cake of soap on the rack, besides numerous other signs of frequent usage. The brutal guards, being used to the Russian steam bath, were not interested in this “outlandish” contrivance, and except for their prying and offensive habits did not apparently stand in the way of personal cleanliness.

The story of girlish locks shorn because of the impossibility of other methods of combating dirt and its consequences is not borne out by the evidence. “Combings” of hair of four different hues were found; also some short hair in the bath-room. One would expect to find them. It is stated in thedossierthat a barber visited the house to attend the Tsar and the Tsarevich.

Each member of the family had his or her bed. There were sheets, pillows and blankets. There was a wash-house in the court-yard.

For some reason the house was deficient in crockery and plate and table linen, hence quite needless discomfort was inflicted upon the family at mealtimes. The peasant-guards, inoculated with the anti-bourgeois theories, saw no particular hardship in their feeding out of one dish, as they themselves are accustomed to do in the villages.

The torment that was endured by the captives was far worse than any merely physical privations. But one such privation did affect them very grievously: the utter impossibility of seeing anything at all beyond the painted glass of their windows. The youngest Grand Duchess (Anastasia) one day could not brook this privation any longer and managed to open a window in the girls’ room. She almost paid for this act with her life. The sentry in the inner hoarding immediately fired, just missing her. The bullet lodged in the window frame. Anastasia gained nothing except a fright. She saw nothing except the hoarding of the sentry, and did not wait for a second shot.

In the room where the Imperial couple and Alexis lived and slept—next to the chamber in which their four daughters were crowded—Alexandra placed a good-luck sign. It was so unobtrusive that Gaida, the Czech commander who forcibly installed himself in this room, probably did not notice it. In pencil she formed the mystic sign of swastika and inscribed the date “17/30 April,” the day of her arrival in the house.

ALEXANDRA’S GOOD LUCK SIGN

In the death-chamber in addition to the “Belsatzar” inscription was one that has yet to be deciphered. It is in thick black ink, written with an expert hand, and just below, on the window-sill are three groups of figures that may or may not have a meaning.

THE MYSTERIOUS INSCRIPTIONS IN THE DEATH CHAMBER.

Some of the persons with whom the reader has become familiar have gone to their last account.

The Russian regicide Medvedev died in prison of typhus early last year. His accomplice Yakimov died in prison of inflammation of the lungs at the end of last year. Their death and burial certificates are both in thedossier.

Yurovsky wrote a letter to a certain Dr. A. before he fled from Ekaterinburg imploring him to protect his old mother “who does not share my views but who may suffer simply because I am her son.” It is at once an avowal of guilt and a proof that even the most blood-thirsty wretch has some good in him. This man had coolly tortured, murdered and cut up innocent children, and was not able to remove his old mother because he had to take the proofs of his crime to Moscow, yet he does not forget her.... Before the Kolchak armies left Ekaterinburg we heard that Yurovsky had been seen in the city. Had he come at great risk to look for his mother? Sokolov had had her removed to Irkutsk. She feared and loathed her son.

Yankel Sverdlov, the Red Tsar, died in Moscow early in 1919. He was knocked on the head by the workmen at one of the Morozov mills, and succumbed to concussion of the brain. Sovietdom was in an uproar. It was officially announced that this “valiant defender of the people’s rights” had come to a natural end, by inflammation of the lungs. Nevertheless, the chrezvychaika could not allow the Red Tsar to be so dishonoured. Yankel was followed to the outer bourne by thousands of innocent victims offered up in holocaust to his memory.

The mortal remains of the blood-stained agent and associate of the Red Kaiser were exposed to the public gaze and given a pompous Red funeral, and the Theatre Square which faces the building where Yankel had spun his web of blood received a new name, the accursed name of Sverdlov.

None of the Red Jews dared to wear the mantle of Yankel Sverdlov openly. His office was delegated to Kalinin, a “dummy” of the Beloborodov variety, who provided the needful Russian screen to cloak their villainies. For there was no change in the spirit of the Red Jew government of Russia, only an adaptation of methods, a variation of victims—first thebourgeois, then theproletaire.

The Russians who fought and bled for their country are almost extinct. One of the last who died in the sacred cause was Nicholas II. and the other Romanov victims of the Red invaders, German and Jewish. A remnant persisted to the end. To them the Red Usurpers of Moscow could never be anything except an alien domination.

I recall the night before we left Ekaterinburg. The Reds were approaching, but Sokolov went into the darkness and the rain to obtain the evidence of important peasant witnesses. He told them who he was and the object of his call. They could have locked him up in a cellar and given him up to the Reds. It was to their advantage to do so. By giving him information they incurred great risk. Heexplained it all to them. “And now, what will you do?” he asked. “Will you help justice? Will you remember that he who is dead was your Tsar?” They did not hesitate one instant. They chose the path of honour, of self-sacrifice. They gave their evidence and brought Sokolov on his way.

It is the peasant that will bring Russia back to new life. Alexandra’s vision may yet come true, and Nicholas and the Romanovs may not have died in vain.

1.Nicholas II, Alexandrovich, Emperor of Russia, oldest son of the Emperor Alexander III, born in Gachino (near Petersburg) on May 6, 1867. Ascended to the throne on October 20, 1894. Married Princess Alice of Hesse on November 14, 1894. At the outbreak of the Revolution was forty-nine years of age.2.Empress Alexandra (Princess Alice) Feodorovna, wife of the Emperor Nicholas II, born Princess of Hesse, on May 25, 1872. At the outbreak of the Revolution was forty-four years of age.3.Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaievna, the Emperor’s oldest daughter, born on November 3, 1895.4.Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaievna, the Emperor’s second daughter, born on May 29, 1897.5.Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna, theEmperor’s third daughter, born June 14, 1899.6.Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaievna, the Emperor’s youngest daughter, born on June 5, 1901.7.Grand Duke Alexis Nikolaievich, the Emperor’s only son and Heir to the Crown, born July 30, 1904.8.Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, the Emperor’s brother; considered to be the heir to the throne before the birth of Alexis Nikolaievich. Born November 22, 1872.

2.Empress Alexandra (Princess Alice) Feodorovna, wife of the Emperor Nicholas II, born Princess of Hesse, on May 25, 1872. At the outbreak of the Revolution was forty-four years of age.

3.Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaievna, the Emperor’s oldest daughter, born on November 3, 1895.

4.Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaievna, the Emperor’s second daughter, born on May 29, 1897.

5.Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna, theEmperor’s third daughter, born June 14, 1899.

6.Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaievna, the Emperor’s youngest daughter, born on June 5, 1901.

7.Grand Duke Alexis Nikolaievich, the Emperor’s only son and Heir to the Crown, born July 30, 1904.

8.Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, the Emperor’s brother; considered to be the heir to the throne before the birth of Alexis Nikolaievich. Born November 22, 1872.

1917

1. March 2/15—Emperor Nicholas II signed in Pskov the act of his abdication, assigning the throne to the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich.2. March 3/16—Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich refused to ascend the throne before the decision of the Constituent Assembly was made.3. March 4/17—Arrival of the deposed Emperor at the general headquarters at the front.4. March 7/20—General Kornilov, fulfilling the order of the Council of Ministers, arrested the Empress in the palace of Tsarskoe-Selo. All the children had the measles.5. March 8/21—The arrest of the Emperor by a commissar of the provisional government.6. March 9/22—Arrival of the arrested Emperor at Tsarskoe-Selo.7. July 31-August 13—The departure of the imperial family for Tobolsk, according to the orders of the provisional government, under the supervision of the members of the Petrograd soviet of workmen and soldiers’ deputies.8. August 6/19—Arrival of the Tsar and the imperial family at Tobolsk. The night was spent on board the steamer, before the family moved to the house of the governor.9. December 29-January 11, 1918—Uprising of soldiers in Tobolsk because of a prayer made by the deacon during the church service for the prolongation of the days of the imperial family.

1. March 2/15—Emperor Nicholas II signed in Pskov the act of his abdication, assigning the throne to the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich.

2. March 3/16—Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich refused to ascend the throne before the decision of the Constituent Assembly was made.

3. March 4/17—Arrival of the deposed Emperor at the general headquarters at the front.

4. March 7/20—General Kornilov, fulfilling the order of the Council of Ministers, arrested the Empress in the palace of Tsarskoe-Selo. All the children had the measles.

5. March 8/21—The arrest of the Emperor by a commissar of the provisional government.

6. March 9/22—Arrival of the arrested Emperor at Tsarskoe-Selo.

7. July 31-August 13—The departure of the imperial family for Tobolsk, according to the orders of the provisional government, under the supervision of the members of the Petrograd soviet of workmen and soldiers’ deputies.

8. August 6/19—Arrival of the Tsar and the imperial family at Tobolsk. The night was spent on board the steamer, before the family moved to the house of the governor.

9. December 29-January 11, 1918—Uprising of soldiers in Tobolsk because of a prayer made by the deacon during the church service for the prolongation of the days of the imperial family.

1918

10. February 12/25—Arrival of an order from Moscow cutting down the allowances of the imperial family to the limits of a soldier’s ration. Beginning of the life of privation.11. March 30-April 12—Arrival of an order from Moscow to increase the severity of the supervision of the imperial family.12. April 13/26—Departure of the Emperor, the Empress and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna to Ekaterinburg. The other daughters and the Tsarevich remained in Tobolsk.13. April 17/30—Arrival of the Emperor and the persons with him at Ekaterinburg. A search of the Emperor’s belongings.14. April 18-May 1—Dismissal of all persons attached to the imperial family, with the exception of the physician.15. May 7/20—The Tsarevich and Grand Duchesses left Tobolsk for Ekaterinburg.16. May 10/23—Arrival of the Tsarevich and Grand Duchesses at Ekaterinburg.17. July 4/17—The last day of the life of the imperial family, and the last walk in the garden.18. July 5/18—At daybreak the Emperor, his wife and children were killed in the basement of the Ipatiev house. The bodies were searched.19. The same day the bodies were taken out of the house and burned.

10. February 12/25—Arrival of an order from Moscow cutting down the allowances of the imperial family to the limits of a soldier’s ration. Beginning of the life of privation.

11. March 30-April 12—Arrival of an order from Moscow to increase the severity of the supervision of the imperial family.

12. April 13/26—Departure of the Emperor, the Empress and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna to Ekaterinburg. The other daughters and the Tsarevich remained in Tobolsk.

13. April 17/30—Arrival of the Emperor and the persons with him at Ekaterinburg. A search of the Emperor’s belongings.

14. April 18-May 1—Dismissal of all persons attached to the imperial family, with the exception of the physician.

15. May 7/20—The Tsarevich and Grand Duchesses left Tobolsk for Ekaterinburg.

16. May 10/23—Arrival of the Tsarevich and Grand Duchesses at Ekaterinburg.

17. July 4/17—The last day of the life of the imperial family, and the last walk in the garden.

18. July 5/18—At daybreak the Emperor, his wife and children were killed in the basement of the Ipatiev house. The bodies were searched.

19. The same day the bodies were taken out of the house and burned.

C. E. C.—Central Executive Committee of the All Russian Congress of Workmen, Soldiers and Peasants’ Deputies, the most important institution in the Soviet Republic.

Chrezvychaika—Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry—an institution of secret political police, of the Soviet Republic, which exists in every district town. Through this institution, according to the scheme of the Bolsheviki, the reign of terror is carried out.

Kresty—A jail in Petrograd where political prisoners were confined.

Motoviliha Works—Situated on the river Kama, three miles from Perm. Large production of war material.

Sisserts Mining Works—Fifty versts from Ekaterinburg, producing cast-iron, iron, marble, and gold.

Tobolsk—Town on the right bank of the river Irtysh, near the mouth of the river Tobol, formerly a very important town. After the trans-Siberianrailroad was constructed it lost its importance, being too far from the railroad.

Verkh-Issetsk Iron Works—Situated half a mile from Ekaterinburg.

Znamensky—Ikon of the Holy Virgin—A very ancient holy image given to the Tsar Alexis Mikaielovich (the second czar of the Romanoff dynasty) by the Patriarch of Antioch. To the memory of this image the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna built a church in Tsarskoe-Selo.

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