The Last Days of the RomanovsSokolov, N. (Nikolai)
History
The Last Days of the Romanovs
Sokolov, N. (Nikolai)
Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia, 1868-1918; Romanov, House of
At about ten o’clock in the morning I returned from my sister’s to the
Popoff house. I do not remember what I did until two p. m., when my duty
commenced. I placed the guards on all the posts and entered the
commandant’s room. There I met Nikoulin, two Letts and Medvedeff. They
were not gay, any of them; they looked preoccupied and depressed. None
of them was speaking. A large number of precious things were placed on
the table. They were pins, stones, ear-rings, beads and all sorts of
jewels. A part of them lay in boxes, which were all open. The door from
the lobby leading to the rooms where the imperial family used to live
was closed as before, but there was nobody in the rooms; not a single
sound was heard. Before, when the imperial family used to live there,
sounds of life were always heard in those rooms. There was not any life
there at present. Only their little dog was standing near the door in
the lobby, waiting to be let into those rooms. I remember very well that
I thought at the time: “You are waiting in vain.” Before the murder
there was a bed and a couch in the commandant’s room. On this day at two
o’clock of July 17th, when I came to the commandant’s room, I noticed
there two more beds, on one of which a Lett was lying. Later Medvedeff
told us that the Letts did not want to live any longer in the room where
the murder took place (they had lived before in this room). Obviously
this was the reason why the two beds were transferred to the
commandant’s room.
From two o’clock p. m. up till ten o’clock p. m. on July 17th I
performed duty. On this day I did not see Iourovsky in the house.
The same day Medvedeff told us that all of us guards would be sent to
the front. So, on July 18th, I went in the morning to the Zlokasoff
factory for the purpose of drawing the money that was due me. At two
o’clock of the same day I again went on duty. On this day the czar’s
belongings were being taken from the Ipatieff house and loaded on an
automobile. Beloborodoff was sitting in the automobile. A number of
things were also taken away on carriages.
On July 18th I saw Iourovsky in the house about six o’clock in the
evening; he was constantly coming and going. At about eight o’clock in
the evening he called up Medvedeff and gave him the money for our wages.
On July 18th all the things had been taken out of the house.
On July 20th, during the night, together with the other guards, I was
sent to the station Yekaterinburg First. A part of the guard remained in
the Ipatieff house.
At the end of July we arrived at Perm and about a week after our arrival
we were joined by the remainder of the guards from the Ipatieff house.
All were assigned to the command of the commissar of supplies of the
third army, by the name of Gorbounoff, and taken on a steamer to
Levshino. Klesscheeff alone did not go with them to Levshino as he had
to stay in Perm owing to illness from venereal disease.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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