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
I got the impression that if the imperial family had been taken away
from Yekaterinburg, they must have been taken as they were, without any
of their belongings. All the things they might have taken with them were
burned. Nevertheless, at the time I left the house I could not believe
that the imperial family had perished. It seemed to me that there was
such a small number of bullet holes in the room I had inspected that
everybody could not have been executed. When, a considerable time
later, I returned from Yekaterinburg to Tumen, Volkoff called on me. I
did not recognise him at first, as I had read in the newspapers that
after the attempt on the life of Lenin, Hendrikova, Schneider and
Volkoff were shot.
Volkoff told me that he was taken directly from the train and put in the
Yekaterinburg prison. From this prison he, Hendrikova and Schneider were
transferred to a prison at Perm. Tatischeff was also in prison in
Yekaterinburg. He was once taken out of prison but was never put back. I
could hardly understand from Volkoff’s words what happened to
Tatischeff. Volkoff told me that he had seen in Tatischeff’s hands a
written Bolshevik order commanding him to leave the Perm district. In
the prison Volkoff was put in the same cell with the valet of the Grand
Duke Michael Alexandrovitch. The valet said that when the grand duke
resided in Perm, four armed men called on him late at night. One of them
aimed his pistol at the valet and ordered him to stand still. The others
told the grand duke that he had to follow them. The grand duke refused
to obey their orders unless he were asked to do so by a member of the
soviet personally known to him. In reply one of the armed men went up to
the grand duke, took him by the collar and grumbled: “Here is one more
of the Romanoffs.”
On one occasion Volkoff, Hendrikova, Schneider and some other people
were taken out of prison to the woods. Volkoff understood they were all
going to be shot, so he started running. After he got out of danger and
stopped, he heard the sounds of volleys from the place where the others
had been left. He believes that Hendrikova and the rest were murdered.
He thinks that the Bolsheviki considered him dead, because they were
firing at him when he was running, and when he accidentally fell, he
heard a voice say: “He’s done for.”
About the fate of the Grand Duke Michael, Volkoff related the following:
The grand duke had to submit to force and followed the armed men. One of
these men remained with the valet to prevent him from calling for help.
When this man left the valet ran to the soviet and told everything that
had happened. A tumult started in the soviet, but nevertheless, the
members of the soviet were in no hurry to start a pursuit. About an hour
later they began looking for the grand duke. It was very hard to get any
definite information from Volkoff about the fate of the Grand Duke
Michael.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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