Today is the 98th anniversary of the murder of the Romanov family

Last letter of Eugene Botkin, the family's physician.

>I am making a last attempt at writing a real letter--at least from here--although that qualification, I believe, is utterly superfluous. I do not think that I was fated at any time to write to anyone from anywhere. My voluntary confinement here is restricted less by time than by my earthly existence. In essence I am dead--dead for my children--dead for my work … I am dead but not yet buried, or buried alive--whichever, the consequences are nearly identical … The day before yesterday, as I was calmly reading … I saw a reduced vision of my son Yuri’s face, but dead, in a horizontal position, his eyes closed. Yesterday, at the same reading, I suddenly heard a word that sounded like Papulya. I nearly burst into sobs. Again--this is not a hallucination because the word was pronounced, the voice was similar, and I did not doubt for an instant that my daughter, who was supposed to be in Tobolsk, was talking to me … I will probably never hear that voice so dear or feel that touch so dear with which my little children so spoiled me … If faith without works is dead, then deeds can live without faith … This vindicates my last decision … when I unhesitatingly orphaned my own children in order to carry out my physician’s duty to the end, as Abraham did not hesitate at God’s demand to sacrifice his only son.

The cellar where the family was killed

Another image of the cellar

The Assassin of the Tsar is a pretty good movie.

Still better than communism

The 9 skulls from the first grave

dropped the pic

Grave of Peter Ermakov, one of the executioners who was, even by other people's accounts, the most brutal. The grave has been vandalized repeatedly with red paint and animal blood.

Ermakov standing near the gravesite in the 1920s. He wrote on the back of this photo "i am standing on the grave of the Tsar."

Joy, one of 3 dogs that lived with the family in the Ipatiev House, and the only dog to survive. The other two dogs were shot, and one may have been carried by Anastasia into the cellar room.

Joy was found by incoming troops and eventually made his way to England.

A former lady in waiting wrote about meeting the dog some time later:

>I went to see Joy, and he, evidently connecting me in his dog's brain with his masters, imagined that my coming announced theirs ... Never did I see an animal in such ecstasy. When I called him he made one bound out of the carriage and tore down the platform towards me, leaping in the air and running to me with his forepaws, walking upright like a circus dog. General Dietrichs said that he had never given such a welcome to anyone before, and I attributed this solely to the fact that my clothes, which were the same that I had worn at Tobolsk, had still kept familiar smell, for I had never specially petted him. When I left, Joy lay for a whole day near the door through which I had gone. He refused his food and relapsed again into his usual despondency.'

Another quote from her book:

>What had little Joy seen on that terrible night of July 16? He had been with the Imperial Family to the last. Had he witnessed the tragedy? His brain had evidently kept the memory of a great shock, and his heart was broken. It was pathetic seeing this dumb friend, who brought back the memory of the Tsarvich so vividly. Little Joy was well cared for.

>Timofyev (Malcolm McDowell) is a patient in an asylum who claims to be the men who killed Tsar Alexander II in 1881, and his grandson Tsar Nicholas II in 1918.

Sounds crazy.

Nah, she just looks like her mother. All the pretty kids look like him.

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some new photos that were released by a Russian site

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>Death of the Empire by Karpenko.

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Don't have much myself. I only really know about Rasputin, but he didn't really have much to do with the revolution outside of being a bit of pseudo-religious/occult trivia. Good for fantasy and horror stories, but not so much for actual history.

Yakov Sverdlov and Vladimir Lenin did Nothing Wrong

The Ipatiev House made it all the way to 1977 before it was ordered destroyed

fuuuuuuuuck

wtf i hate bolsheviks now

Romanovs absolutely BTFO

It's pretty good. Kind of sad. Compelling though.

Now today (the 18th) is the 98th anniversary of the murder of Grand Duchess Elisabeth, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich Romanov; Princes Ioann Konstantinovich, Konstantin Konstantinovich, Igor Konstantinovich and Vladimir Pavlovich Paley; Grand Duke Sergei's secretary, Fyodor Remez; and Varvara Yakovleva, a sister from the Grand Duchess's convent.

>That night the prisoners were awakened and driven in carts on a road leading to the village of Siniachikha, some 18 kilometres (11 miles) from Alapayevsk where there was an abandoned iron mine with a pit 20 metres (66 feet) deep. Here they halted. The Cheka beat all the prisoners before throwing their victims into this pit, Elisabeth being the first. Hand grenades were then hurled down the shaft, but only one victim, Fyodor Remez, died as a result of the grenades.

>According to the personal account of Vasily Ryabov, one of the killers, Elisabeth and the others survived the initial fall into the mine, prompting Ryabov to toss in a grenade after them. Following the explosion, he claimed to have heard Elisabeth and the others singing an Orthodox hymn from the bottom of the shaft. Unnerved, Ryabov threw down a second grenade, but the singing continued. Finally a large quantity of brushwood was shoved into the opening and set alight, upon which Ryabov posted a guard over the site and departed.

From Ryabov's account:

We took them out into the corridor, blindfolded them, bound their hands behind their backs, and put them in another cart. We had earlier decided that the carts should not go together. The only one to try to oppose us was Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich. Physically he was stronger than the rest. We had to grapple with him. He told us categorically that he was not going anywhere, as he knew they all were going to be killed. He barricaded himself behind the cupboard and our efforts to get him out were in vain. We lost precious time.

I finally lost my patience and shot at the Grand Duke. However, I only fired with the intention of wounding him slightly and frightening him into submission. I wounded him in the arm. He did not resist further. I bound his hand and covered his eyes. We put him in the last cart and set off. We were in a great hurry: already the dawn was heralding morning.

Along the way, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich again repeated that he knew they were all going to be killed. “Tell me why?" He asked. "I have never been involved in politics. I loved sports, played billiards, and was interested in numismatics." I reassured him as best as I could. although I was very agitated myself by everything I have been through that night. Despite his wounded arm, the Grand Duke did not complain. At last, we arrived at the mine. The shaft was not very deep and as it turned out had a ledge on one side that was not covered by water.

The remains of the last 2 bodies to be found. I'm not sure if they ever did any significant scientific studies to identify them or they're just assuming who it is based on the bodies from the other gravesite.

The seven plays that the family performed in Tobolsk, as copied from Alexei's diary.

14/27 December:
Les Deus Timides
Tatiana Nikolaevna - Annette
Anastasia Nikolaevna - Cecile
Prince Dolgorouki - Garadoux
Pierre Gilliard - Fremissin
Nicholas II - Thibaudier

21 January/3 Feburary:
A La Porte, by Eugene Vercousin
Gilliard - Roland Delaunau, artiste
Tatiana Nikolaevna - Une dame
Aleksei Nikolaevich - Balthazar, un cocher
Pierre Gilliard - Regisseur

28 January/10 February
La Bete Noir, by MM. Mendale et Cordier
General Tatischev - le doctuer Dorthez
Maria Nikolaevna - Frederic Dortez, son neveu
Tatiana Nikolaevna - Mme. Bellamara, veuve
Countess Hendrikova - Cyprienne, sa fille
Olga Nikolaevna - Maman Miette, gouvernante de la maison Dorthez

4/17 February
Packing Up, by Grattan
Anastasia Nikolaevna - Mr. Chugwater
Maria Nikolaevna - Mrs. Chugwater
Aleksei Nikolaevich - Luggage man
Stanley Gibbes - Stage Manager

11/24 February
In and Out of a Punt, by H.V. Esmond
Tatiana Nikolaevna - Margaret
Stanley Gibbes - Hugh
Pierre Gilliard - Stage Manager

18 February/3 March
The Crystal Gazer, by Leopold Montague Esq.
Maria Nikolaevna - Miss Bessie Blank
Stanley Gibbes - The Crystal Gazer; stage manager

18 February/3 March
The Bear, by Chekhov
Olga Nikolaevna - Popova
Nicholas II - Smirnov
Maria Nikolaevna - Louka

>this thread for the 900,000th time

Royalists are fucking pathetic

>oh no a thread on Veeky Forums actually about history with quotes, images and information

speaking of fucking pathetic

Photos on the wall from Nicholas & Alexandra's bedroom at Ipatiev

A chandelier which hung in the girls' bedroom at Ipatiev. The chandelier was taken by Charles Gibbes when he was able to visit the site, along with some other remaining items, such as some of the girls' workbooks, their personal icons, and so on.

Numerous relics were retrieved from the house in the decades following the murder (including a large piece of wall, which was sold to an English collector), which was gradually becoming a popular site for curiosity seekers and people sympathetic to the Romanov family. Postcards were made of photos from the Ipatiev House and sold in town.

Some of the weapons used to kill the family. The pistol and bayonet were given in the 90s to the Russian government by the son of one of the executioners. The holster is was owned by Yurovsky.

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Why do people care about this? Literally MILLIONS of Russians died in Nicky's stupid war, mousy of them far worse deaths than these. Is the fact that some girls died supposed to change my opinion about politics?

I know that Nicky was a shit ruler but this still feels like a tragedy.

Nicky was an awful leader but the Reds shot a bunch of fucking teenagers and kids because MUH MONARCHY

Unfriendly reminder that all bolsheivks should be boiled alive

You are not a rational person.

New petition to bayonet babies because of how shitty of a ruler the Emperor is

They were the fucking royal family you nigger, not some filthy peasant farmers.

Feudalismcucks need to be boiled alive.

Communism killed a million times more people that feudalism m8

>They were the fucking royal family you nigger

I don't care if they were fucking a white males. They weren't even a cool royal family.

>Why do people care about this?

Because multiple women, men and a child (who were the last royal family of Russia, and therefore in a position of prominence) were brutally murdered? No one's saying "Here's how the Romanovs died*

* btw none of the peasants death in history mattered ever lmao"

>Is the fact that some girls died supposed to change my opinion about politics?

Where did anyone say that?

>They weren't even a cool royal family.
>implying the daughters weren't cool

Even the guards at the house liked them. ( That's why they all had to be replaced shortly before the murders, because the guards who knew them refused to kill the daughters, Alexei or the empress (whom they hated, but, not enough to kill).

>muh feudalism bad meme
>lives in a world where 300 people control 100 trillion dollars

They deserved it.

Nick did. Not a bunch of children

lmao yes XD red army 4ever!!

>3mlns died in WWI
>5mlns died in the Civil War
>5mlns died from famine during the Civil War
I find it hard to feel sorry for them, this being the direct results of Nick's abysmal rule.
>But what about children, they did nothing wrong!11
Neither did all that millions who died as a result of his rule, yet no one gives a shit about them.

>there are ~1,500 billionaires in the world
>3.25 billion people make fewer than 2 dollars a day

Fug

Yup.

The richest 300 people in the world have more money than the poorest 3,000,000,000

Why do you think they are mutually exclusive...? You do realize you can care about more than one thing, right?

That's like saying you can't care or write about Lincoln being assassinated because "people died during the American Civil War too!!!!!"

And yet billions of people live much better thanks to capitalism.

I would have done it myself

>Neither did all that millions who died as a result of his rule, yet no one gives a shit about them.

It's more complicated than that, though.

The reason people care so much about the Romanovs (or any similar specific figures, tragic or not) is that they are specific people. In this case, people who left behind diaries and video footage and letters and journals and tons of personal pictures where they're just doing everyday things.

People don't really respond to numbers or abstract figures. People respond to, well, people.

If you write a book about a specific person, or specific family, or specific group of people, and give others a way to identify and understand them, then they will show a lot more interest than just saying "millions of people." It's why when there are mass shootings, or if you're in a museum for genocide or any other type of tragedy like the Titanic sinking, there are usually photographs, names, personal belongings, etc, something to take away the faceless concept of "(number) of people died") and make it real.

If you told the average person "millions of people died during Nicholas II's rule" they will probably say "oh, well, that's awful." If you show the average person a specific story--here's the little doll made by a girl whose father was imprisoned for political speech, she died of malnutrition when her family couldn't afford to feed themselves--then it creates a connection that otherwise wasn't there. Likewise, if you tell the average person "the Romanov family was executed," they will probably say "oh, well, that's awful," but if you show them the photos of the family in carefree days or discuss how brutal their death was, it creates a connection.

In the case of the Romanovs, they are unique because there is really massive amounts of personality in the photographs they left behind, and it brings them to a personable level that is rather unprecedented in terms of victims of revolutions or regime changes.

But those billions of people wouldn't even exist were it not for global industrial capitalism. This huge deficit only exists because technology enables so many extra people to stay alive.

It's not mutually exclusive, no, but it's hard to get expected emotional reaction once you put the tragedy in the context. At the same time, there is a tendency in media to concentrate on them and to make them into some kind of martyrs and tragic heroes and I think it devalues the sufferings of others, many of which being direct result of Tsar's (in)action. Russian Church even proclaimed them as saints in 2000, despite all that Rasputin stuff and their deaths having nothing to do with religion.

Because it's a wildly detailed event where a family that loved each other was massacred in the same room together by butchers.

The utter brutality makes you forget politics and see it only as a family being murdered, which is what it was in the end.

gommie detected

Damn what a way to go.

The attention it receives is a bit silly, especially when the Bolsheviks had so many other victims you can sympathise with, which didn't include autocrats. I guess it gained traction because the royal family makes for a bigger story and it's fairly well-documented and dramatic.

Personally I don't care that much that the Emperor was shot. Even though he was sort of a victim himself of the role he was born into at the end of the day I can't fault the Bolsheviks for shooting the man who had mismanaged the country so badly. His children were innocent though, but no more innocent than any other innocents that suffered as a result of the red terror and other Bolshevik crimes.

How does it devalue the suffering of others to feel bad for four young women, a teenage boy, and several servants who were truly brutally murdered, and had no political power and were not involved in the government other than (for the daughters) acting as nurses in WWI?

>Russian Church even proclaimed them as saints in 2000, despite all that Rasputin stuff and their deaths having nothing to do with religion.
>and their deaths having nothing to do with religion.

They--along with some of the servants, those who followed Russian Orthodoxy--are passion bearers in the Russian Orthodox church, not martyrs. Passion bearers are people who died while still having faith (which the family definitely did) and in a "Christ-like" way, meaning they suffered and died at the hands of someone considered an enemy, usually political but not always. When they were canonized, they were not referred to as martyrs, but as "people who sincerely sought to live by the commandments of the Gospels." To put it into perspective, 860 other people were canonized at the same time.

They are saints in the Russian Orthodox church, but in the Russian Orthodox church, every believer who dies and goes to heaven is a saint, so they'd be saints regardless of how they died.

Quality post.

As regards Nicholas II, all the photos of his family make me think about how being a good father does not necessarily make one a good emperor. Nobody can deny his personal tragedy, even if the public tragedy of his rule was far greater.

Death to all autocrats and monarchists!

>Only in the forest did I finally discover the reason why it had been so hard to kill the daughters and Alexandra Feodrovna.

What was in the forest?

The forest is where they stripped the bodies and found that they had jewels sewn into their clothing.

>When we began to undress the bodies, we discovered something on the daughters and on Alexandra Feodrovna. I do not remember exactly what she had on, the same as on the daughters or simply things that had been sewed on. But the daughters had on bodices almost entirely of diamonds and [other] precious stones. Those were not only places for valuables but protective armor at the same time. That is why neither bullets nor bayonets got result

Ayy lmao

desu I'm glad they fucking died

>mfw Western commietards bought commie propaganda
PЭЭЭЭЭЭЭЭЭЭЭЭЭЭЭЭЭЭ

>Nick did. Not a bunch of children
Children were members of a royal dynasty. If you want to annihilate one, you annihilate the whole family.

Best day of my life.

Can you imagine if your government said that about your family because your dad is a criminal, guilt is not a blanket to cover everyone related to the criminal, it is for the criminal alone. The family by in large though complicit did not know any better and were innocent.

Getting tired of edgy 18 year olds on Veeky Forums who keep screaming "I WISH I COULD HAVE SHOT THEM MYSELF!"

I say it again.
>Children were members of a royal dynasty.
>If you want to annihilate one, you annihilate the whole family.

Because the family isn't an average family.

Wanting to kill someone doesn't justify killing someone. Their blood isn't magical and they aren't any more deserving of getting killed than any other innocent person.

There are plenty of dynasties that have been ended without killing everyone. (not to mention that they didn't even kill all the Romanovs but the dynasty never came back anyway)

I was reading a book about the long 19th Century and a line that really stuck with me was just how much happier Nick would have been if he was just a middle-high aristocrat, affable and pleasant enough to keep everything running smooth yet not under pressure to make huge decisions that affect the entire realm.

>Wanting to kill someone doesn't justify killing someone.
Was telling you the logic behind why Russians killed them.
>Their blood isn't magical
To the average Russian Peasant: it was.

Which is why foreign soldiers did the shooting.

You never lived in a monarchy where people took the dynasty seriously.

>Their blood isn't magical

No, but the whole premise of monarchy is that it is.

"One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic": the thread

Good job proving Stalin right, monarcucks.

>Wanting to kill someone doesn't justify killing someone.
That's where you're wrong. It's the only justification for killing someone.

>(who were the last royal family of Russia, and therefore in a position of prominence) were brutally murdered?
This sort of thing is the reason WHY they was murdered. If they wasn't, some foreign royal state could bother to invade for no reason.
Or there could have been some infringed peasant rebellion for no reason.

>In the case of the Romanovs, they are unique because there is really massive amounts of personality in the photographs they left behind
Wrong.
The Romanovs are unique because:
1. They was highly educated
2. They was royality, meaning the Euro royality would shill for their case for a long time afterwards
3. Because they was fringe Euro Royality, just like with the Jews, effort was done to elevate the documentation and family photos
4. Because they was "rich", they had access to more devices to do family photos. Compared to a average citizen in a rich country, past the 1930s, their documentation isn't that good

>Their blood isn't magical
It sorta is, because other high class/status dynasties will fight for them, in a very specific way. Even if its a 30-50 year long proxy war, with occasional assassins.
And to the average peasant, their blood SHITS magic. Because to the average peasant, the entire state system has been used to perpetuate the legend of the bloods divinity.

Bonus point: Adoption is only safe is the child is a infant.
Otherwise there might be side effects, such as proxy wars, or abduction by foreign royals for the sake of taking over Russia.

Yep. Super boring.

Reminds me of the time I went to see the touring Romanov Faberge exhibition (basically a ton of their personal Faberge frames, and several of the Faberge eggs) and some guy in a green army jacket kept muttering about how they were spoiled brats who deserved to die because they were allowed to give Faberge frames as gifts and I just had to laugh like well good for you asshole, spending $20 to get into this exhibition so you could complain.

>This sort of thing is the reason WHY they was murdered. If they wasn't, some foreign royal state could bother to invade for no reason.

Women had no political power in Russia at this point. MALE Romanovs escaped and survived and by golly, no foreign armies invaded Russia, did they? Because in order to even consider trying to invade Russia and retake the government, they needed an absolutely solid foundation--a male heir with an incontestable claim to the throne that the people would genuinely rally behind, not a girl. Even then, no foreign army was going to bother invading--England wouldn't even bother sending in a group to get the Romanovs when they were being OFFERED UP by the interim government.

Wow, the point went way over your head, didn't it?

>Women had no political power in Russia at this point.
Invalid by itself. If you think that, you don't understand what gender roles is, even less what it means for Monarchs.

>In Moscow
>Go to museum that features Russian monarchy from Rurik to Nicky
>Rurikovich section filled with lots of cool stories and ledgends
>Start of Romanov section and get to awkward royal succession
>Gets to ww1
>FEEL TRIP
>Nicky and his family have the largest section
>More people here than anywhere else in the exhibit
>Russians still feel bad for this

Interesting desu
I believe Russia today would have a much nicer international popularity if they had a system similar to the UK

Has anyone here read the Manifesto on Unshakable Autocracy?