THE ROMANOFFS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 283, 24 August 1920, Page 5

THE ROMANOFFS

STORY GF'tHEIR EXTERMINATION REAL AUTHORS OF THE CRIME By TelegraDh-Presi Ajsoclation-OopyrieM ..' London, August 19. The Times" publishes a continuation of Its correspondent's grim 6tory of the extermination of the Romanoffs. The writer deaoribes tho oritical stage in 1918, when the Tsar's fate hung in the balance, and the enforcement of humiliating terms of the Brest-LitoVak Treaty had begun. Germany- had become absolute mistress of the Russian situation. Count Mirbach, installed in Moscow, worked through a crowd of Bolshevist puppets, imported from Germany. The success of the German plans seemed assured. Then a fatal series of disputes arose between Berlin and the Ludendorff Party. Berlin wanted a continuance of systematic penetration and peaceful conquest; Ludendorff favoured the displacemet of the Soviets, the modification of the BrestLitovsk Treaty, and the restoration of the Tsar Nicholas as a vassal sovereign. The quarrels destroyed the whole edifice of German duplicity and deceit, and the assassination 'of Mirbaoh completed the collapse. Sovietdom thereupon asserted itself, and decided to ensure that the restoration of the Eomanoffs would hi forever impossible. The correspondent acquits Lenin, and says the real authors of'the crime consisted of members of the notorious Counter-revolutionary Committee, associated with the inner circle of the Bolshevist Central Executive. The most prominent men were Sverdlov, Safarov, Voikov, Goloschekin, and Yurovsky. Sverdlov was an "uncrowned Tsar of the Soviets," and was really more powerful than Lenin.and Troteky. Sverdlov'a direct confession of the Ekaterinburg murders has been established beyond doubt, Goloschekin figures as an obedient instrument of Sverdlov, carrying out the most desperate enterprises, He was abnormally -bloodthirsty, insisted on 'hearing minute descriptions, and would exhibit frenzied joy listening to. a description of tortures. Yurovsky was an ambitious Jew, who acted as chief gaoler and tormentor to the doomed Royalties. He attended prayers at Ipatiev's nouse, and even chatted pleasantly with the 6iok boy. Alexis, whom he shot dead a-few. days later with his own hand. Yurovsky took to Moscow several trunks' of the victims' intimate correspondence. Sverdlov promised that they would be published, .in order'to show the people the character of their ex-rulers, but suppressed the priceless documents. The diaries and papers of Nicholas and Alexandra . contained no hint of treachery; on the contrary, they proved their unbounded loyalty to Russaa and the Allies, and, unfortunately, also the Tsar's complete subserviency to . his wife.—"The Times."