Ceremonial Burning of Tsar’s Head

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 678, 1 June 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

Ceremonial Burning of Tsar’s Head

Grim Epilogue to Murder of Romanoffs... T rotsky Received Evidence He Demanded • * •

r'ji), elapsed since the tra- I HSwmSIH S edy of Ekaterinburg j was enaete< * — the asaaaj sination of Tsar Nlcho- > las 11. and his family at ! t he instigation of the bloodthirsty , Russian Bolshevist leaders. Even when death had released the : spirit of the martyred Tsar, apparently. the vindictiveness of his tor- i t urers had not been exhausted, for, j ncrordiug to a narrative given to the j • Yew of the World" by Mr. George j , cnoff, t ie well-known Russian publi- . d the author of ‘’The Tcheka,” j .vas an amazing epilogue to this ; rim <u vna. 4 by rumours that the Tsar j >ed from the clutches of the ; ,; i .-Sins. Trotsky, Mr. Popoff asserts, ! demanded a tangible proof of the em- j iteror’s death, it was forthcoming in | the shape of Nicholas’s head. Within I the precincts of the Kremlin at Moscow, and in the presence of the 80l- i she vis t chiefs, this grisly relic was burned. "The whole world knows today.” writes Mr. Popoff, "that. Nicholas II„ the last Tsar of Russia, together with his family, was murdered by the Bolsheviks in a cellar of the house where j he was imprisoned, in the town of 3-lkaterinburg, on the night of July 18, 3 918. It is, perhaps, less generally known that the chief instigator of the murder, which was approved of by Benin, Bucharin, and all the other Bolshevist leaders, was Trotsky. It is only now that the final act in this terrible drama has come to light. The shooting of the Tsar had been reported by telegraph to Moscow by the president of the Revolutionary Committee of the Ural Provinces, Beloborodov. The telegram was addressed personally to Benin and .Trotsky, and was received in Moscow on July 18. Its contents were only made known to those commissars and other Bolshevik leaders who were at i he time present in Moscow. It was only some days later that the people > ere officially informed of the Tsar’s i 3tioD, and tnen only when the no s had already leaked Into ' ■ ■ v by roundabout ways and c no longer be denied. The re-‘ it: ,i .. :• thing about this affair was that the news of the murder had ’ penetrated to Berlin on the very same clay—July 18. Nobody there, however, would accept it as the truth; and so it appears that on the next day a wireless message sent out from Berlin to a newspaper in Vienna denying the rumours concerning the murder of the Tsar was picked up by the Moscow wireless station. The message was, ‘The Tsar and his family are alive and have been conveyed by their friends to a place of safety.’ This message very much disturbed The Bolsheviks of the Kremlin, and Trotsky immediately ordered Beloborodov by telegram to forward him further details and ‘some convincing proof’ that—as he put it in his telegram—'the tyrant of Russia had received the punishment which he deserved.’ As an answer to Trotsky’s telegram the Soviet chiefs received on the evening of July 26 a sealed leather case. It contained the head of the Tsar! A more certain proof that the emperor had really met his end could hardly be demanded. The Bolshevik leaders decided that this development necessitated a ‘State action.' By order of Benin a meeting of the most important Soviet chiefs was called on the morning of July 27, and the‘parcel’ from Ekaterinburg was placed before them. It was definitely confirmed that the man’s head found .in the leather case was indeed the head of the Tsar Nicholas 11., and the result of the inspection was protocolled. This protocol was signed by all the eight men present at the meeting: Benin. Trotsky, Zinoviev. Bucharin, Dzerzhinski, Kamenev, Kalinin aud Peters. During the inspection the question was also raised by Kamenev its to what further should be done

with the head. The greater part of those present were in favour of having it destroyed. But Zinoviev and Bucharin proposed that the head should be preserved in spirit and placed in a museum for the interest of future generations. This suggestion, however, was rejected, and it was decided to destroy the head, because, as Peters pointed out, ’the ignorant people might begin to worship it as a holy thing, and'thus bring about further complications.’ The carrying out of the decision was entrusted to Trotsky. The Tsar’s head was to be burned in the Kremlin on the following night, July 28, just ten days after the murder in Ekaterinburg. The following description of the scene at the burning is from an eye-witness —a German Communist: ‘I arrived at the Kremlin at the appointed time, and handed my papers to the commandant. After the latter had rung up two or three of his superiors to make sure that everything was in order, I at last received permission to proceed further. I found out from the officer who was conducting me that the burning of the Tsar's head would take place in a certain annexe of- one of the palaces in the Kremlin which had once served as a kitchen. We went past

the Archangel’s Cathedral and some old cloisters. A sentry who was dozing at the entrance sprang to attention when he caught sight of the officer. A few steps more and we reached a small outbuilding, before which a little knot of people were already waiting, smoking cigarettes and talking quietly. It began to pour with rain. Behind the Moscow River the gloomy storm-clouds were lit up by a red glare from the flames of some building on fire in the city. Fire engines raced past the old Kremlin, and the church bells began to ring out. ’The shades of old Russia are bewailing their dead lord.’ said Krylenko sarcastically. At the same moment lightning glittered, and there was a crash of thunder. Everybody started, a woman gave a little scream, and I noticed that one of the Communists crossed himself. The officer unlocked the door of the building, and we entered a small room, dimly illuminated by the light of a burning oven and an oil-lamp.

-1 could now see the others better There were about twenty people. Among them were Eiduck, Smirnow, Bucharin, and Radek, with his sister. Hater there appeared Peters, wit, Mme. Balabanova, followed by Mme. Kolontai, Bahzis. Dzerzhinski and Kamenev. The air in the little room was so hot that it was difficult to breathe. Everybody felt very nervous and excited. Only Mme. Kolontai —later Soviet Envoy in Oslo and Mexico, and at jn’eseut in Paris —was

apparently unmoved. She stepped closer to the burning oven and began to dry her clothes. The last to appear was Trotsky. As soon as he arrived, a square leather case was placed on the table before the gathering. Trotsky greeted everybody, at the same time looking round inquisitively, and spoke a few words with Dzerzhinski and Bucharin. Then he ordered the case to be opened. At first the ring of curious peeple round the table blocked my view. Suddenly a woman began to sigh distressfully, and hurried away from the table. ‘Women’s nerves,’ laughed Trotsky. Dzerzhinski, however, in a comic-gal-lant kind of way, went to the aid of Madame Kolontai, cleared a path through the crowd for her, and conducted her to a bench against the wall. Then I could get a view of the contents of the leather case. It contained a large glass bottle full of liquid. In the liquid lay the head of Nicholas 11. I was so horrified by the sight that I did not at first recognise the well-known features of the head. But after looking again I had no doubt; before us lay the head of the last Tsar of Russia, a witness to the terrible drama which had taken place ten days before at the foot of the Ural Mountains. The impression made on all those around was tremendous. There were one or two audibie comments. Bucharin and Balizis were astonished to notice how quickly the Tsar’s hair had become grey. And indeed the hair and beard were nearly white. Maybe this was the sad result of the last dreadful moments of life before the cruel murder of which he had been the victim. Maybe it was also due to the trials of the war, the revolution and the long imprisonment At Trotsky’s demand a formal docu-

ment was prepared and signed by those present. Madame Kolontai meanwhile had vanished, and several new spectators had arrived on the scene. Among them I saw Krestinski, Bolshevik Ambassador in Berlin; Bomoif, and a few sailors. In those early days of Soviet rule it was quite usual for Communists of the humblest position to be freely admitted to all State functions. After the protocol had been drawn up each one rapidly inspected the glass case and its contents, and one could see by their faces that they were all feeling extremely shocked and uneasy. Bucharin made an attempt to relieve the tenseness of the atmosphere by improvising a few fitting remarks about the revolution to suit the occasion, but after stammering a few words he left off and could say no more. Even the coldblooded Tchekist, Bahzis, was nervously fingering his blonde moustache as he looked with slightly squinting eyes toward the table. Then Trotsky gave the order for the bottle to be carried to the oven. The crowd stood back of its own accord on either side so that there was a clear path through the midst leading to the oven. And, strange to tell, as the head of the last of the Tsars was borne through the crowd by the hands of its enemies on its last journey, everyone bowed instinctively before it as it passed. The next moment the head was lost in the flames. I could hold out no longer; my self-possession threatened to desert me, and I hurried out of the building."