MURDER OF THE TSAR.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 33, 29 October 1920, Page 15

MURDER OF THE TSAR.

FIRST COMPLETE STORY. B OLSHE VISTS' GUILT. The true story of the martyrdom of ; Nicholas II., ex-Tsar of Russia, and of his wife and family can at last be told. It is based upon evidexxce obtained by a properly constituted legal investigation. Tlxe signed depositions of eye-witnesseg are in the writer's possession, but he does not disclose the identity of the deponent.s, who are still in the power of the Soviets — the murderers. At Ekaterinburg, on the night of July 16, 1918, the Imperial family and their faithful attendants — eleven persons in all — ' were led into a small room in tlxe liouse where they had been imprisoned and shot to death with revolvers. There had been no trial of any kind. Before their death the captives were suhjected to ill-treatment amounting to horrible torture, mental if not physxcal. After death the bodies were taken to the woods and completely destroyed. These acts had been premeditated and the murders elaborately prepared. The actnal arrangements for the crime began some weeks before the advent of anti-Bolshevist forces. Neither fear of rescue by the White nor plots to release the captives — the existence of which is doubtful — can be reasonably alleged in explanation of the slaughter. The official statement issued by the Moscow Government on July 20— four days afterwards — spoke of the shooting of Nicholas as an act of necessity, but categorically affirmed that the ex-Empress and the children had been conveyed out of the city. These deliberately concocted reports of the safe removal of the family were intended to circumvent any investigation— and aid so at first. — The Tsar's Loyalty. — It is established beyond doubt that the ex-Tsar fell a victim to his loyalty. He had refused offers from the enemies of Russia's Allies proposmg that he should endorse the Tx-eaty of Brest-Litovsk. Attempts to inveigle hira into an unholy alliance undoubtedly preceded the murder. All the Romanovs who died violent deaths were, lilce the Tsar, inconvenient to German as. well as to Internationalist plans. The official vernon of the events of July 16-177 given oixt the Red's before they i'ied from Ekaterinburg, was that Nicholas Romanov had been executed "after trial," but that the family had been removed to "a safe place." This legend became engrafted upon the minds of a great many people, and still continnes to exercise its alluring appeal. Every sympathiser with the Soviets considered himsel? or herself bound to foster this ver_ sion, since no Russian, hewever, hostile to the ex-Soverigns, could find the slighiest excuse or pretext for "exeeuting" a whole family of five children who had never taken, or been able to take, the slightest paxff in politics. Tlxe Russians who still bclonged to the Gei-man "orientation" were also curiously enough disposed to credit any tale of a miraculous escape. They seemed to think that- a restoration of the Monarchy- — which formed the basis of their political creed — would be furthered by the "xniracle" theory. Some of them had more practibal aims. — Clues in the Death Chamher. — I visited the house were tKe victinxs had lived. It belonged to a certain Ipatiev, a raerchant who held tlTe rank of captain in the Engineers. By one of the ironies of Fate he bore the name of the xaonastery whence the first Romanov sallied to aseume the Crown of All the Russians. The Ipatiev of Ekaterinburg was, however, of Jewish origin. The lower floor was tenanted by Ipatiev liimself, on the undex^standing that no strangers should be admitted. The small hasement- room — the scene of the murdex-s — was sealed up. I saw it a few days later. Sokolov took me over the premises explaining step hy step the enactment of the tragedy. We stood in the little room, noted the trace of the bullets, the direction of the bayonet thrusts; and the splashes of blood on the wa-lls. The xroom had been a shambles, and all the washing and scoux-ing that, according to the evidence, had followed the murders could not remove tell-tale sigus. We knew from the depositions of witnesses and the mute, gruesome language of the death-chamber where each of the victims sat or stood wlien the assassins fired their revolvers. The bullet-holes in the wa-lls and iix the floor had been carefully cut out ; human blood had been found in the wood and ©n the bullets. — Discoveries in the Woods. — Soon afterwards I was in tlxe woods, 10 miles north of the city, where the peasants had found jewelry and other relics of the murder ed family. I saw the tracks, still clear, of heavy Iorrles crashing through the trees to a group of disused iron-ore shafts. All wen in one direction, cnasing neai' a pit round which

a vast collection of clues had beeix discov. ered ; precious stones, pearls, heautifui settings of gold and platinum, some hacked, hroken^ bearing trace s of frre ; metal buckles, hooks> buttons, corset frames, pieces of charTed leather and cloth, a bumarx finger intact, a set of false teeth. The character, condition, and numbers of these various articles were in themselves sufficient to indicate the sex and ages oi the victims aud the nxanner in which their bodies had been disposed of. First on the scene had been the peasants, For three days and nights they were cut off from the city by a cordon of Red Guards placed around the wood. Knowing that the Whites were at hand, they thought the Reds were burying arms. Vague imnxours had reached them of the death of Nicholas II. As soon as the cordon had been removed they rushed to the spot. Woodcraft and native astuteuess quickly opened their eyes. "It is Ihe Tsar that they have been burning j lxere," they declared. Oix this veiy spot, 1 a year later, I found topaz beads, suclx as I the young Princess wore, and other gems, hy scratehing tlxe surface of the hardened clay surrounding the iron pit. Fxx>m one of the Imperial sesrvants who had escaped from a Red shooting squad it became knowxx that several dukes and the Graxxd Duchess Elizaheth had been nxurdered immediately after the Ekaterin. burg shoothxg, and that some of the bodies had been found in disused pits. In no ca&e had there been any semblance of a triaJ. It was evident Ihe wholesale extermination of the Romanovs had. heen pursued, and that all theories of the miraculous sm'vival of the childreix should be abandoned. —The Eonpress and Raspnt-in. — Tliere is no evidexxce to show that at any time during tke captivity was any active attempt* made to rescue the Romanovs. This applies equally to the ex-Sovereigns aixd to their kinsmen. At Tobolsk, Ekaterinburg, Pernr, and Alapaievsk the pretext ?o~ wholesale murder was always the same ; an alleged attempt to escape or rescue. And from the testimony of persons who were in daily intercourse with the imprisoned family, it- is clear that, had any scrious efforts t-o pi'oeure their escape been made, they would have met with no encouragement. Nicholas II repeatedly said that he would not leave Russia ; Alexandx*a hated above everyt-hing the idea of going to Gennany. At that time Russia offered no sure place of refuge. The ex-Empress was the objeet of hatred, She completely dominated her spouse in the imagination of the people, and occupies a place apart in the evidence. Alexandra's personality is reflected in her family— Nicholas, like herself, an embodiment of all th,e do-mestic virtues, religioum to the verge of; mysticism, expert in dissimuation, never angry, perhaps never really feeling angry, incapable of a decision — so utterly had he surrendered himself to his wife; the daughters relegated to Ihe background, entirely unprepared to take proper place in the world, Alexis monopolizing all the care and attent-ion of his mother; the children ashamed of her belief in Rasputin, yet not darxng to resent it. Aipong the Court favourites, male or f©"male, nohody exercised any rea-1 infxuence except in so far as it snited the Empress, Only one person appears to have been admitted fox* any length of Hme to the Imperial confidence. That person was Anna Vyrabova. Regarding her, Rasputin used to sp&ak in the cmdest terms to the companions of his drunken boasts. That was the origin of her infamous notoriety. The fact is, Anna Yyrubova was Rasputin's accomplice — nothing more. She kept him in touch with everything, especi. ally with the boy's health. It was at her house that Ra-sputin saw the- Emperor and Empress when it became t-oo scandalous for him to appear daily in the Palace — after the dismissal of governesses who had raised an outcxy a.gaiixst Rasputin 's familiarities with their charges. Woman-like, the Empress regarded all things from a person al standpoint. Her malady only served to int-ensify her likes and dislikes. One of her particular aversions was Wilhelm of P russia. first because the Hohenzollerns had been exalted at the expense of her own House ; secondly because Wilhelm had not counted with her. Germany, niled by Wilhelm, was ever the foe of Russia ruled by Alexandra. She eould not- admit- the possibility of a eompromise or truce with Wilhelm's Germany, any more than she would permit the Tsar to summon a Minist-ry composed of Rxflputin's detraetox-s and enemies. A complete and ludicrous misa-pprehension prevailed in Russia and anxong the AJIxed peoples abont the alleged pro-German tendencieg of the ex-Empress. She hated Gennany with a bitterness and a fervour equalled only hy her contempt and loathing for ihe Russians — alwa-ys excepting the peasants, whom she "imagined to he endowed with all the virtnes a.nxl qualities that Rasputin was supposed to possess.