In 1979, a group of enthusiasts discovered the place where the Bolsheviks hid the bodies of Nicholas II, his relatives and servants.
Almost 100 years ago, on the night of July 16-17, the Bolsheviks shot in Yekaterinburg the last Russian emperor Nicholas II, his family and four servants. Since whites were approaching the city at that moment, the Bolsheviks rushed to hide the traces of the crime. They took the bodies of the killed outside Yekaterinburg and buried them without leaving any identification marks. Only a few in the whole country knew exactly where to look for the royal remains. In 1979, a group of six enthusiasts, secretly from the Soviet authorities, found a burial place. One of them is geophysicist Gennady Vasiliev. On the 100th anniversary, the 71-year-old scientist flew from Yaroslavl to Yekaterinburg to once again visit the site where the remains of the Romanovs were found.
Gennady Vasiliev: “ If we found the remains of the Tsar's family, we would witness a state crime. ” Photo: ALEXEY BULATOV / kp.ru
THE PLACE WAS DESCRIBED IN THE LETTER OF THE PRINCESS
Now the burial place of the royal family is well known - it is Porosenkov Log on the northern outskirts of Yekaterinburg. Not far is the village of Shuvakish, and there is a railway nearby. The fact that the remains of the Romanovs were found here is reminiscent of a huge cross and several memorial stones.
- At the time, this place looked different. There was a clear meadow surrounded by trees. Nearby there is a swamp and a stream, - recalls Gennady Vasiliev. - I'm not sure that we would have found the Romanovs if there were the same thickets as now.
The search was organized by two people: the Soviet film director Geliy Ryabov and the Ural geologist Alexander Avdonin.
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“They were very interested in the topic of the Romanovs, and someone once suggested to Gelia that the daughter of Yakov Yurovsky, one of the participants in the execution, is still alive,” Vasiliev continues. - Helium visited her in Leningrad, then contacted her brother, from whom he found a note from their father. In it, Yakov Yurovsky described in detail everything that happened in Yekaterinburg in July 1918: from the execution in the Ipatiev house to the burial of the bodies of the Tsar's family.
Only six people participated in the 1979 excavation. In the excavations of 1991, there are already professional archaeologists and soldiers. Photo: Romanov Memorial.
There were also signs in the note of the place where the remains of the Romanovs were buried. Geliy Ryabov contacted his friend, geologist Alexander Avdonin in Sverdlovsk and asked him to check this place.
- Avdonin and his assistant Mikhail Kochurov walked along the Pig's Log, sticking a probe into the ground, and found a sleeper in one place at a depth of 20 centimeters. Everything, as Yurovsky wrote, - says the scientist. - Then it was decided to carry out excavations. Avdonin called me as his student. Heliy Ryabov also arrived. Another guy I knew from Moscow, a military pilot, was called in as a labor force. And two women were with us - the wives of Ryabov and Avdonin. And on June 1, 1979, the six of us went to Porosenkov Log to dig up the tsar's bodies.
Gennady Vasiliev: “ After we found the tsar's grave in 1979, we visited it every year ” Photo: ALEXEY BULATOV / kp.ru
FEARED TO BE LOCKED IN A CRAZY HOUSE
The plan was simple: to dig the sleepers out of the ground and see if the remains of the Tsar's family really lay under them. The enthusiasts were not going to take out the bones, they just wanted to make sure that they had exactly found the place where the Bolsheviks hid Nicholas II with his family and servants.
- We were very afraid. The heyday of Soviet power. If we found the remains of the Royal family, then we would witness a state crime. Nicholas II was killed without trial or investigation! - explains Gennady Vasiliev. - Geliy Ryabov then warned us: "If someone finds out about what we are doing here, then they will not kill us, not jail, but send us to a madhouse."
So they decided to play it safe and came up with a legend. If someone suddenly found them with shovels over the burial place of the king, amateur archaeologists would say that they are simply looking for metal.
In the main grave, the searchers found the remains of nine people. Fragments of Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria were missing. They were found nearby in 2007. Now there is a cross at this place. Photo: ALEXEY BULATOV / kp.ru
- I then worked at the enterprise "Ural Geophysical Expedition" and made a fake production assignment for myself. I sent myself to search for iron ores in the Shuvakish area, - laughs Gennady Vasiliev. - I took this certificate with me to show it to anyone who would be interested in what we have forgotten here.
However, the search engines were still afraid that the KGB already knew about their plans. No help would have helped them.
- When we were traveling by train to the excavation site, everyone was in a state of fear. They constantly looked around, maybe someone who throws sidelong glances at us is watching us, - the man recalls. - Then, when we got out at the station, we agreed, everyone walks along the sleepers, and I lag behind and move along the side of the road, and see if there is a "tail" behind us.
In 1991, the remains were found in an ordinary weapons box. Photo: Romanov Memorial.
Of course, no one followed them. And they did not meet any of the people during the entire excavation period, except for the shepherd who drove the herd of cows past the royal grave.
WE SWEATED TO SILENCE
- We were at the site at 10.00. We removed the sleepers and started digging. The soil was moist. The pit was immediately filled with a clayey slurry, which was ankle-deep to us, - says Gennady Vasiliev. - I pry on something black with a shovel, like a piece of iron. The shape resembles a ball joint from a car. I hit it with a shovel, and instead of ringing, suddenly a dull thud. Bone! And immediately the first thought: "We must run away." We found what we were looking for. Since there is a bone here, it means that the Romanovs were buried here. It was scary that someone would catch us after all.
Nicholas II with his daughters Olga, Anastasia and Tatiana in Tobolsk in the winter of 1917. Photo: from the funds of the Museum of the Monastery in honor of the Holy Royal Passion-bearers in the Ganina Yama tract.
But Geliy Ryabov insisted on continuing the excavation. As a result, they removed three human skulls from the ground.
- The stream ran ten meters away. We washed the skulls in it. We look into one of them, and there is a whole brain. He remained intact, despite the fact that 61 years have passed since his death! - recalls Gennady Vasiliev. - This happens to bodies when they lie in a place closed from the air. Soft tissues turn into a fatty tissue. When in 1991 other remains were taken out, then Dr. Botkin's hip part was also preserved - it was covered with this fat wax
Nicholas II with his wife at a costume ball in St. Petersburg in 1903. Photo: project “ Tragedy of the family … Tragedy of the Motherland … ”, Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore named after O. E. Claire.
By the evening, it was decided to turn off the excavations. The hole was buried by planting a bush on top, which was to serve as a guide in the future. And under a nearby tree, geologists hid a note with their names to ensure the glory of discoverers.
- With the skulls, that's how it happened. One kept Avdonin. And the other two were taken to Moscow by Geliy Ryabov, so that there, in the laboratory, specialists could use them to restore the appearance of the killed people. But he was refused. They demanded that he formally apply. And it was risky, - sighs Gennady Vasiliev. “As a result, the next year we put these three skulls in a box and returned them to where we found them. A bronze icon with the inscription "Those who endured to the end will be saved" was put there in the box. This is from the Gospel. Then we vowed that we would be silent about our discovery.
YELTSIN HELPED DIGGING
Once a year, the participants in the excavations met at the tomb of the Tsar's family. And in 1990, when the USSR was living out its last years, they still found a way to carry out official excavations.
- We got through to Boris Yeltsin, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, asked for a meeting. We arrived in Moscow. I and Avdonin. Yeltsin was busy, but we were received by his assistant, Viktor Ilyushin (in charge of the secretariat of the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR - ed.). We told him that we want an official opening of the burial. He immediately scored Eduard Rossel, who was then chairman of the Sverdlovsk regional executive committee, on the spin. And the matter started.
Initially, the Bolsheviks hid the bodies of the family of Nicholas II in the factory mines near Ganina Yama, but then they reburied them in Porosenkovy Log. Photo: Museum of the Monastery in honor of the Holy Royal Passion-bearers.
In total, the remains of nine bodies were discovered at the site where excavations took place in 1979. Although it was known that the Bolsheviks killed 11 people in the Ipatiev house. The remains of two more people, Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Mary, were found only in 2007, 30 meters from the first burial. According to one version, the Bolsheviks specially made a separate burial for them, so that by the number of bodies thrown into one grave, no one would have guessed that they had stumbled upon the tsar's remains.
Danil Svechkov