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Ahem.
After reading The Race To Save The Romanovs: The Truth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue the Russian Imperial Family, I submit a better title is: The Race To Flee The Romanovs since ...
Nobody wanted 'em!
Not the Spanish, or the Danes, the Finns, the Swedes, the French, or the Germans. (Perish the thought! The Germans? The book quotes Nicholas and Alexandra that they would rather be dead than be rescued by Germans, and so they were.)
The English? My dear chap, certainly not the English, heaven forbid, for although Cousin George V was Nicky's first cousin and lookalike twin (their mothers were sisters), how dare the English to even consider, consider (!), harboring the Russian royal family and giving the English underclasses the very idea of revolution, like the Russians!
Please, spare us all, which the English did not.
What does family have to do with it anyway at a time like this, when your arse might be shot by subjects tempted to follow revolutionaries who might (dare to even ponder the possibility(!)) overtake the English throne?
The very thought of it! Which, the English tried not to think of it.
No way was the King of England going to help his family in distress, his wife, Queen Mary, whispering sweet reinforcements in his ear: nyet! (Naturally, Queen Mary arguably could be called a force behind George's failure to rescue, but that the respected Race author, Helen Rappaport, the writer of many Romanov books, would stoop to insert a rumored conversation between Gore Vidal and Princess Margaret, yes, that Princess Margaret, the sister of Queen Elizabeth II, about the weaknesses of her grandmother leaves one to ask: Prithee, why denigrate your work with this trifle?)
In her book, Ms.Rappaport quotes letters, diaries, published materials, new documents she and her researchers uncovered, and government archives where she could gain access, some archives still under wraps after all these 100 years. ("It's none of the public's business," the royal keepers sniff.)
The Bolsheviks shot, bayoneted, and burned the family on July 17, 1918, and announced Nicholas's death only, which the British press barely bothered to report. The English Royal Family desired to keep all matters Romanov quiet (surprise!) to avoid stirring up their own messes, excuse, masses and besides, the rest of the family, Alexandra and the five children were sequestered somewhere else, safe and sound in Siberia.
Weren't they?
No one cared too much about the imprisoned family anyway after they and close staff members were hauled east towards Siberia from St. Petersburg the year before they were murdered (the map in the book, quite confusing).
Before all the family deaths were revealed (much to the consternation of the world, but let's not talk about it), the Bolsheviks used them as negotiating tools to try and gain release of prisoners, Ms. Rappaport writes.
Alexandra, formerly of Germany, wife, mother and seemingly despised by all Russians and Brits (she did favor Rasputin, lest anyone need the reminder) suggests another unpopular wife of a national leader, Mary Todd Lincoln, both women whom some blame for their husbands' demise and deaths. (To this duo, please add Queen Mary. Is anyone working on a book about the trio? I would like to read it.)
Ms. Rappaport's Race has a fine glossary of characters at the front which helps keep identifications straight, but not every name is included. (If you are going to list some, then why not list them all?)
I am thinking about the omission of Dmitri Malinovsky (pages 222-223), Nicholay Sokolov (pages 134 and 135), not to be confused with Viktor Sokolov (on the same page as Nicholay [page 223] and more), cousins and Princes Vladimir and Alexander Trubetskoy, pages 134, 136-137, and Konstantin Nabokov (the Russian ambassador to the United Kingdom whose name is found on page 248 and four other pages, whose surname is the same as Vladimir's of Lolita fame and are they related, I wondered? Yes, his uncle, I discovered in a web search).
There were more names not identified in the glossary, but my paper ran short, and I grew weary of listing and looking them all up.
And then there was the tiny (in small print) Romanov family tree and all their European royalty relations spread over two pages, necessitating a magnifying glass, and surely, there is a better way to display the lineage in larger print for all those beyond the age of 55 who might read this book and take a gander at the family tree!
(RE: The map of the Romanovs' prison route. Where was England? We know where England is, but its relationship to Finland and Russia would have helped here.)
Was this a race to get the book out in the centennial year of the Romanovs' murders?
Rumor of an escape route to Japan and then, the US, is mentioned (?).
patricialesli@gmail.com
The front of Church-on-the-Blood in the Name of All Saints Shone Forth in the Land of Russia, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
This is the church built on
the site where Tsar Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra, their five children
and four staff members were shot and bludgeoned to death on July 17, 1918. Its formal name (based on a plaque pictured below) is Church-on-the-Blood in the Name of All Saints Shone Forth in the Land of Russia, Yekaterinburg. It was consecrated in 2003.
The murders happened in the basement of the Ipatiev House which stood here until the Soviet government demolished the house in 1977. The main altar on the first floor of the church is directly over the site of the murders.
The Ipatiev House was the last place the Romanovs lived, imprisoned there for 78 days until the Bolsheviks, under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, ordered their deaths.
The front of Church-on-the-Blood in the Name of All Saints, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
A statue of the Romanov family at the front of Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
Nicholas II holds his son, Alexei, at the front of Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
Another view of the statue at Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
The statue as seen from the top floor of Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
The statue as seen from the top floor of Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
Another view of the statue at Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
Inside on the top floor of Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
The ceiling of the Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
The Romanov family tree at Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
In honor of Nicholas II's patron Saint (Stephen?) at the Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
On the ground floor, a few steps from the execution site, is an exhibition with photographs and artifacts of the Romanovs and the Russian Revolution at Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
In the exhibition is a framed newspaper photo of the demolition of the Impatiev House which stood at the site of the Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
Romanov artifacts at the museum at Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
A display at the exhibition in honor of Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna, who became a nun after the 1905 assassination of her husband, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the fifth son of Tsar Alexander II, assassinated in 1881. The Grand Duchess was Empress Alexandra's older sister, they, the granddaughters of Queen Victoria and great-aunts of Prince Philip of Great Britain (whose DNA helped identify the bodies of Alexandra and the children). Because Elisabeth was royalty, she was one of many family members killed by the Bolsheviks who beat her and others on July 18, 1918, threw them down an iron pit and when they kept singing hymns and would not die, tossed lighted hand grenades down on top of them in the pit. When the prisoners continued singing, the killers ignited a bon fire. Despite all this, three months later when their bodies were recovered, it was discovered that Elisabeth was able to bandage a fellow victim's wounds while they all were undergoing torture in the pit.
After he learned of her death, Wikipedia quotes Lenin: "Virtue with the crown on it is a greater enemy to the world revolution than a hundred tyrant tsars."/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
Members of the clergy who were killed by the Bolsheviks, in a display at the exhibition at Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
This is the Royal Spiritual and Educational Center on the side of Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
Note the flowers and large photographs of the Romanovs (center, above the flowers) at the front of Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
The front of Church-on-the-Blood in the Name of All Saints Shone Forth in the Land of Russia, Yekaterinburg with large family photographs displayed outside the church/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
A plaque in Russian and English languages at Church-on-the-Blood in the Name of All Saints Shone Forth in the Land of Russia, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
From the Vysotsky Viewing Platform, Church-on-the-Blood in the Name of All Saints Shone Forth in the Land of Russia, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
At right center in this photo of the city of Yekaterinburg, is Church-on-the-Blood in the Name of All Saints Shone Forth in the Land of Russia, taken from the Vysotsky Viewing Platform/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
The Church-on-the-Blood in the Name of All Saints Shone Forth in the Land of Russia occupies the sky from all angles in Yekaterinburg. This was taken from the new (2015) Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
On July 27 or September 6 or September 15, 16, and 17 or 22 (Wikipedia and other sources list different days but they give the same year: 1977), the Ipatiev House was destroyed under orders of the Politburo of the Soviet government.
Alarmed by the increasing number of curiosity seekers, historians and religious members who came to the house, and the growing interest shown by Western governments, the Soviets feared the reality of rumors that the Ipatiev House might become a UNESCO World Heritage site.
They were afraid the site would become a shrine.
It has become a shrine.
The public reason the Soviets gave for the demolition (which was carried out in the middle of the night like the murders) was a "rehabilitation of the street."
Which they covered with asphalt.
Boris Yeltsin, the local Soviet leader in 1977, states in his autobiography, that he was ordered to destroy the house, and he, most agree, had no choice. Documents support him.
At this link is his description that visitors "...even came to look at it [the house] from other cities.
"I can well imagine that sooner or later we will be ashamed of this piece
of barbarism. Ashamed we may be; but we can never rectify it."
Pictures are not permitted in the holy space where many icons of the family, crosses, candles, and kneeling pads exist to help visitors assuage their pain and agony, and pray for hope, it will not happen again.
A large icon like this one above of the Imperial Family, Tsar Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra, and their children, Maria, Anastasia, Tatiana, Olga, and Alexei, the youngest and heir to the throne, hangs adjacent to the execution spot at Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/From the website of the Church
Some of the first icons of the family have been found in Serbia, made in the 1920s.
On the centennial of the deaths on July 17, 2018, the Vatican estimated a crowd of 75,000 turned out for a liturgy at Church-on-the-Blood. Then, thousands walked four hours, about 9.5 miles, along the route the bodies were carried and dumped in an abandoned mining shaft, Ganina Yama.
75,000 came to honor the memory of the Romanovs on July 17, 2018 at Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/
From the Vatican
Two days after the murders, on July 19, 1918, the killers carried the bodies to another site, fearful their enemies, the Whites who were fast approaching, would try to rescue the Imperial Family and use them for oppositional purposes.
Here is a link to an interview dated July 2, 2018 with the head of the Department of Archives of the Sverdlovsk Region, Alexander Kapustin about the possible reconstruction of the Ipatiev House. Kapustin says: "...the foundation of the Ipatiev House is
actually buried under the road. Therefore, we are not talking so much
about reconstruction as that of a new construction."
The link contains more information about the Ipatiev House, including a 3D video of the reconstructed house.
patricialesli@gmail.com
Lilies are planted at the ditch where the Bolsheviks threw the bodies of the Romanov family and their staff members after the murderers covered them with sulphuric acid to shield their identities on July 17, 1918/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
The Romanovs, Russia's last Royal Family, were murdered by the Bolsheviks in Yekaterinburg, Russia on the night of July 17, 1918. The Bolsheviks shot, bayoneted, and burned the family and their loyal staff of four at the Ipatiev House where the family had been imprisoned their last 78 days.
Due to the reluctance of some of the perpetrators to shoot the daughters, and the need to bring in fresh troops to finish them off, the crime took much longer than expected. When at last the deed was completed, the killers hauled the bodies almost ten miles away to an abandoned ditch where they pitched the dead.
Now the ditch and the surrounding area are a holy place, Ganina Yama and the home of the Monastery of the Holy Royal Martyrs. There visitors are invited to come, pay respects, and wonder why the Bolsheviks also murdered the children, a crime the killers tried to hide for as long as possible to avoid a world outcry and to be able to use the family in death to negotiate for the release of prisoners.
These photographs were taken on July 25, 2018, a week after the centennial of the murders.
To see the second site where the bodies were moved on July 19, 1918, go here.
The family and their servants were canonized on November 1, 1981. Except for the children, Alexei and Maria whose bones were found elsewhere and are still in Russian archives, the family and staff were buried on July 17, 1998 at Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg where most czars since Peter the Great are buried.
The ditch at Ganina Yama. Yama means "mine."/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
A covered wooden semi-circle walkway surrounds the Romanov burial ditch at Ganina Yama. A cross is at right center and pictured below/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
A cross flanked by fresh flowers at Ganina Yama/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
Large photographs of the seven murdered Romanovs hang at the memorial site, each picture bordered by cascades of fresh flowers/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
To the left is a photograph of Czar Nicholas II/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
Photographs of the Romanovs bordered by fresh flowers on a wooden walkway form a semi-circle around the burial site/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
Adjacent to the burial site is a chapel with 17 cupolas to commemorate the 17th day of July, 1918 when the family and their staff of four were murdered and brought here. The monastery was built in 2001 and includes seven chapels, one for each family member/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
The adjacent chapel with its 17 domes, 17 to commemorate the day of the tragedy, July 17, 1918/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
The semi-circular wooden walkway with photographs of the Romanovs surrounds the depression in the ground, the site where the bodies were thrown/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
The chapel with 17 domes adjacent to the burial site/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
A statue of the five children, Olga, Alexei, Anastasia, Maria, and Tatiana near the burial site at Ganina Yama/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
A chapel at Ganina Yama/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 17, 2018
Another chapel at Ganina Yama/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
A chapel at Ganina Yama/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
A chapel at Ganina Yama and a woman wearing apparel and head covering which the monastery provides to visitors who are not properly clothed/Photo by Veronica, July 25, 2018
The bust of Empress Alexandra at Ganina Yama/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
The back of a bust of Nicholas II at Ganina Yama/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
Apparel to cover bare legs for men and women is distributed at the entrance to Ganina Yama, with head coverings for women available, as well/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
One hundred years later on July 17, 2018 ,an estimated 75,000 people attended a liturgy at the Church on the Blood in Yekaterinburg built on the site of the house where the Romanovs were killed. The people walked to Ganina Yama, about four hours away, following the route the bodies were taken. To the left above are photographs of the Royal Family/Photo, the Vatican
Across these railroad tracks at the Porosyonkov Ravine or Field is the second place the Bolsheviks buried the bodies of the Romanovs, their cook, doctor, maid, and footman on July 19, 1918. To hide the bodies from the Bolsheviks' opponents, the Whites, the executioners moved them 4.5 miles from the first place they dumped them on July 17, 1918 at what is now Ganina Yama, a monastery. (For July 25, 2018 photos of Ganina Yama, go here.)
The bodies of two children, Alexei and Maria, were found in a separate place and still have not been buried at Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg with the rest of the family. The Russian Orthodox Church reportedly is unable to accept the last remains as those of Alexei and Maria.
At this ravine 61 years later, amateur sleuths found most of the Romanovs' remains. This is how the site looks a little more than 100 years later.
Entrance to the second burial site/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
Monuments stand on both sides of the second burial site/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
One monument at the second burial site/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
Another monument at the second burial site/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
The second burial site of the Romanovs and their four staff members/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
The second burial site of the Romanovs and their four staff members/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
The cross and second burial site of the Romanovs and their four staff members looking towards the exit path/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
The exit looking towards the railroad tracks/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
patricialesli@gmail.com
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