According to records, this dialogue took place in Popov's house on the 17th July, at night. Shooting was heard from the house just across the street.
"Did you hear?"
"Yes."
"Do you understand?"
"Yes."
Well, do you understand? What happened in the house across the street that night?
It was quite long ago, but the case had some actuality again in 2007, and again in 2008. New results and speculations about this unique event turn up now and then.
The house across the street was Ipatiev's house in the city of Yekaterinburg (Ekaterinburg) in Russia. It was 1918, and the shooting was the murder of Tsar Nikolai II (Nicholas) and his family.
Technically Nikolai was not the last Russian Tsar. He abdicated to his brother Mikhail, who laid down his office. That procedure was short and without practical importance, Nikolai was the last Tsar in function. (Here on a photo by Boissonnas & Eggler, taken about 1909. In the Public Domain.)
In 2008 this murder got new media attention, when Russia's Supreme Court (October 1, 2008) ruled that the killing of Nikolai II was unlawful and that the family has the right to rehabilitation. It was ruled that the crime was political.
It has long been a matter of dispute whether the murder was committed on orders from "above" (the State, Lenin) or if a few revolutionaries took the law in their own hands. If it was political, it would make the state, and ultimately Lenin, responsible.
The Tsar's family consisted of seven individuals, but only the mortal remnants of five were found. Tsarevich Alexey (the crown prince) and one of the daughters are commonly held as the two missing ones. If the remnants are indeed of the Tsar's family, where are the other two? There are stories about burning two corpses, but for various reasons their credibility is questionable. So what happened? Can these two have survived? It is not impossible, although we will never know for sure. There are two individuals, however, who are turning up under peculiar circumstances.
One is the well known story about Anastasia. One and a half year after the murder, a young girl turned up in Berlin. She had tried to commit suicide and at the hospital she saw a picture of the murdered Tsar's family. Her reaction was very strong. She began claiming that she was Tatiana (one of Nikolai's daughters), but later changed her mind and said she was Anastasia. Her story was fragmentaric and unclear, and she spoke about survival, a long journey by car with a Romanian soldier, and more... She did not speak Russian!
Her change of name from Tatiana to Anastasia, and her inability to speak Russian actually add to her credibility - they can very well be results of shock. Moreover, someone falsely trying to impersonate a Russian princess would hardly do that without speaking Russian! It is quite obvious that she at least believed herself to be Anastasia.
The girl had some physical marks which suited well with the genuine Anastasia, and she had a remarkable knowledge of family details, etc. She was never legally recognised as Anastasia of the House of Romanov, but when she died she was buried among relatives.
The other story is about Alexey. In his book about Nikolai II (see below), Eduard Radzjinskij relates a letter he received from a psychiatrist, P. Kaufman. 1946-1949 he had been senior physician at the psychiatric hospital in Petrozadovsk. He had had a patient from a prison camp who suffered from mental disorientation and confusion. When his condition improved, the patient said he was Alexey, the Tsar's only son. Dr. Kaufman gradually came to believe him, or at least not dismiss his claims. This patient had physical characteristics resembling those of the Romanovs, and he showed signs of having had hemophilia, which the genuine Alexey had too.
Later Radzjinskij received another letter, from another psychiatrist, senior physician at another hospital. He told the story about Semjonov, a patient, obviously the same man again, and again everything pointed straight towards Alexey.
Finally, a phone call from a man who had been "Semjonov's" fellow-prisoner. He said that all the prisoners knew that "Semjonov" was the Tsar's son. Nobody doubted.
What happened to Semjonov? We don't know. Somehow he disappeared within Stalin's mental hospitals.
In 2007, remains of the Tsar's two missing children were found. DNA analysis confirmed their identities as a son and a daughter of the Tsar. Russian authorities announced that the remains of the whole family had now been found. Thus the mystery is solved, officially. However, unofficially speculation will never end.
If you are interested in this subject, I strongly recommend you to read the interesting:
Edvard Radzinsky; The Last Tsar: The Life and Death of Nicholas II, 1993.
In German: Edward Stanislawowitsch Radsinski; Nikolaus II. Der letzte Zar und seine Zeit, 1993.
Various transcriptions of the author's forename: Edvard, Edward, Eduard; and of the surname: RadzJinskij, Radzinskii, Radzinsky, Radsinski.
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