A t the beginning ofJune, 1918, the leaders of the Bolshevik regime in /VMoscow had still to make a final decision about the fate of those Romanovs held in custody in one form or another. The ex-Tsar had been moved at the end of April from Tobolsk to Ekaterinburg and he and his family were kept there in virtual prison conditions in a large house commandeered from a merchant called Nikolai lpatev. Six other members of the imperial family - Kschessinskas ex-lover Grand Duke Serge Mikhail-ovich, Alexandras sister Ella, three of the sons of Grand Duke Konstantin, and Dimitris half-brother Vladimir Paley - were being held in the Napol-naya school on the outskirts of Alapaevsk, an industrial town some 180 miles north-east of Ekaterinburg, from which they had been transferred towards the end of May.*

The Napolnaya school had no more than five or six small rooms. The furniture was simple, with two or three plain tables, some chairs and stools, and iron cots. The Alapaevsk exiles, guarded by Latvians and members of the local Soviet, were allowed to walk in the town and to talk to local residents, mainly the young who came to the school to play football and skittles with the young Konstantin princes and Prince Vladimir Paley. Their principal occupation was working in the garden, planting vegetables, and in the evenings they sat around and read books supplied to them by the local library. At first their meals were cooked and brought in to them, but later the system changed and they were given food to cook for themselves.

Conditions at Alapaevsk were not as strict as at Ekaterinburg, where Nicholas and his family were confined to the lpatev house and its small courtyard, with their windows whitewashed to prevent them seeing out, and with restricted opportunity for exerciser But if it was a more tolerable existence at the Napolnaya school, it could not compare to the relatively pleasant conditions Michael enjoyed in Perm.

* Nicholas, Alexandra and their daughter Marie arrived in Ekaterinburg on April 30, 191 the other four children joined them three weeks later. Alexandras sister, Ella, and the other Roinanovs, originally imprisoned in Viatka, were confined in an Ekaterinburg hotel from May 3 to May 30 when they were transferred to Alapaevsk. There was no contact between the two groups.

The last Emperor would be the first of the Romanovs to die.*  The order to execute him appears to have been given by the Perm Cheka, though responsibility is clouded by the conflicting statements of the men involved. The Ural Regional Soviet at Ekaterinburg and the Bolshevik leadership in Moscow would not admit having any hand in the murder, but each had good reason for pleading ignorance; each endorsed it afterwards and both conspired in the cover-up.

* Grand Duke Nicholas Konstantinovich, aged sixty-one, died in February, 1918, in Tashkent; contrary to rumours that he was murdered, he died of pneumonia, as Grand Duchess Tatiana told her aunt Xenia in a letter from Tobolsk on February 28, 1918. {source: Prince Nicholas Romanw)

The actual execution was entrusted to Myasnikov. He later claimed to have acted on his own initiative, without the authority of the Perm Cheka; this view is contradicted by other leading Cheka members actually involved in the conspiracy and murder. The Perm City Soviet also knew, approved and took part.

Perms Bolsheviks were excited by the fear that the Czechs could reach Perm; martial law was in force in the town. Myasnikov claimed the discovery of a plot by an organisation of officers to rescue Michael. These factors, he said, determined the decision: Michael had to be killed because he was the only figure around whom all the counter-revolutionary forces could unite and the danger to Soviet power if Michael escaped and became the head of the counter-revolutionary forces would be immense.

The testimony of another Cheka department head, Pavel Malkov, is consistent with this: Michael was killed because of the advance of counterrevolutionary forces, and also because of his suspicious behaviour ,* another leading Bolshevik, A. A. Mikov, describes a meeting attended by Malkov, Myasnikov and others in a dacha. Malkov told the assembled men that it was dangerous to "keep" Michael any longer; he might escape even though he was being watched closely. Mikov suggested killing him. 1 was sure they were all in favour.

Mikov dates that meeting as in the middle of June . . . I remember it well, it was a Sunday evening. If so, it was June 9, 1918. At dawn the following morning, in Ekaterinburg, a group of Whites raided the town in a bid to rescue Nicholas and his family; however, the Cheka had sufficient warning of the attempt and Red reinforcements rushed into Ekaterinburg. The name Whites was used to describe those actively fighting the Bolsheviks; some were monarchists, some were not; these Whites were ex-Tsarist officers. The fighting lasted all day, and it was not until late evening that the Whites were finally overcome. Their leader was captured and shotJ

That raid on Ekaterinburg increased fears in Perm. The president of the Ural Soviet at Ekaterinburg was AleksandrBeloborodov, who had worked as a clerk in Perm. He had close connections with the town, where his own

family still lived; one of his close friends there was Gavriil Myasnikov On the afternoon of Wednesday, June 12, some thirty-six hours after the abortive White attack on Ekaterinburg, Myasnikov took the first steps in the plan to abduct and execute Michael, as approved by the Cheka. The involvement of the Ural Regional Soviet cannot be established but equally cannot be excluded. The murder was set for that night.

Once the decision had been made, Myasnikov acted with considerable speed. His first task was to recruit an execution squad. 1 needed hard men who had suffered from the autocracy . -. men who were ready to bite through someones throat with their teeth. I needed men who could hold their tongues, who trusted me more than they did thernselves, and were ready to do anything if I told them it was necessary in the interests of the revolution. The four men who met his criteria were all from the Moto-vilikha arsenal:

Nikolai Zhuzhgov, aged thirty-nine, was a member of the Perm Cheka and assistant chief of the Motovilikha militia. A small man, with sunken eyes, he had spent seven years in labour camps and had been a friend of Myasnikov since 1905-

Vasily lvanchenko, aged forty-four, was another veteran Bolshevik, and since April he had been head of the Perm militia and a deputy in the local Soviet. In 1906 he had been arrested for the murder of two Cossacks and sentenced to fifteen years hard labour. Like Myasnikov, he had been released after the 1917 February revolution.

Andrei Markov, aged thirty-six, was the Perm commissar for nationalisation, who worked as a foreman in one of the Motovilikha workshops. A thickset man, he had been for some time in prison with Myasnikov, who regarded him as someone who could be relied upon to do whatever he was told.

Ivan Kolpashchikov was a powerfully built man with a curiously squeaky high-pitched voice and, like all the others, was a veteran of the prison camps. When not working at the arsenal he served as a Red Guard.

Myasnikov called the four men to a meeting that Wednesday evening in the projection room of the cinema in Motovilikha. There, he set out the reasons why Michael had to be killed. He said that if His Imperial Majesty was not dealt with, then tomorrow he may not be here, tomorrow he may be standing at the head of the massed forces of the counter-revolution. However, the execution would have to be presented officially as an escape, for Lenin and Sverdlov would then be able to avoid complications with the bourgeois governments and we will not compromise them.

The four men having vowed silence, Myasnikov then revealed the details. To ensure secrecy the killing would be done that very night. Michael was to be abducted from the hotel room, taken to a wood and shot. As cover for the abduction the execution squad would present him with a forged order, pretending that he was being evacuated for security reasons and because of the threat to Perm from advancing White forces. On the morrow it would be announced that he had escaped, and his entourage would be arrested for complicity and shot.

The time was now 9-30 prn. The abduction was set for midnight. The place of execution was to be a small wood near a place called Malaya Yazovaya, not far from Motovilikha. If all went as planned by Myasnikov, His Imperial Majesty had four hours to live.

At the beginning ofJune, in accordance with an order from Moscow, the clocks in Bolshevik Russia had been advanced by two hours. It was a fuel-saving device) and in consequence it did not become dark in Perm on June 12 until after eleven oclock. On that date darkness lasts for six hours and thirteen minutes, so that with sunset at 10.52 p.m. sunrise would be at 5.05 a.m. The distance between the hotel and the proposed execution scene was six and a half miles, and by horse-drawn carriage, travelling slowly over bad roads in darkness, that journey would take about an hour. There would be no difficulty in finding the wood beyond Malaya Yazovaya for it had been a favoured meeting spot for Bolsheviks in the days when they held illegal gatherings and secret meetings. Allowing an hour or so for grave-digging, the execution squad would be back in Motovilikha before dawn.

There was a great deal to do. Myasnikov telephoned the works and arranged horses for the two phaetons to be used in the abduction. At ten oclock the horses were ready and the party set off for Perm.

On their arrival the five men went into the Cheka offices to prepare the forged order. The wording drafted by Myasnikov read: In view of the approach of the front. Comrade Nikolai Zhuzhgov is hereby instructed to evacuate Citizen Michael Romanov to Central Russia*. The order was to be triple-signed, ostensibly by the Cheka chairman, the head of the counterrevolutionary department, and the secretary. When it was finished, Myasnikov, Markov, and Kolpashchikov provided the three signatures.

During Markovs typing of the document Myasnikov claimed that they were interrupted by the unexpected arrival ofMalkov and ofSorokin, the chairman of the Provincial Executive Committee. They saw what was being written, guessed its purpose and appeared confused and frightened; he had to swear them to silence. That was nonsense. Malkov and Sorokin and the other local leaders had already decided to shoot Michael Romanov immediately in complete secrecy; Myasnikov was their agent.

Myasnikovs motives in describing that scene in that way may owe much to his desire to make himself a hero. When he told his story, in 19351

was a pohtical renegade in Paris; the statement he gave to the Soviet embassy there was intended to win him a pardon in Moscow and permission to return.* To exaggerate his own role, he diminished that ofMalkov.

* He was successful, though he would later regret being so; he was executed by the Soviets in 1945

What may be true, however, is that Malkov feigned surprise when he walked into the Cheka offices, for officially he did not know anything about the plot. His role was to pretend afterwards that Michael had escaped. In the meantime, he stayed where he was. He would do nothing more until he received a telephone call from the hotel, to tell him that Michael had been abducted.

It was now 11.45 p-ni- Their task completed, Myasnikov and his men marched out, Zhuzhgov folding the typewritten order and thrusting it into his pocket.

Shortly before midnight, the two phaetons bearing the executioners clattered into Siberia Street and stopped outside the Korolev Rooms. While lvanchenko and Kolpashchikov turned the carriages round so that they were facing towards the town, Zhuzhgov went to the hotels entrance and banged hard on the door. A Red Guard opened it and peered at the group. Zhuzhgov flourished the order, told the guard that they were there to evacuate Michael and pushed his way inside.

There is no complete record of how Michael spent Wednesday, June 12, although it was probably as any other day, with a stroll in the town and perhaps along the river embankment. He may have gone to Ekaterinskaya Street to look at his new apartment, forJohnson made an appointment that day to conclude negotiations for the rental with the Tupitsins." Certainly Michael was back in the hotel by 6 p.m. for Colonel Znamerovsky joined him then, leaving at 9 p.m. Michael may well then have returned to his letter to Natasha, which he had started the previous day. The first pages, beginning as always with My darUng, beloved Natasha would be on his writing desk. At midnight he was in a dressing gown, talking to Johnson in his room; Chelyshev had just interrupted them to tell Michael that his bath was waiting for him.

What happened then in the Korolev Rooms chiefly depends on the evidence of four men. There are the accounts subsequently given by Myasnikov and Markov and the statements of Michaels valet Chelyshev, who was present throughout the scene, and of a witness called Krumnis, a guest in the hotel. On the main points they broadly agree.

Krumnis was playing cards in the hotel when he heard raised voices in the hallway. He went out to find three armed men standing in the office of llya Sapozhnikov, the hotel commissar. Myasnikov, Zhuzhgov and Kolpashchikov were telling the commissar that they had orders to evacuate Michael. The commissar said he would telephone the Cheka for confirmation, but the armed men refused to allow it/" Leaving the others in the hallway, Zhuzhgov approached a kitchen maid and asked her to take him to Michaels room; the girl led him upstairs to room 18, occupied by Borunov. Chelyshev was then in Michaels room and when he came out, followed byJohnson, they found Borunov talking to a man in a soldiers greatcoat. The man was flourishing a piece of paper and demanding to know where Michael Romanov lived. Told it was room 21, he stepped forward, pulling out a revolver when Chelyshev attempted to bar his way.

Michael stood up, read the order but refused to comply, insisting that he would do nothing before he had spoken to Pavel Malkov, the chairman of the Cheka. Zhuzhgov, staring up at a man eight inches taller than himself, appears to have become uncertain as Michael demanded the telephone. Zhuzhgov had a gun, and a piece of paper, but neither seemed to impress Michael.

Zhuzhgov left the room and called to Kolpashchikov to join him. The argument continued for so long that Markov, waiting outside, hurried into the hotel to find out what was happening. With his arrival there were now three armed men in the room; Michael still stubbornly refused to leave, citing illness, demanding a doctor, and insisting that he spoke to Malkov — unaware, of course, that he was privy to the plot.

With time slipping by one of the men — probably the burly Kolpashchikov — grabbed Michael roughly by the shoulder and snarled: Oh, these Ronunovs. Were fed up with you all. Realising that it was futile to resist any longer, Michael began to get dressed. Johnson insisted that he, too, go with them, and after some discussion between the three men he was told to get ready also. Michael was informed that his other effects would be sent on after him. Zhuzhgov then reached up and grabbed Michael by the collar, ordering him to go outside, motioning Johnson to follow.

As they were leaving the room, Chelyshev remembered about Michaels medicine and ran forward holding out the bottle. Please, Your Highness, take it with you, he called out. The men roughly shoved Chelyshev aside, pushing Michael outside into the stairway.

Downstairs, Krumnis watched as the three armed men came down with Michael and Johnson. He remembered Michael and Johnson were dressed in the everyday suits that they usually wore when they went out walking. They did not have coats with them, but carried sticks in their hands. Michael and Johnson both seemed calm and composed: Krumnis did not notice any particular agitation on their faces. Myasnikov, who had remained at the commissars office in the hotel lobby, led the way out into the street. Chelyshev, watching from the hotel balcony, saw Michael violently pushed into the first phaeton. Zhuzhgov clambered in behind him, with lvanchenko on the reins. Johnson climbed into the other phaeton, with Malkov and Kolpashchikov.

The presence ofJohnson had not been allowed for in the original plan, so there was no room in either of the three-seat phaetons for Myasnikov and contrary to plan, I found myself left behind. Nevertheless, he told them to move off- 1 will catch you up. If I dont, then wait for me at Motovilikha.

As the two carriages clipped away towards the Siberian Highway, Malkov and Sorokin came running up from the Cheka offices. They and Myasnikov now went to the militia office next to the hotel, where Malkov and Sorokin confirmed that they would arrest Michaels servants and associates and would also circulate the story of an escape. Myasnikovs personal initiative was now openly a plot involving the Cheka executive.

At the militia headquarters Myasnikov ordered the officer in charge, Vasily Drokin, to drive him to Motovilikha in a militia carriage. Going at a fast trot they caught up with the two phaetons just as they reached the militia offices in Motovilikha. Zhuzhgov climbed down and came over to Myasnikov, who quickly checked the details for the final stage of the journey. Yes, they had spades. No, there was no point in Myasnikov going with them, they could manage without him.

Myasnikov stood in the roadway and watched as the two phaetons set off and disappeared into the darkness. Then he went into the militia offices and telephoned the Perm Cheka. Malkov was there, and confirmed that the escape story was now being circulated, search parties organised and telegrams sent out announcing that Michael Romanov had been abducted by counter-revolutionaries.

By this time the phaetons had reached the paraffin stores some three miles beyond Motovilikha. Michael had sat silently on the journey to Motovilikha but when they moved off again he began questioning Zhuzhgov about their destination. Zhuzhgov told him that it was Mogilev, the first name that came into his head. It was not a reassuring answer, since Mogilev was 1400 miles to the west, and the carriages were heading east. Zhuzhgov hurriedly covered up his invention by telling him that they were heading for a railway crossing and that arrangements had been made that they would be put on a train there, so as to avoid the attention which they would have attracted at a busy station. It was not a convincing story but Michael didnt seem frightened, said Zhuzhgov afterwards.

Six hundred yards past the paraffin stores" the two phaetons slowed as they reached the wood selected for the executions. According to Markovs account the carriages turned right and drove into the wood

ULATH IN THE WOODS

for 250 yards before stopping; according to Myasnikov, quoting Zhuzhgov, the carriages remained on the road and the men all walked into the wood, Michael having been told that it was a short cut to the railway crossing.

Whether they drove in or walked, the result was the same when they reached and stopped at the spot selected for the execution. There was no ceremony, no explanation, no macabre ritual of a cigarette and blindfold, just cold-blooded murder. Zhuzhgov lifted his Browning and aimed at Michael, standing a few feet away, and simultaneously Markov shotJohnson, wounding him. Zhuzhgovs gun either misfired or he also succeeded only in wounding Michael, for knowing that he was about to die Michael ran forward with his arms out wide. Pegging to say goodbye to his secretary. As he did so Zhuzhgov fired again, but because he was using home-made bullets his gun jammed, as did Kolpashchikovs gun as he attempted to fire a second bullet at Johnson. With Michael still moving forward with his arms outstretched he was shot in the head at close range. Markov boasted that he did so, though in Myasnikovs account, Zhuzhgov claimed to fire the fatal shot; as Michael fell he pulled Johnson, who had been shot by lvanchenko, down with him. I went up to them. They were still moving. I put my Browning to Michaels temple and shot him. lvanchenko did the same to Johnson . . .

The time was approximately 2 a.m. on Thursday, June 13-Markov would claim later, in his statement about the kilhngs, that because it was quickly getting light it was decided to leave the bodies covered with twigs and to return that night to bury them. However, that cannot be right, for there were some three hours of darkness ahead of them, which was ample time in which four men armed with axes and spades could dig the single grave into which both bodies were thrown. In Myasnikovs more credible version on this point, Zhuzhgov told him that digging the grave didnt take very long.

Before burying Michael and Johnson their bodies were stripped of all their clothes and possessions, which were put into the phaetons and taken back to Motovilikha, apparently in order to prove to Myasnikov that the executions had been carried out as planned. They had been told not to touch personal effects, but the temptation of trophies proved too much for them. From Michaels pockets they took a watch, a cigar case, a penknife and a tobacco tin. Johnsons pockets yielded, among other things, a handsome silver watch which Markov appropriated for himself, and which he would go on wearing for the rest of his hfe.*

* He would still be wearing it in 196, when his statement about Michaels murder was lodged in Perm archives.

At Motovilikha, having reported to Myasnikov, the killers took the bloodied clothes, poured kerosene over them, set them on fire, and scattered the ashes. No one as yet has found the grave in the wood beyond Malaya Yazovaya. Myasnikov, lighting a cigarette, looked at his watch. It was 4 a.m.

The first telegrams from the Perm Cheka announcing the escape of Michael Romanov had already been despatched. Malkov telephoned Myasnikov at 2.20 a.m. to confirm that he had cabled the Soviet of Peoples Cornmissars at Moscow, marked for the attention of Trotsky and Feliks Dzerzhinsky, the Cheka supreme. A copy was also sent to Petrograd and to the Ekaterinburg Soviet and Cheka. The message read: Last flight Michael Romanov and Johnson were abducted by persons unknown in military uniform. Search as yet unsuccessful, most energetic measures taken

The *energetic measures involved ordering out token search parties, which were sent everywhere except on the road to Motovilikha and beyond. They also involved the immediate arrest of Chelyshev and the chauffeur Borunov as accomplices. Chelyshev would subsequently recount what had happened in the hotel room to his then fellow prisoner Aleksandr Volkov, a valet in the imperial household. Chelyshev was in no doubt that Michael had not been rescued by friends but abducted by enemies.

Nevertheless, the story of the escape was spread so convincingly that most ordinary people accepted it as fact. In the local Soviet newspaper, the Perm lzvestiya, Michael was said to have been abducted soon after midnight by three unidentified armed men in military uniform ... Orders were immediately given for Romanovs arrest and mounted militia units were despatched along all highways, but no traces were found. . .

Many of Perms townspeople saw the hand of God in Michaels disappearance. Prayers were said for him in the cathedral, for the health of Gods servant Michael; rumour had it that he would reappear at the head of an army and restore order.

One of the few who wondered if all was as it seemed was Krumnis, the hotel guest who had watched Michael being led out of the hotel. He noted that everything about the escape seemed strange, all the more because there were no house searches. The sister of the senior Cheka man, Lukoyanov, admitted that the news had been received rather strangely at the Cheka; they werent particularly worried." What was also odd was the relaxed reaction of the Moscow leadership, given the threat which Michaels escape would have posed for them. No vengeful tribunal descended on Perm to exact punishment on those charged with Michaels security. No one demanded an accounting by the local leadership, or the arrest of those whose negligence had permitted the rescue. There was no enquiry, no scapegoat, no consequence. At the Perm. Cheka, Malkov kept quiet and he did so easily because he was never asked to speak out.

Moscow knew, in fact, about the murder of Michael very soon after it occurred. According to Myasnikov, a local Bolshevik leader, M. P. Turkin, was sent to Moscow immediately after the murder to report it. Turkins message was to be that Michael had been killed in order to foil an escape organised by officers intent on liberating him, and to prevent the emergence of Michael as the leader of a counter-revolution. The story was to be told firstly to Sverdlov, with the proviso that he isnt to tell everyone about this, just Lenin and anyone else who needs to know. . .

Myasnikov claimed that Turkin returned from Moscow having done as he had been asked, and that Sverdlov had been very, very pleased. There and then he spoke to Lenin on the phone and immediately organised a meeting . . . Lenin was also very pleased . . . they decided to say that he had escaped." Since Myasnikov was eager to say so in his account submitted to the Soviet embassy in Paris, it can be assumed that firstly it was true, for otherwise the claim would do him no good, and secondly that by 1935 he believed that it was not official policy to deny approval of Michaels murder, but only prior knowledge of it.

Andrei Markov, in his account given in 1965, also claimed to have gone to Moscow, and with the help of Sverdlov he was received by Lenin, whom he told about the event. There is no evidence of Markovs visit, but there is a record of Turkin having been there at about that time, for he is listed as a delegate to the All-Russian Congress which took place at the beginning ofJuly 1918." Markovs claim was probably therefore only an old mans boast, in which he adopted the role actually given to Turkin.

Moscows approval for the murder appears therefore certain. There is also evidence that Myasnikov obtained from the Ural Soviet formal retrospective authority for the murder already committed.

Some time after Michaels death Myasnikov went to Ekaterinburg, to a meeting of the Ural Regional Soviet at the Hotel Amerika on Pokrovsky Prospekt. Those present were the leaders of the Ural Soviet, headed by its president Beloborodov. The purpose of the meeting was to draw up a resolution for the execution of the leading FLomanovs. Although he was already dead, Michaels name was included as one of those the Regional Soviet considers it indispensable to execute ... The Regional Soviet recognised, however, that for reasons of foreign policy, it might be necessary to keep the executions absolutely secret.

The meeting unanimously endorsed the resolution, and also agreed that the Ural Soviet should send immediately two envoys to Moscow to obtain the endorsement of the Bolshevik leadership for their decision. The first envoy was the Ural secretary and war commissar Filipp Goloshchekin; the second was Myasnikov, who it was said was also carrying a personal report for Lenin; he would travel separately, as escort for Beloborodovs wife and family who were also going to Moscow.*  The two envoys were instructed to return not later than July 15.

* On the journey, Beloborodovs family drowned in a cross-river ferry accident; Myasnikov survived, but the accident would explain why he did not return to Ekarerinburg with Goloshchekin or play any further role in immediate events.

The man who had been Michael II was dead. Now, five weeks later, they were going to kill Nicholas II and every other Romanov in reach of the Ural Soviet.