The Unknown Tsesarevitch. Reminiscences and Considerations on V. K. Filatov’s Life and Times

At that time, if Andrei Strekotin, feeling Alexei’s pulse, understood that he was alive, he could have put his revolver into Alexei trousers pocket, in the boot or slippped it into his bosom. Father would tell us that there was an understanding in their family – if they were faced with a military threat, somebody would hand him over either a weapon or a knife should the opportunity arise. On that day a sign will be made with a white handkerchief. It was to be made by whoever would chance to be on the outside guard during the walk of the family: usually Andrei Strekotin would stand at the watch-tower by the machine-gun. Later on father told me that after the truck had stopped near the Upper-Iset Lake, the boy regained consciousness? He was lying on the ground and it was raining. He decided that it was necessary to crawl from that place, as far away as possible. The boy crawled under the little bridge and, lying there, tried to think out where he should go to. Searching himself he found a weapon. This lent him vigour and energy. Reaching the railway branch the boy hobbled towards the station Shartash. Father went on: “By the morning he was already at the station and here the patrol saw him. They were seven. Remember, Oleg, they were seven. And they urged him on stabbing him with bayonets in his back. They did not understand Russian, apparently, they were “nekhristi”. And here father suddenly said: “You know, it hurt very much.” I listened to him without saying a word because he ought not to be interrupted. Otherwise he could fall silent and say not a word, ask him as you might, till he himself wanted to tell something new. Of course, I understood that he was speaking about himself. Then father said that he could not resist them anymore but said to his tormentors that he would not give himself up alive. A switch woman, who was at that time at the station, saw the patrol took the boy away from the station, in the direction of the forest, and cried after them: “Where are you taking the boy to, monsters?” In answer they threatened that they would shoot. They threw him into a shaft. It was not deep. The boy hit his head against a log and slipped down. Where to go to? Then he saw a horizontal shaft and dove there. The tormentors threw a grenade after him, and some shrapnel hit his heel. So the scar on his left heel was caused by that shrapnel. Four hours later the Strekotin brothers came after him on the hand-car carried him out of the shaft and took him to the hospital. After they gave him first aid they took him to Shadrinsk. How could it happen? It’s simple – nobody had searched for the bodies. Apparently, Alexander Strekotin was not in the house at that time. Nobody mentioned him. Where was he? Radzinsky E.S.¹ gives Andrei Strekotin’s recollections in his book: “When the bodies had been removed and the truck had gone, only then were we dismissed.” It was at 3:00 a.m. on July 17, 1918

What did Alexander Strekotin do at that time? He was mentioned first in the case of investigator Sergeev (Sokolov’s book “Ubiistvo tsarskoi sem’i’– The Murder of the Tsar’s Family). In E.S. Radzinsky’s ² books Medvedev, the son of the Chekist, says: “In the morning, when my father arrived at the market, he heard the story in detail from local market-women, where and how the bodies of the Tsar’s family were hidden. That’s why the bodies were re-buried.” In means that information from the Ipatiev house appeared in the town either at night or in the early morning and so, the Strekotin brothers, the Filatov brothers, and Mikhail Pavlovich Gladkikh had known everything beforehand, let alone Kleshchev and Shulin, who were in the Ipatiev house at that time. It is of interest that Andrei Strekotin described in detail both the family and the execution; hence, he had been deeply impressed by everything. Besides, he had a good memory. The White investigators did not find Alexander Strekotin because he did not stay in the town but went away to the forests. Alexander was outside the Ipatiev house. That night the time factor was very important, i.e. time was needed to send Tsesarevich to Shadrinsk and it was necessary to cover their tracks so that nobody would know that he, Strekotin, helped him, together with other soldiers. It should be emphasized that the officers of the Russian army General Staff were at that time, from May 1918, in Ekaterinburg and took an active part in the preparation of the Romanov’s rescue. Facts are given in the book “Tainy Koptiakovskoy dorogi” (Secrets of the Koptiakov Road) ¹. “In May 1918 the former Nikolas Academy of General Staff was moved to Ekaterinburg. It was quartered not far from Tikhvin Monastery located within the town. The senior grade had 216 students, only 13 of them later fought for the Soviets. Most of them considered the Treaty in Brest treason. In Ekaterinburg they found themselves in hostile surroundings. Besides, comissars: S.A. Anuchin and F.I. Goloshchekin, of the Urals regional Soviet, considered the presence of “an organized center of counter-revolution”, under the guise of an Academy, in the very center of the Urals, inadmissible. By June 1918 the Academy had 300 students, 14 professors and 22 teachers on the staff. With an advance of the Czechoslovak troops the Academy was moved to Kazan by the order of Trotsky. But less than half of the students, declaring“neutrality”, moved there. Later almost all of them went over to Kolchak’s army, and the Nikolas Academy existed no more. It seemed that the 300 regular officers, who were in Ekaterinburg in June-July 1918, could not form a striking force to rescue the Tsar’s family. But today it is questionable. Where is the documented evidence of what the “uncovered” organization of officers did for the rescue and who else did they include in the rescue? And if it did save somebody, nobody would say a word about it. For he, who states it, not only did not serve in the army, but also knows neither operational work nor the methods used by the tsar’s secret service, let alone practical knowledge of secrecy. The level of training of the Russian officers was too high, especially of those who graduated from this Academy

So, after the town was annexed it turned out that there was a secret military organization of the officers among the students of the Acedemy. The following captains were in this organization: D.A. Malinovsky, Semchevsky, Akhverdov, Delinzghauzen, Gershelman, Durasov, Baumgarden, Dezbinin. Via Dmitriy Apollonovich Malinovsky the organization had made contact with the monarchists in Petrograd. It was systematically in great need of money. Captain Akhverdov’s mother, Maria Dmitrievna, took part in this organization. The officers contacted Doctor Derevenko. They tried to get the plan of the Ipatiev house. Lieutenant-colonel Georgiy Vladimirovich Yartsov, chief of the Ekaterinburg instructor’s school of the Academy, testified the following on June 17, 1919: “There were five officers among us to whom I frankly spoke about taking some measures to rescue the Royal Family. These were: Captain Akhverdov, Captain Delinzgausen, Captain Gershel’man. We tried via Delinzgauzen to get the plan of the Ipatiev apartment where the Royal Family was kept.” (He succeeded in getting the plan via Doctor Derevenko who described to him orally the lay-out of the rooms). “Later I myself happened to be in the Ipatiev house and saw that Derevenko had given correct information.” (The officer, accidentally or carelessly, had practically given Doctor Derevenko away. Thus, if this document reached the Reds, then it is no wondered that in 1924 Doctor Derevenko was summoned to ChK in Perm and in 1930 he was arrested and spent his last years in the concentration camp.) ¹ For the same purpose we tried to establish contacts with the monastery which supplied the Royal Family with milk. Nothing substantial came out of it: it could not be done, first, because of the house guard and, second, because we were followed. I remember that on July 16, I was in the monastery. On that day the milk was delivered to the house. The head of the photo-section of the monastery the nun Augustina said to me that the soldier said to the nun who brought the milk: “Today we shall take the milk, but to-morrow do not bring it, there will be no need” (Auth.: “That is, he notified her”). I do not remember the things we found in the shaft, apart from those I mentioned. All these things were taken by Captain Malinovsky to be stored”. Captain Malinovsky also mentioned it in his records. He described an exact lay-out of the rooms where the Royal Family members lived, namely, who and where. Then he says that he was one of the first who got into this house after the annexation of the town. He said that there was also a student kept in this house who twice took photos of the house. “…Akhverdov’s man-servant was also a source of information (I know neither his name nor his surname. It seems to me that it was Kotov). He got acquainted with a guard and learned something from him. … I informed our organization in Petrograd sending agreed telegrams in the name of Captain Fekhner (an officer of my brigade) and Riabov, esaul (sergeant) of the combined Cossack regiment. But I never received any answer.” This phrase of Captain Malinovsky shows that the officers’ organization had branches about which Malinovskysaid little. It means that, probably, the organization had been formed before the departure of the Academy from Saint-Petersburg, and the officers told even the White inquiry neither about the number of participants in the organization in Peterburg nor how long it existed, what it did in general and whether they had contact with it later on. It was because the officers were afraid for the life of their people and for the activity of these branches, which could still be effective for a long time in the future, supplying with useful military information and serving as channels to take people to safe places in case of failures. Besides, among the White investigators could be those who worked in the interests of the Red or somebody else. It was the war. The point was that the Tsar’s family should be rescued, and members of the organization did not know all the information because they knew that they should think about security in this dangerous work. All of them risked their lives and the lives of their relatives. “I would say that we had two plans, two goals. We had to have a group of people who at any moment in case of the expulsion of the bolsheviks could occupy the Ipatiev house and guard the safety of the Tsar’s Family. The other plan consisted in a daring attack of the Ipatiev house and taking the Royal Family away. Discussing these plans we drew seven officers more from our Academy. These were: Captain Durasov, Captain Semchevsky, Captain Miagkov, Captain Baumgarden, Captain Dubinkin, and Rotmistr Bartenev. I forgot the name of the seventh. This plan was utterly secret and I think that the bolsheviks could not learn about it. For instance, Akhverdova knew nothing about it… Two days before the occupation of Ekaterinburg by the Czechs I, among 37 officers, left for the Czechs and on the next day after the occupation I returned to the town.” “Note that Nikolai Ross (1987) who published the cited part of Malinovsky’s evidence cut off the end of the protocol recorded in 1919 by N.A. Sokolov. Captain Malinovsky believed that the Germans took the Family to Germany, simulating an execution.“¹ However, there are documents in the State archive of the Russian Federation which testify to the fact that not everybody agreed that all the members of the family had been killed. So, as Fyodor Nikiforovich Gorshkov from Ekaterinburg said, officer Tomashevsky asserted that the execution took place in the dining room and that not everybody was killed. Doctor Derevenko, as investigator Sergeev said, also believed that somebody remained alive. Incidentally, Sergeev himself was of the same opinion. N.A. Sokolov’s report on the inquiry into the murder of the Tsar’s family in the Urals is known to have been sent to widow Empress Maria Fyodorovna who till her death in 1928 beleived that her son Nikolas II and grandson Tsesarevich Alexei remained alive. She had written about it to Marshal Mannerheim in Finland. In this report N.A. Sokolov writes: “… Jewels sewn to clothes as buttons had, apparently, burned. The only diamond was found on the outskirts of the fire trampled into the earth. It (its setting) was slightly injured by fire.”… These words do not hold water. Carbonaceous compounds such as diamonds cannot be damaged by fire. These conclusions are incorrect. If Sokolov did not find what he was searching for, it means that the people had been annihilated. But maybe they had been rescued? Who had rescued them? Sokolov is known to have left this version out of his account. Why? What prevented investigator Sokolov N.A. from inquiring into the version of the rescue of part of the family of Emperor Nikolas II?¹ Today we know information about the people who had rescued Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov and who had named him Vasily and had done everything for him to live and work. It was the middle-class family of Filatov K.A. in Shadrinsk. What and who was he? The Filatov family – Ksenofont Afanasyevich Filatov and Ekaterina, his wife – could have refused to take a wounded boy into his family if they had not been prepared for this morally. They had a son born in 1907. In 1937 Vasily Filatov mentioned in his biography that his mother and brother died early² and by 1921 he was alone. Though he had two uncles who served in the Red Army and disappeared

Our examination of the archives revealed that Vasily Filatov had also step brother and sister, born of the second wife of Ksenofont Filatov, Ekaterina Dmitrievna Utusikova. These were Konstantin born in 1915 and Nadezhda born in 1917.³ The two uncles are Ksenofont’s siblings – Alexander born in in 1887 and Andrei born in 1891, and their sister Anna born in 1895.⁴ Then records in the documents related to the complement of the family of Ksenofont Afanasyevich Filatov are made with pencil by a clerk of the municipal administration (according to the archive data). The form itself is printed using the pre-reform letters i and ъ filled in without them. It should be emphasized that it was 1915 and the documents were then recorded in a strict correspondence with instructions, using special ink, a numbered pen, and in special handwriting. Further, apart from the wife of the first-grade soldier Ksenofont Filatov Ekaterina, son Vasily eight years, son Alexander six years, wife Ekaterina eighteen years old, father Afanasy Nikanorovich, mother Maria Andreevna, brothers and sisters are included in this document. Andrei served in the army, and was discharged for 6 months to recover, Alexander was in prison, and their sister Maria was 15 years old, who was born in 1899. An examination of the documented family-tree of the Filatovs from 1863 and further has shown that Ksenofont Filatov had the following children by his first wife Elena Pavlovna Gladkikh (1889—1912): sons Vasily born in 1907, Alexander born in 1909, died on December 3, 1915, Konstantin born in 1911, died in 1911, daughter Antonina born in 1912, died in 1912. Documents of the Shadrinsk municipal uprava and of “Commission for the Care of the Poor” for 1915 contain an application for allowance to his children filed by Filatov Ksenofont Afanasyevich on January 8, 1915. That is, his son Vasily born in 1907 and son Alexander (1909—1915). Protocol #11 of January 27, 1915 mentions son Vasily (1907) and Alexander (1909). Vasily is also mentioned in Ksenofont Filatov’s other applications (protocols #12 of February 25, 1915 and #13 of March 18, 1915).¹ after these records in pencil, in 1915—1916 the records are made with pen. But in the documents of later years the name Maria disappeared. What does it mean? It means that superfluous dependents had appeared but not in July 1918 – in 1915, which could have aroused suspicion when inspecting and when searching for the two children of Nikolas II. Therefore the record had been dated 1915. Similarly, to save a man, one could have added a superfluous child to the register of births, deaths and marriages after the event, since the point was to save the lives of Tsesarevich Alexei and his sister Grand Duchess Maria. If later anybody wanted to check the relatives of Ksenofont Filatov, then these records could have been found. But one could always say that yes, really, Vasily and Maria did exist but it was Civil war at that time, disruption, and they disappeared somewhere, and witnesses died. Father did tell us that during the Civil war he “had travelled” very much. Even when teaching in Tiumen oblast he told us that he led a free life and once he decided with his friends to cross the border near Sukhumi into Turkey but was wounded by border-guards, fell from the cliff and broke his leg. It is not clear, however, how he, the son of a former military man and then a shoe-maker, being young, could succeed in escaping from the border-guards. And later on, it is also not clear why he wanted to run away from his living parents and why they let him do it, etc. A conclusion can be drawn from father’s documents that he left home in 1921. The records of the Shadrinsk municipal archive say that on February 8, 1921 he entered the Polytechnic school but then and there, on February 8 he went on leave and was not on the list of students any more. How’s that? He is admitted, put down for allowances, provided with everything necessary: fur-coat, felt boots, clothes – an important support to his parents! But he left. Besides, in this Polytech there were teachers, Candidates of Science, from Ekaterinburg, and, naturally, there was a danger that they would identify him, Vasily, as Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov. Hence, he could not stay there for long.¹ Then a new contradiction in his biography: as if there was a famine in Shadrinsk in 1921 and he had to leave for the Volga. But at that time a famine could be anywhere but not in Shadrinsk. In 1995, after our trip to Ekaterinburg and Shadrinsk, we learned that between 1960 and 1962 the prosecutor’s department searched for two Filatovs, Vasily and Maria. For this purpose they collected the eldest citizens of Shadrinsk with their written undertaking not to spread anything. We heard about it from a relative of Ksenofont Filatov in the line of his uncle Vasily Nikanorovich. Vasily Nikanorovich had a son Leonid Vasilyevich who married in 1918 Sedunova Zoya Pavlovna.² They had a daughter born in 1919, and it was she who told us that her mother Zoya Pavlovna Filatova (Sedunova) had been among those summoned to the prosecutor’s department. She herself was not there due to her young age (she was then 43). In 1918 her mother was 18 and her father was 22. A conclusion can be drawn that there was something behind the fact that among the aged, the Filatovs including, they were questioned about the 1918 events. And with this fact there was connected the fate of our father, Vasily Ksenofontovich Filatov. Why was it necessary for the prosecutor’s department after so many years to search for Ksenofont Filatov’s children? What did they mean to this department? Then, the photo of Mikhail Pavlovich Gladkikh dated March 1922; order #53, negative #6, signed by Father himself, as he said, is direct evidence that he exactly is Tsesarevich Alexei. The photo was signed in 1922, it means that these events concerned Ekaterinburg and Shadrinsk. The Filatovs and Gladkikhs had been saving the tsar’s son. If this photo were signed in 1915 or 1916, it would be quite natural, the Romanovs were then alive. Tsesarevich Alexei could have signed the photo of any acquaintance and it could unnecessarily be Gladkikh or somebody of the Filatovs. But after the events of 1918 this man, who had saved his life, became dear to him. He signed this photo in memory, carried with him through his long hard life and handed it over to us. The Filatovs had served in the army before the Revolution, and so far, it is not clear in what town, in what units, whether they could have seen Tsesarevich Alexei and, maybe, could have been in the guard of the Ipatiev house. In the summer of 1918 both Filatov brothers served in the First Peasant regiment in Ekaterinburg. Alexander served in the first company and Andrei in the wagon train. Alexander was killed during that summer of 1918. Andrei remained alive but was sickly. He lived with the family of his father Afanasy Nikanorovich who was 56, with the same family Ksenofont Afanasyevich lived, ill with tuberculosis. But in 1920 he was still summoned to the call-up commission. He died on September 22, 1922. The children of Afanasy Nikanorovich totaled five. Afanasy Nikanorovich now receives a pension for his lost son Alexander. He lives in Shadrinsk, Soviet Str., 54, district 50, region 3.¹ The second wife of Ksenofont Afanasyevich lived in Shadrinsk after his death and, from the archive record, in 1930 she worked as an unskilled labourer. Elena Ivanovna Gladkikh, the first wife of Ksenofont Filatov (died of consumption in 1912).² She had a brother Mikhail Pavlovich Gladkikh, born in 1896. He had two siblings: Fyodor and Grigory. Mikhail was called up in 1915. In 1930 he lived in Shadrinsk and worked in the artel “Obuv” (Footwear). He and his wife Gladkikh Daria Yakovlevna lived in Shadrinsk, Pokrovskaya Str., 169, district 2.³ Mikhail Pavlovich brought Tsesarevich Alexei from Ekaterinburg to the Filatovs, his relatives, and this is always risky (however, the participation of the Filatov brothers – Ksenofont, Alexander, and Andrei – in the rescue of Tsesarevich Alexei is now evident). He could have brought him to other people, but it was in war time and he could not trust other people. It turns out that the Filatovs, M.P. Gladkikh, the Strekotins (they were seven, as known from their relatives who have been living till now in Ekaterinburg), Shulin, and Kleshcheev must have known each other for some time. Maybe, they served in the army together, that is, those people must have been in close contact and, by the order of the Tsar could have undertaken to save his son. Hence, they had had to have planned everything beforehand, long before the execution, that is, probably, in 1917, and, knowing about Alexei’s illness, Nikolas II would never entrust his son to unknown people. I know that between 1937 and 1970 one of the lecturers at Princeton University, USA, was Chebotarev Grigory Porfiryevich (born in 1899). He was a building engineer. On December 9, 1917 Tatiana Nikolaevna Romanova, a daughter of Nikolas II, wrote a letter from Tobolsk to Chebotarev’s mother. In her letter she asked about Filatov’s health. At that time they had not yet lived in Tsarskoe Selo for 6 months. Chebotarev wrote a book “Russia my Native Land” (published in the USA). I wonder, which Filatov Tatiana wrote about to G.P. Chebotarev’s mother. Valentina Ivanovna Chebotareva (née Dubiatskaya) was married to Major-General Chebotarev Porfiry Grigoryevich. The daughter of Major-General Chebotarev P.G. was married to Edward C. Biil in 1941. She has been a lecturer on Russian language and literature at Princeton University, USA since 1948. I think that it was either Ksenofont Filatov, the step-father of Filatov Vasily Ksenofontovich, who had served in the army, or his sibling Andrei who was dismissed in 1916 for 6 months to recover and then was cured in the third infirmary in Tsarskoe Selo, a bout whom the Grand Ditchess Tatiana had asked, in her letter. (From Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna to V.I. Chebotareva +). The letter is on four pages, 18x14. Tobolsk. Byvshy Gubernatorsky, 9. December 9, 1917. My dear Valentina Ivanovna, have you received my letter of the 29^th? Kindly, pass this letter to our Prince (E.A.Eristov). Probably, you now miss L.F. (Krasnova)? But it’s good that they (the Krasnovs) are together again. I am sorry for poor Filatov. It’s a pity that he has been ill for so long. He was already bedridden when we were with you. Is it really his wound that hurts him or maybe it is something else? And how are our Baron (D.F. Taube) and Kupych?… …Well, good-bye, darling Valentina Ivanovna. God be with you. If anybody wants to write us – let them do it directly. My kisses and love to you. Also to Aliusha (V.P. Chebotareva) and O.P. (Grekova). Good-bye. Your Tatiana

+) The total original text has been published for the first time. In G.P. Chebotarev’s book “Russia my Native Land” part of this letter is translated into English (p. 195) together with photocopies of its first and last pages (Figure 27).¹

Also, in 1998 Doctor Botkin’s grandson Melnik told that while in Tobolsk, a soldier had approached Doctor Botkin and warned about impending danger, advising him to send his daughter to a more safe place. And, of course, Doctor Botkin had informed Emperor Nikolas II about it, since he was devoted to him till his last days. Recollections of S.P. Botkin’s grandson Melnik-Botkin K.K. were published in the newspaper “Chas Pik”. The article by Elizaveta Bogoslovskaya was entitled “The executed doctor’s grandson’s life-long struggle against the bolsheviks”. ² First, the article text confirms completely that it was only the soldiers who could have participated in the rescue of Tsesarevich Alexei. The history of saving the daughter of Doctor Botkin S.P. was told by his grandson who had worked under de Gaul, President of France. Father had also mentioned that one of his acquaintances was in Dubrovnik. So, here is a shortened text of the article. “That night I decided not to go to bed and kept looking at the illuminated windows of the governor’s house, through which, it seemed to me, sometimes appeared my father’s shadow, but I was afraid to draw the blind aside and to observe the scene too openly in order not to cause the displeasure of the guard. At 2 a.m. the soldiers came for the last things and suitcase of my father… At dawn I turned out the light. The governor’s house and barracks were brightly illuminated. Behind the fence stood a string of sledges… My father would come out of the house several times, clad in Prince Dolgorukov’s rabbit-skin coat, because they wrapped up Her Majesty and Maria Nikolaevna in his fur-lined coat, since they had nothing but light-weight fur-coats. At last Their Magesties, Grand Duchesses and thei retinue appeared on the steps. It was 5 a.m. and they all were clealy seen at the dawn of a pale spring day. Comissar Yakovlev walked by the Sovereign. My father noticed me and turning back, made the sign of the cross several times… They began to take seats, wrap up themselves… Set forward…” Tatiana Evgenyevna Botkina saw her father, leib-medic Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin, no more: three months later he was executed together with the Tsar’s family in Ekaterinburg. During their funeral the grandson of Doctor Botkin, the son of his daughter Tatiana, – Konstantin Konstantinovich Melnik-Botkin came to Russia from Paris for the first time. “We, the descendants of Doctor Botkin, wanted to bury Evgeny Sergeevich separately, without waiting until the dispute on the Romanovs’ remains subsided. We were ready to bury him in Ekaterinburg to perpetuate his name. I even applied to the commission. But public prosecutor Solovyev came and convinced us that everything would be solved soon. Fortunately, the funeral was held and now I can come to the motherland of my parents. I’ve come here with my wife, daughter and granddaughter – a representative of the fourth generation of the Botkins after Evgeny Sergeevich. Now it’s a comfort to me. I have three photos of my grandad. In 1912 in the Crimea – he was a happy man. In 1914 —he understood that the Empire was on the brink of ruin. And in 1917 – a photo for the pass. From these photos and his last letters one can see that in 1914 his life changed and in 1917 it ended. Probably, such was the fate of many people and of the country itself. The more so that he, the doctor, close to the Tsar, ought to have understood a lot, unnoticed by ordinary people. He had been at the war, written a book there – letters to his wife from the front. I don’t know whether the book exists in Russia. Mother had told me that when he had read this book, Nikolas II had sent for its author and from that time until their mortal hour they had practically never parted. Mother and Father lived in Tsarskoe Selo and from there she went with him in exile to Tobolsk. Mother was then 19, her younger brother – 17. She secretly corresponded with the Grand Duchesses who lived in the “House of Freedom” – so was cynically named the Tobolsk governor’s house which became the place of confinement for the Tsar’s family. The Grand Duchesses had given the letters to my grandad and he handed them over to those at freedom. I’ve got such a note with the words: “Christos voskrese, dear Tania…” Every morning Grandad would go to them and each night he would return and tell what had happened in this “House of Freedom”. When Grandad together with Nikolai Alexandrovich and Alexandra Feodorovna was exiled to Ekaterinburg, Mother wanted to go with them, too. “This is not a trip for a young girl” – a soldier said to her confidently. Apparently, he knew what would happen. So, Mother with her younger brother Gleb remained in Tobolsk by them and survived only due to the fact that they were the children of the known and respected doctor. Before he left for Ekaterinburg, Konstantin Semenovich Melnik, warrant officer of the Imperial army, my future father, had come to Tobolsk. He was of Ukranian peasant heritage, from Volynsk Province, a man having nothing in common with the world of fashion. But he had come to Tobolsk because of my grandad. The point is that during the war with the Germans my grandad had opened a hospital for the wounded in Tsarskoe Selo, and Konstantin Melnik was one of the first patients. Apparently, the relationship between the elderly doctor and the young warrant officer had been so touching that when the Revolution began and Father learned that Doctor Botkin was in Tobolsk together with the Tsar’s family, he immediately decided to organize the rescue of the Emperor and his retinue. He was a brilliant officer, wounded many times at the front, courageous, and daring. He set off through Russia where the Civil war had already begun.” Maybe, he also thought about my future mother? Surely, he had met her in Tsarskoe Selo. Maybe it was also love!” “No there was no love, Mother looked at him with arrogance – she had been brought up at court, and he was some Ukrainian… But before his leaving for Ekaterinburg Grandad had once said to this young officer: “I know that probably I’m leaving for good. It’s quite possible that I’ll never see my daughter again. Do save her. Marry her.” That is, he had given him his blessing… He was blessed. The wedding was after my father had learned about the execution in Ekaterinburg. He took his young wife and her brother to the Far East, together with the White army. Father served under Kolchak, then in Kolchak’s counter-intelligence. In Vladivostok he found a Serbian ship which was to return to Europe. The surname helped unexpectedly: the Serbians recollected that Sergei Petrovich Botkin had organized a medical aid during the war of the Serbians with the Turks. Having learned that the daughter of Sergei Petrovich was in Vladivostok, they helped save her. They went to Serbia. There they went through hard times: the times were desperate, they lived in some camps. When an opportunity arose to go to France, they set off for France as many of the other émigrés. I’ve got two elder sisters – one was born in Vladivostok, the other in Dubrovnik. I was born in a small town not far from Grenoble”¹… What does this excerpt from Doctor Botkin’s grandson’s reminiscencesinform us of? It says that really, soldiers were not indifferent to the fate of the family of Emperor Nikolas II, to his retinue and especially to his children. And naturally, they also thought about how they could help them. It was via the soldiers, that direct contacts were established with the necessary people, that is, with the outside world. I have mentioned above about Staff Captain Simonov who served on the Staff of Berzin’s Red troops in Ekaterinburg and conveyed the officers to the Whites and then served in Admiral Kolchak’s counter-intelligence. From reminiscences of Doctor Botkin’s grandson, his father – warrant officer Konstantin Melnik – was also in Kolchak’s counter-intelligence. Of course, they ought to have been acquainted with each other and compared their opinions both on the execution and on the inquiry into this case carried out at that time. If Staff Captain Simonov believed that not everybody was dead, then, probably, warrant officer Konstantin Melnik was of the same opinion. So, two officers of Kolchak’s counter-intelligence had something to do with the events connected with the possible Romanovs’ rescue. One of them was directly related to Doctor Botkin since, marrying his daughter he had saved her. Nobody has been interested in these facts so far. Such accidental coincidences can happen and the whole subsequent life of our father has testified to it. Young officer Melnik did know from Doctor Botkin about the danger threatening the family and knew that some soldier had warned him about this danger and he fulfilled the Doctor’s request. Later he could have carried out an investigation together with Staff Captain Simonov and searched for that soldier and other possible participants in the rescue of some of the Royal Family members and could have found them, but, so far, we do not know what they had known and what they could have done for the rescued people. One thing is absolutely known. These people who prepared an operation on the Royal Family rescue ought to have been familiar with the environments, to have known the people capable of making the documents ready and inventing a legend. They ought to have known where and how one could hide a man, cure him, etc. And this, in its turn, explains the fact that they had accompanied father during all his life for they lived long. And later on they passed him on, again, to reliable people. The availability of such people is testified by the fact that father had a system by which he could easily find them in the town of interest. Each street and house marked by a certain number had a corresponding name both before the Soviets and later. These were the streets known to everybody. It is clear that without these people he could not have survived. Father lived like everybody lived. He would live at one place for a long time. From 1936 on he was known as a teacher. He did not distinguish himself in this sphere, let alone tell anything to others. He was single, had no children. He would say: “It was war time. It was dangerous, life was difficult, therefore I was single.” Really, one war, industrialization, schooling, another war. From 1934 Father had lived in Tiumen Oblast, Isetsk Region. It was the place of administrative exiles, for the former aristocrats and the place of German settlements. This explains the fact that the Germans worked and taught in schools. In the Upper-Beshkil School, for example, a mathematics teacher was the German Mason. Of course, he could know much from the people who before the exile had lived in Central Russia and had contacts and information on the fate of many of their acquaintances, friends, and relatives who had lived there before the Revolution. Father had lived in the forested places, near the Urals, where G.E. Rasputin had lived. He was a free-time student. He had to earn his living, to eat. His full-time schooling had lasted for only two years. Between 1934 and 1936 an advantage in his work was that he had a long vacation in summer and was free of his job. He had an opportunity to travel, as he called it. He had travelled all over the country. He would long for a change of places. Characteristically, from 1955 we moved four times. The Siberia, the Urals, the North-East, South Russia – such is the geography of our movements. Together, with our parents we got to know our country, its people, various climatic zones, got acquainted with people, their traditions, and their living conditions. When we moved, our parents could not take everything with them, they were always numerous, and they would get rid of things, partly handing them out among the people, partly selling them. Little has been left