The Last Days of the Romanovs

by Eugene Lindsay Opie

THE LAST DAYS OF THE ROMANOVS BY GEORGE GUSTAV TELBERG PROFESSOR OF LAW IN SARATOV UNIVERSITY AND FORMER MINISTER OF JUSTICE OF THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT AT OMSK AND ROBERT WILTON SPECIAL RUSSIAN CORRESPONDENT FOR THE TIMES. LONDON ILLUSTRATED NEW XBir YORK HEORGE H, DORAN COMPANY PUBLISHERS NOTE During the night between the i6th and 17th of July, 1918, the former Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his family, as well as all the persons Attached to it, were murdered by the order of the Yekaterinburg oviet of workmens deputies. The news of this crime broke through the closed ring that surrounded Bolshe vist Russia aad spread over the entire world. At the end of July, 1918, the town of Yekaterin burg was taken from the Bolsheviks by the forces of the Siberian Government. Shortly after their occu pation of the district an investigation was ordered to be made of the circumstances attendant on the mur der. A judicial examination therefore took place of the witnesses connected with the life of the imperial family at Czarskoe-Selo, Tobolsk and Yekaterinburg by N. A. Sokoloff, the Investigating Magistrate for Cases of Special Importance of the Omsk Tribunal. Upon the fall of the Kolchak regime, copies of the depositions were taken from the archives by M. George Gustav Telberg, Professor of Law at the University of Saratov and Minister of Justice at Omsk, when he fled with the other ministers of the Omsk government. These combined statements re construct the life-story of the imperial family from the time of the emperors abdication until the murder PUBLISHERS NOTE of himself, his wife, his children, including the czare vitch, and their few faithful servants in IpatiefFs house at Yekaterinburg. Thetranslator has endeavored to preserve the orig inal simplicity, and in some cases the crudeness and lack of education apparent in the witnesses. Colonel Kobylinsky, M. Gilliard and Mr. Gibbes are edu cated men who apparently gave their evidence with out displaying any outward emotion, but, though they did not exaggerate the sufferings of thd imperial family, they were not eye-witnesses of the final hours of their captivity. The testimony of the soldiers strikes a more sin ister note. Two of them witnessed most of the daily happenings at IpatiefFs house, but they display cer tain evidences of pity and of having been well-dis posed towards the prisoners whose murder they condemned. Indeed these men are most insistent that the crime was committed by the Letts. The third soldier Medvedeff took an active part in the murder. The narrative of Mr. Robert Wilton which sup plements the translations of the official records is, we think, a document of incalculable value. Written by a man who for sixteen years was correspondent for the London Times in Russia, and who not only speaks Russian but was present throughout the inves tigation of the scene of the murder and during the search for the relies, his story has a poignancy and an intrinsic value that cannot be overestimated. vi PUBLISHERS NOTE It is proper here to explain to the reader that the contents of this volume as represented by the Official Depositions in Part I and Mr. Robert Wiltons Nar rative in Part II came into existence quite independ ently and without the design, originally, of publish ing them together. Mr. Wilton, who escaped from Siberia after the fall of the Kolchak Government, took with him one of three copies of the dossier ofthe official investigation. Upon this original source he based his story, adding to it certain facts which he had personally gathered. By a most fortunate circumstance, George H. Doran Company, who were preparing for the press the depositions secured by M. George Gustav Telburg, learned of Mr. Wiltons narrative, and arrangements were immediately made to combine the records in one volume. As the two parts of the book are from different sources, no effort has been made to secure uniformity in certain minor variations in the spellings of proper names...

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Russia, Romanovs, Biography

430 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1920

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann]

Robert Wilson was the Times correspondent in Russia and was wildly reactionary, a notorious antisemite and utterly unreliable. Because of the way the Soviets hid, suppressed and disseminated untruths regarding everything to do with the fate of the Romanovs this wildly inaccurate book was for years referenced by reputable historians and biographers. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union the need to even touch such foul literature has been removed. This book, like Wilton, should be banished to obliquity of the works of later lying journalists like Walter Duranty.

[Peter J.]

This was a tremendously powerful work which moved me deeply, both with compassion for the innocent, suffering Romanov family, and with revulsion and the bitterest hatred for all embodiments of communism; from Bolsheviks, to Mensheviks, to Cossacks, to today’s hard left Democrats. Once one discerns from the trail of corpses, the ruthless, sanguinary, and immoral destination that those tracks all lead to, it is impossible for the thinking man to feel otherwise.

[The Narrator]

If you are interested in 20th cent. Romanov history, read the original sources first, quoted so often in interpretive accounts. Well shockingly biased, reflecting the times, factually they give a sharper image of the story, particularly in terms of witness accounts, etc. A must read if you are serious about discovering what happened in the Ipatiev House.

[Yasmin Halliwell Fraser Bower]

The Last days of the Romanovs explains the days before the fall of the Tsar, the days of imprisonment of the royal family, their murder and what came after. It sets the context and the describes the participants quite well. I liked the colorful details about their life during the months they were in prison, it truly paints a picture of the situation.

It’s a really hard book to read because of the subject, reading about the cruelty and annihilation of the Romanovs is never easy. But I think it’s important to know the past in order not to make the same mistakes in the future. There is a lot of books that center around the 2WW, but there is not that many historical fiction or novels on the Romanovs/Russian subjects and it IS important to remember them too.

This particular book was raw in the writing, but you could see the judgement of the author, which is not what you want in a history book. I get that most of the revolutionaries that brought the downfall of the Tsar were Jewish, but I believe is a little too much to specify in every page if they were or not Jews. Is not religion what makes you a god or bad person, and that kind of thinking is too relatable to the 2WW. The general discrimination in real life breaks my heart.

All in all, I’m giving this book 3 stars out of 5. It’s well researched, has maps and a lot in inside view of the last days of the family. I kind of want to read this same book, but by Helen Rappaport. I have a feeling her is better…

Edit: Ok, I googled Robert Wilton. He was anti-Semite. Now I get his way of writing. God, there’s so much in the world…

[Hamza]

This book was about 4 stars until after the family was killed, at which point it plummeted to about 2 stars. There just wasn't much to be said about the aftermath of the murders, especially since not all of the details were known at the time. To the author's credit, the book was written a few short years after the murders took place. The one unforgivable aspect about the book, however, was the author's raging anti-Semitism. Blaming the Revolution and subsequent murders of Imperial Family on "the Jews" must've been all too convenient during the 1920s, but it tends to be frowned upon in the West these days.

[Raham]

A funny little work of fiction by Wilton. A far right and reactionary antisemite known for forging and falsifying lists and documents about the Bolsheviks.
One of the more interesting part of the books was the fact that Wilton was trying to push the execution of the Romanian as a Jewish ritual. Although it is now known that there were ethnic Russians among the executioners, it is still kind of funny to see how a paranoid antisemite preserves a historical event.

[Margarita]

This book adds absolutely nothing new to the history of the Romanov family. Very anti-semitic, and basically blames Germany for the revolution and the death of the Imperial family.

[The Reading Dandy]

𝗝𝘂𝗹𝘆 𝟭𝟳, 𝟭𝟵𝟭𝟴. 𝗔 𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗘𝗸𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗯𝘂𝗿𝗴. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝟯𝟬𝟬 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗥𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘃 𝗿𝘂𝗹𝗲.

“𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙢𝙪𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙖 𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙣𝙤 𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠.”

In the early hours of July 17th, 1918, Russia’s last Tsar and Tsarina, their five children and their few remaining loyal retainers were roused from their beds and led into the cellar of the Ipatiev House to their deaths.

What followed was murder - or execution, depending on your view. For its perpetrators, it was a brutal statement to the world: there was no way back. But in the West - especially at the Courts of Europe, to whom the Romanovs were bound by blood - it was seen as appallingly and unnecessarily cruel, above all the murders of the four Grand Duchesses and the young Tsarevich.

In The Last Days of the Romanovs George Gustav Telberg and Robert Wilton give us one of the very first accounts - originally published in 1920 - of the circumstances surrounding the massacre of Russia’s Imperial Family. They not only reconstruct what happened that terrible night, but also what came before: from Revolution, through captivity, to annihilation.

The first half of the book is even more chilling: it is composed of sworn statements gathered by the White Russian Government in 1919 - from members of the Imperial Court, a commandant of the guards, and even the assassins themselves.

𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙖𝙣 𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙛𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙞𝙣 𝙖 𝙙𝙖𝙮 - 𝙞𝙩 𝙗𝙡𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙨 𝙤𝙪𝙩, 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙖𝙩 𝙖 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚.

PS. A necessary note: for all its value as a primary source, this 1920 account has a deeply uncomfortable edge. Wilton in particular leans heavily into the antisemitism and anti-German sentiment that was rife at the time, at points framing Jews and Germans as the driving forces behind the Revolution. It reflects the blind spots and propaganda of its era more than the complex reality of Russian revolutionary hatred. Worth reading, but with that lens firmly in mind.

[eratoisdead]

Książka powinna stanowić raczej dodatek do posiadanej już wiedzy na temat jekaterynburskiej zbrodni gdyż: a) uprzedzenie autora dotyczące wyznawców judaizmu i obarczanie ich większością winy za morderstwo razi w oczy i nawołuje do kwestionowania wierzytelności tego dzieła, b) całokształt emocjonalnego ładunku zawarty w Ostatnich Dniach Romanowów - mimo iż usprawiedliwiony stosunkiem autora do historii, która działa się właściwie na jego oczach - odrzuca od książki i zmusza do poszukania prawdy historycznej w innym utworze.
Lecz czy poleciałabym książkę? Mimo wszystko tak, ponieważ można zobaczyć też inną stronę tej historii. w tym wypadku - jak dla mnie przynajmniej - trzeba brać ją z przymrużeniem oka.

[Alison]

This was an interesting look at the last days of Russia's last Tzar. I enjoyed it well enough, because I've always been fascinated by the mystery surrounding the Romanovs and the missing children when the bodies were found.

[Michael]

Interesting about the murder of the Romanov family

[Isabelle Duchaine]

whomp

[Amanda Cantrell]

I enjoyed learning some of the interesting timeline, but I definitely feel I need to read other accounts of this event.

[Zosia]

2.8