russia: what happened to the romanov family question C and D

Russia what happened to the Romanov family
Question C and D
c) Source D must be reliable because it is an eyewitness account. Do you agree?
Source D is an eyewitness account this does not necessarily make it reliable, there a number of factors to consider, one being who it was that wrote the source. In this case in was the ‘Whites’ who may or may not have altered what Pavel Medvedev said to suit them. The source also says that he was probably tortured this could alter the information he gave. Also the eyewitness himself maybe lying, this could be the case because he said in the interview that he was on the street when the tsar was shot. However to contradict this his wife says “My husband fired too” [source E]. I consider what his wife said to be more reliable, because in the same source another guard also says, “emptied two or three bullets into the tsar” [source E].
Having said these minor details coincide with other sources for example he told the interviewers that “the corpses were taken out to the lorry” [source D] and in source C it says that “a lorry carried the corpses.” This could suggest that the source is entirely unreliable.

d) Study Sources F, G and H. Which of these sources is most useful to an historian studying the deaths of the Tsar and his family?
Source F shows a photograph of the basement in the Ipatiev house where the tsar was supposedly shot. The walls have bullet holes in them and the floor is blood stained. This shows that an act of violence had had defiantly taken place here. It is impossible to tell however whether or not it was the murder of the tsar and his family just by looking at the picture, we can ...

d) Study Sources F, G and H. Which of these sources is most useful to an historian studying the deaths of the Tsar and his family?
Source F shows a photograph of the basement in the Ipatiev house where the tsar was supposedly shot. The walls have bullet holes in them and the floor is blood stained. This shows that an act of violence had had defiantly taken place here. It is impossible to tell however whether or not it was the murder of the tsar and his family just by looking at the picture, we can only assume this by the information given in other source such as when sergeyev says “were shot in the Ipatiev House” [source A]. As a source it does not help us to answer key questions like who was murdered, who the murderers were and when they were murdered.
Source G is a painting based on the investigation carried out by the whites.
It depicts the tsar and his family on there knees whist being shot at with guns. It portrays the killing in a very as a brutal fashion, making the Bolsheviks seem callous and showing them in a very bad light. This is probably because the painter was a supporter of the tsar so there for the painting is likely to be a one sided view. Also the painter was not there at the time of the event so could not be sure that was the true version of what actually happened, he would only be able to find his information from other sources which may not be reliable themselves.

Source H is could also be seen as biased as Judge Sokolov was also a Tsarist and appointed by the ‘Whites’. The information given in the source however
does not give any indication of being one sided.
Sources F, G and H agree on many facts. They all show that there is a door in the right hand corner of the room. Also sources G and H both show that guards surrounding the Romanov family backing them against the far wall,
This information would fit in with source f and explain the blood stained wall and bullet holes.
None of the sources on there own would be particularly useful but used in conjunction with each other and other source a historian would could find them invaluable.