From a report in an American newspaper, December 1918. Judge Sergeyev, a supporter of the provisional Government, was appointed to investigate what had happened. In January 1919, he was sacked. Sergeyev’s findings are known only from comments of people who spoke to him or read his report.
Source B
Judge Sergeyev showed me over the house where the Tsar is supposed to have been shot. On the wall opposite the door and on the floor were marks showing where Sergeyev had removed the bullets. The position of the bullets indicated that the victims had been shot while kneeling and other shots had been fired into them when they had fallen on the floor.
There is no real evidence as to who or how many victims were there. It is supposed there were five – the Tsar, Doctor Botkin, the Empress’s maid and two servants. No corpses were discovered, nor any trace of them having been burned. On 17th July, a train left Ekaterinburg and it is believed that the surviving members of the Royal Family where in it.
From Sir Charles Eliot’s report to the British Government, October 1918.
Sources A & B give very similar accounts in many ways, but does this mean that they are reliable. This doesn’t mean that they are reliable as they were written around the same time so they have been what everyone was thinking around this time. My next reason explaining why they might not be reliable is because they are both written about Sergeyev’s finding and Sergeyev was a supporter of the provisional government so he may have been biased about a few things. Another reason is that he was sacked 2 or 3 months later from the investigation so he must have been doing something wrong.
Source C
My predecessor, Sergeyev, on handing the case to me, had no doubt about the fact that the entire Romanov family had been massacred in the Ipatiev house. It’s demonstrated that between 17 and 22 July a murder occurred in the house. This did not occur on the upper floor, where the imperial family lived, the bloody carnage took place in one of the rooms in the basement. The murder was carried out using revolvers and bayonets. More than 30 shots were fired because some of the bullets must have remained in the bodies. Several people were murdered because one person couldn’t change his position so much and submit to so many blows.
On 17 July, under the cover of darkness, a lorry carried the corpses to the four brothers mine. The main purpose was to destroy the bodies. The bodies were chopped into pieces and burned with the aid of sulphuric acid and petrol. The fatty matter in the bodies ran out of the corpses and mixed in with the soil.
From a book by Judge Sokolov published in 1924. Parts of his report were never made public.
The account in source C differs very very much so compared with accounts in sources A & B as in source C Sergeyev explains how he was absolutely certain that the whole Romanov family was killed in the basement of the Ipatiev house and how they were taken by a van to the four brothers mine to be disposed of which is the opposite of what he explained in sources A & B.
Source D
The emperor walked ahead with the heir. The empress and her daughters followed. In my presence there were no tears, no sobs and no questions. They were lead into the corner room next to the storeroom. The empress sat down by the wall, behind her stood three of her daughters. The emperor was in the middle, next to the heir, and behind him stood Dr Botkin. The maid stood by the storeroom door with the other daughter.
Eleven men walked into the room. According to medvedev he was told to, “Go out to the street and see if anyone’s there and if the shots could be heard’. He walked out and heard the shots. Walking into the room he saw all the members of the Tsar’s family lying on the floor. The corpses were taken out to the lorry.
The notes from the interview of Pavel Medvedev by the white Russians. Medvedev had been in charge of the men guarding the royal family. He was probably tortured by the whites this is the nearest we have to an eyewitness account of the murders.
Source E
Medvedev’s wife told the investigators, “according to Pavel they were lead downstairs, where they were put into a room where a paper was read to them that said, “the revolution is dying and so shall you”. After that they started firing, and they killed them all. My husband fired too.”
Medvedev stupidly told one of the other guards that he had “emptied 2 or 3 bullets into the Tsar”. This established his guilt.
From a history book published in 1991.
I don’t agree with the statement source D must be reliable as it’s an eyewitness account because in Medvedevs statement he explains how he was told to go and wait outside to see if anyone was coming and if he could here the bullets but if he was in charge of all the men guarding the royal family so it would have been him giving out the orders. Also another reason is that his wife explains how he shot the Tsar but he said that he wasn’t in the room when the shooting happened so source D is not reliable.
Source F
A photograph of the basement room where the murders are claimed to have taken place.
Source G
A painting of the death of the Tsar based on the investigations carried out by the whites.
Source H
A Diagram from Judge Sokolov’s book. It shows the position of the people in the basement. According to the witnesses he interviewed.
To a historian source H would be the most useful to him as it shows the position of where everyone was in the basement.