The Martyrs of Alapayevsk (Martyrs of the Alapayevskaya Mine) are members of the House of Romanov and people close to them who were killed by Soviet authorities on the night of July 18, 1918, the day after the murder of the Romanov family. They were killed 18 km from the town of Alapayevsk near the Nizhnyaya Selimskaya Mine, in one of the mines where their bodies were dumped. On June 8, 2009, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office posthumously exonerated all those killed near Alapayevsk.Генпрокуратура РФ реабилитировала святую великую княгиню Елизавету Федоровну Романову. Православие.Ru (9 June 2009). Дата обращения: 25 November 2017. Archive: 1 December 2017.
The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia canonized all those killed in Alapayevsk (except for F. Remez) as martyrs. The Russian Orthodox Church canonized only two of them as saints: Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna and Sister Barbara (as monastic martyr).
Among the victims of the Alapayevsk massacre are:
Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna; Grand Prince (or Duke) Sergei Mikhailovich; John Konstantinovich, ; Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich (the Younger) of royal blood; Prince Igor Konstantinovich of royal blood; Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley (son of the Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich from his morganatic marriage to Olga Pistolkors); Fyodor Semyonovich (Mikhailovich) Remez, administrator of the affairs of Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich; Barbara (Yakovleva), a sister of the Marfo-Mariyinsky Convent, a nurse to Elizaveta Feodorovna.Фомин С. Алапаевские мученики: убиты и забыты (часть 1). Дата обращения: 31 May 2009. Archive: 7 May 2018. On that place in 1995 a monastery was established in the name of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church.
Previous events
From their first days in power, the Bolsheviks not only continued the Provisional Government's policy of destroying the symbols of tsarist autocracy, but also began to erase any memory of the House of Romanov.Хрусталёв В. М. Chapter 21. Похищение и убийство Михаила Романова // Великий князь Михаил Александрович. — М.: Вече, 2008. — P. 489—505. — 544 p. — (Царский дом). — 3000 copies. — By the end of February 1918, the political and economic situation in Soviet Russia had deteriorated significantly. The German offensive on the entire Eastern front of World War I began, threatening Petrograd. The radicalization of the masses, already rebellious after a year of Revolution, was intensified by the deepening devastation of the national economy.Скорбный путь Михаила Романова: от престола до Голгофы. Документы, материалы следствия, дневники, воспоминания / Составители: Хрусталёв В. М., Лыкова Л. А.. — Пермь: Пушка, 1996. — 248 p. — 10 000 copies. The Bolshevik leaders considered it dangerous for representatives of the Imperial House of Romanov to stay in the capital, especially under the conditions of the approaching external enemy and the danger of anti-government protests inside the country.
The historian V. M. Khrustalev believed that by this time the Bolshevik leaders had devised a plan to gather all the representatives of the Romanov dynasty in the Urals, away from external dangers —the German Empire and the Entente— while ensuring they were in a location where the Bolsheviks had a strong political position and could maintain control over the situation with the Romanovs. As Khrustalev wrote, the Romanovs could only be destroyed if a suitable opportunity arose. On March 9, 1918, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich was exiled from Petrograd to Perm by order of the Soviet government. Following Mikhail, on March 26, 1918 from Petrograd to Vyatka were exiled Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, three brothers John, Konstantin and Igor Konstantinovich (children of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich) and Vladimir Pavlovich, and a month later transferred to the "red capital of the Urals" — Ekaterinburg. In early April 1918, commissar Yakovlev left Moscow for Tobolsk, where the Provisional Government had exiled the abdicated Russian emperor and his family, leading an armed detachment with an order from the Bolshevik leadership to deliver Nicholas II to Yekaterinburg.Хрусталёв В. М. Глава XI. Путь на эшафот: Алапаевск // Романовы. Последние дни великой династии. — 1-е. — М.: АСТ, 2013. — P. 652—690. — 861 p. — P. 515. — (Романовы. Падение династии). — 2500 copies. —
In the spring of 1918, all the Romanovs who had been exiled from Petrograd to the Urals were constantly being moved from one place to another. According to the surviving documents, these movements took place under the careful control of the Ural Bolsheviks in Ekaterinburg, who in turn were controlled by the All-Russian leadership based in the capitals — Petrograd and Moscow.Хрусталёв В. М. Глава XI. Путь на эшафот: Алапаевск // Романовы. Последние дни великой династии. — 1-е. — М.: АСТ, 2013. — P. 652—690. — 861 p. — P. 652. — (Романовы. Падение династии). — 2500 copies. —
Upon their arrival in Ekaterinburg in April 1918, the exiles were accommodated in the Atamansky Rooms Hotel (at the beginning of the 21st century the building housed the FSS and the Sverdlovsk Oblast Home Affairs Department).Монахини нашли в Екатеринбурге дом, из которого на смерть повезли представителей семьи Романовых. Дата обращения: 23 June 2009. Archive: 23 June 2013. On May 7, 1918, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna was arrested in Moscow and exiled to Perm. From there, she was later transported to Ekaterinburg and placed in the Novo-Tikhvin Monastery.Алапаевские мученики. Дата обращения: 23 June 2009. (unavailable link) Accompanying her were Sister Barbara (Yakovleva) and Sister Ekaterina (Yanysheva).
After the transfer of the former tsar, tsarina and their daughter Maria to Ekaterinburg on April 30, 1918, and the subsequent transfer of the rest of the royal family from Tobolsk in mid-May, the Ural Bolsheviks realized that there would be too large a "concentration" of Romanovs in the city. Therefore, they decided to "disperse" some of them to other locations. As a result, the Grand Dukes were moved to Alapayevsk, according to a resolution of the Ural Regional Council dated May 18, 1918. On May 20 of the same year, the exiles arrived in Alapayevsk.Хрусталёв В. М. Глава XI. Путь на эшафот: Алапаевск // Романовы. Последние дни великой династии. — 1-е. — М.: АСТ, 2013. — P. 652—690. — 861 p. — P. 659. — (Романовы. Падение династии). — 2500 copies. — The Council of Commissars of the Petrograd Workers' Commune has decided:
Members of the former Romanov family—Nikolai Mikhailovich Romanov, Dmitry Konstantinovich Romanov, and Pavel Alexandrovich Romanov—are to be exiled from Petrograd and its environs until further notice. They are permitted to choose their place of residence freely within the Vologda, Vyatka, and Perm provinces. Sergei Mikhailovich Romanov, Gavriil Konstantinovich Romanov, Yevgeny Konstantinovich Romanov, Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov, Igor Konstantinovich Romanov, and Vladimir Pavlovich Paley are to be exiled from the same areas until further notice, with the right to freely choose their place of residence within the Vyatka and Perm provinces. All the aforementioned individuals are required to report within three days from the date of publication of this decree to the Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counterrevolution and Speculation (Gorokhovaya Street, 2) in order to obtain certificates of passage to their chosen places of permanent residence and to proceed to their destination within the time specified by the Extraordinary Commission.
The change of the chosen place of residence is permitted with the permission of the respective Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies.
Chairman of the Workers' Commune G. Zinoviev.
Commissar of Internal Affairs M. Uritsky.
Manager of affairs S. Gusev.
"Krasnaya gazeta" (Petrograd). 26 March 1918
Arrest and death
In Alapayevsk, the exiles were housed in the local Napolnaya School«Napolnaya» means "close to fields ("polye" meas "field"). on the outskirts of the city. The Alapayevsk Soviet of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies and the Extraordinary Investigative Commission of Alapayevsk were entrusted with the supervision of the detainees.Постановление о прекращении уголовного дела № 18/123666-93 «О выяснении обстоятельств гибели членов Российского императорского дома и лиц из их окружения в период 1918—1919 годов». Дата обращения: 22 February 2009. Archive: 21 July 2013. At first in the city, the regime of imprisonment was relatively lenient.Великий князь Сергей Александрович и его супруга великая княгиня Елизавета Фёдоровна. Дата обращения: 17 July 2014. Archive: 26 July 2014. All prisoners received identity cards allowing them to move "only within Alapayevsk." To leave the building, it was sufficient to notify the guard.
The "escape" of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich on June 12–13, 1918, was used as an excuse to transfer all the exiled Romanovs to the Urals under a strict regime of imprisonment. The Ural Bolsheviks coordinated their actions with Moscow and Petrograd.Хрусталёв В. М. Глава XI. Путь на эшафот: Алапаевск // Романовы. Последние дни великой династии. — 1-е. — М.: АСТ, 2013. — P. 652—690. — 861 p. — P. 664. — (Романовы. Падение династии). — 2500 экз. —
In Alapayevsk the order to tighten the regime came from Ekaterinburg on June 21, 1918: "All their property was confiscated: shoes, underwear, dresses, pillows, gold objects and money; only worn clothes and shoes and two changes of underwear were left..."Соколов Н. А. Убийство Царской Семьи. Дата обращения: 22 июня 2009. Archive: 8 October 2011. They were forbidden to go out in the city and correspondence, along with limited food rations.Елисавета Феодоровна.// Православная энциклопедия. Дата обращения: 23 June 2009.: 14 August 2011. At the same time, Sister Catherine of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent, who had accompanied Elizabeth Feodorovna, along with two lackeys and the doctor Helmersen, were expelled. A little later, Helen of Serbia (wife of Prince John Konstantinovich), who renounced her foreign citizenship to be near her husband, and also left the Napolnaya School.
On the night of July 18, 1918, the prisoners of the Napolnaya School were taken to an unknown destination, after which reports of their deaths soon appeared.
"Disappearance" of arrested On the night of July 18, at three o'clock in the morning, shots were fired and grenades exploded in the building of the Napolnaya School. The Red Army detachment was called to the scene and spent an hour cordoning off the building. Then Commissar A. Smolnikov came out and informed them that the White Army had abducted the princes by airplane. The Alapayevsk Executive Committee immediately sent the following telegram to Yekaterinburg:Зыкова Н. В. «Постановили с ними рассчитаться…» Новые документы об алапаевской трагедии. Дата обращения: 23 June 2009. Archive: 21 September 2011.Military Yekaterinburg
Ural Administration
On the morning of July 18, a gang of unknown armed men attacked the Napolnaya School where the Grand Dukes were accommodated. The attack lasted for two hours, during which one bandit was killed and there were apparently some wounded. The princes and their servants managed to escape in an unknown direction. When the Red Army detachment arrived, the bandits had fled into the forest and could not be apprehended. The search for them continues.
Alapayevsk Executive Committee
Abramov
Perminov
OstaninBased on this telegram, the chairman of the Ural Regional Council, A. G. Beloborodov, sent a telegram to Y. M. Sverdlov, M. S. Uritsky, and G. E. Zinoviev. On July 26, an official report on the incident was published."The dukes' kidnapping"