The Governor’s house at Tobolsk, where the Imperial family were interned 252
Alexis Nicolaïevitch on the steps of the Governor’s house 256
The Imperial family at the main door of the Governor’s house 260
The priest celebrating Mass in the Governor’s house after the departure of Their Majesties 264
The river steamer _Rouss_ on which the Czar and his family travelled 264
Ipatief’s house at Ekaterinburg, in which the Imperial family were interned and subsequently massacred 270
Yourovsky, from a photograph produced at the enquiry 272
The Grand-Duchesses’ room in Ipatief’s house 272
Ipatief’s house from the Vosnessensky street 276
The Czarina’s favourite lucky charm, the “Swastika” 276
The room in Ipatief’s house in which the Imperial family and their companions were put to death 282
Mine-shaft where the ashes were thrown 286
M. Sokoloff examining the ashes nearest to the mine-shaft 290
M. Sokoloff examining traces of fire at foot of an old pine 290
Dr. Botkin, who was killed with the Imperial family 294
In the autumn of 1904 I accepted a proposal which had been made to me to go to Duke Sergius of Leuchtenberg as French professor.
My pupil’s father, Duke George of Leuchtenberg, was the grandson of Eugène de Beauharnais; through his mother, the Grand-Duchess Marie Nicolaïevna, daughter of Nicholas I., he was a cousin of the Czar Nicholas II.
At the time the family were at the small estate they possessed on the shores of the Black Sea. They spent the whole winter there. It was there that we were surprised by the tragic events of the spring of 1905 and passed through many a poignant hour owing to the revolt of the Black Sea Fleet, the bombardment of the coast, the series of pogroms, and the violent acts of repression which followed. From the very start Russia showed herself to me under a terrible and menacing aspect, a presage of the horrors and sufferings she had in store for me.
At the beginning of June the family took up their residence in the attractive Villa Sergievskaïa Datcha, which the Duke possessed at Peterhof. The contrast was most striking as we left the barren coast of the southern Crimea, with its little Tatar villages snuggling in the mountains and its dusty cypresses, for the splendid forests and delicious fresh breezes of the shores of the Gulf of Finland.