Sokolov's Report should be discussed since so many posters heavily depend upon what he wrote and collected about the execution of Nicholas II, Alexandra, the four Grand Duchesses, Alexis, and the others on the night of 16/17 July 1918.
Over on another thread I asked about something one of the red guards Strekotin told Sokolov. There was some discussion but no real answers on that particular subject.
The following is what Phil T. posted afterwards:
One day I'll get the hang of this. In the meantime a quote:
"The Sokolov report got the essential facts correct, that on the night of July 16/17, 1918, those in charge of guarding the Imperial Family murdered them, probably on the orders of the Ural Regional Soviet. On many other points, the report has its facts wrong. Most of its errors are in the forensics area. For example, they characterized blood found in the murder room as "grand duchess' blood" when in fact no tests were done to even estabilish it was blood, let alone human, let alone belonging to a grand duchess. These factual errors do not take away from the essential truths found in the report."
I hate to be pedantic (in fact I LOVE to be pedantic) but if so many points of detail are incorrect, how can we be sure that the overall thrust of the argument in Sokolov's report is correct? The "essential facts" are actually drived from the Sokolov Report so you are trying to check it against itself!!! Try checking out the Rasputin thread to see how, for nearly 90 years, the standard story has dropped to bits with the aid of some rather expert forensic analysis.
Phil Tomaselli
Phil - why not start a thread on the Sokolov Report? It would be very interesting for all of us.
Of course I check out as much of the Forum as I can given that I'm a moderator. 
To answer your question in brief, we can be more certain about some of the facts in Sokolov (and Yurovsky for that matter) if they are corroborated in some way, either by forensic evidence or by other sources.
So, I thought, there is a thread about the investigators but Sokolov probably should have his own thread.
So, here it is.
Where would you like to start?
How about something that's no longer in dispute. The finding of the dog Jemmy found on the bottom of the mine known as the Fourt Brothers on 25 June 1919.
Sokolov published a photograph of the dog's remains.
Sokolov believed Jemmy died the night of the execution 16/17 July 1918.
Summers and Mangold in their boook THE FILE ON THE TSAR pps. 141 [photo] and 161-2 talk about the facts of a dog being in this particular mine shaft for 11 months. Due to the changes of temperature between two summers and a winter, their experts believed the remains of Jemmy would not have looked like the one in the photo but would have decomposed a great deal.
It is, now, believed that the dog Jemmy was killed had been placed in the mine just a few days and less than a week before 25 June of 1919.
General Domontovich, White governor of Ekateriinburg, was in charge of the mine operation.
It would be easy to assume the Whites planted the dog in the mine since I assume the Whites were still guarding this area. But I don't have evidence they did or that Sokolov knew about this plantin of false evidence if the White had planted the dog's body.
Would there be a reason for the Reds to plant the dog's body at that time?
Do any of you have added information since Summers and Mangold book was published some time ago, 1976
When I get a chance, I'll copy the photo of Jemmy for you.
AGRBear