"Sam ikh privel v podval..." "he led them to the basement himself"
RomanovMartyrs:
^ I agree.
And maybe this has already been said, but I firmly believe that the Tsar had no notion in the farthest reaches of his mind that his family would be killed, especially when he was in the process of abdicating. He wasn't made aware of the extremity of the situation in the city until later; to him nothing had become full-scale violence yet.
And the background. Let's look at that. He was raised in a world of splendor. At that time, children were seen as angelic creatures to dress up in lace and frills and tell fairy tales to. (I took a course on Russian Children's culture; it is fact that once the Revolution happened, fairy tales were not accepted into the child's upbringing anymore. The ideal of the angelic child was replaced by the ideal of a rebellious, argumentative child.) Young ladies were seen as innocent and fair and sent to balls and other events to insure their marriage to a respected nobleman (or in the case of Grand Duchesses, other royalty abroad). This was Nicholas's world. I'm not saying murder never happened; he saw that with his own eyes as Alexander II lay dying, having fallen prey to a terrorist act. But even if he had the slightest notion he would meet the fate of his Grandfather he most likely would never have conceived that one would stoop to the level of murdering his young daughters and 13 year old son.
So no, he didn't lead them to the basement himself, in my mind. Yes, he abdicated. But there was so much unrest in Russia at that time I believe they would have met their fate one way or the other regardless of what document Nicholas did or didn't sign. Nicholas II did not lead them to the basement. Yurovsky did.
Alixz:
Of course Yurovsky actually and physically led the family to the basement, but this thread is more about the actions or inaction of Nicholas II in the years before the murder.
The long road on which the Imperial Family travelled to Yekaterinburg began on the day that Nicholas married Alix of Hesse. That was the first decision, made without any fore knowledge of the pain and suffering that it would cause, that Nicholas made with a mindless determination to get what he wanted regardless of what others thought.
Nicholas knew when his father Alexander III died at age 49 that he, Nicholas, was not prepared to rule and yet he made another decision to rule with out the help of those who could have helped him. Instead he again turned to Alix and her support forgetting that she had no knowledge of how to run the Duchy of Hesse Darmstadt let alone the Russian Empire.
Decision by decision and turn by turn Nicholas did indeed begin to lead them to the basement himself. Not by choice, but by indecision and stubbornness and a pride of place while underneath it all he knew that he was wrong for the job, but just couldn't let go out of respect for his ancestors and the fear of the wrath of Alexandra and her determination to hold the dynasty for "baby".
He must have been terribly conflicted.
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