I've been reading many of the accounts and it's very frustrating that many of them differ so. In any case, one almost has to pick and choose what and who to believe.
Even Yurovsky contradicts himself between his two accounts! Is there any one account by any witness that is thought to be the most reliable? If so, can someone post it in it's entirety? Or, can anyone summarize the event in detail for me here, in a way that combines many accounts to become the most accurate/accepted one?
The most thorough account is provided in King and Wilson's Fate of the Romanovs. What you must do (if you want to gain as comprehensive an understanding of the event as one can from the testimony) is read the source material of each reference, then draw your own conclusions. The advantage of the source material is that it is relatively thin - there really isn't much of it - and it is also relatively (in terms of history) recent.
Unfortunately the account by King and Wilson simply takes all the varying testimony, throws it in a blender, and spits out what I consider a wildly embellished fable.
To illustrate what I mean, King and Wilson infer that after hearing the order Nicholas II said "Lord, oh my God! Oh, my God, what is this? Oh, my God, no!" Then turned back to Yurovsky and said, "I can't understand you. Read it again, please." Yurovsky somehow finds the time to read it again, to which Nicholas responds, "What? What?" and Yurovsky says, "This!" and starts shooting.
That seems utterly absurd to me - a very drawn out dramatization of what was surely less orchestrated. And of course when we look at the original material, each quote comes from a different source; therefore we can conclude that these are different accounts of what was likely the same pithy utterance. Nicholas probably had a moment to say "What? What?" (if that) and the shooting started. It does not seem plausible to me that Yurovsky read the order twice, nor that Nicholas launched into soliloquy. In any case, King and Wilson take each account and add it like sliding a bead of an abacus until they have a rather hefty sum suitable for both drama and their [dubious] theories.
In fairness, however, I do recommend the King and Wilson account because they very meticulously list each source and allow the curious independent sleuth to discover the history on their own. It is also, as I mentioned, the most thorough and comprehensive (if you can ignore the embellishment to the point of travesty) account.
In some respects it really doesn't matter. They were brutally murdered. Period.
But for those of us who are fascinated with this family and those that remained loyal to them to the very end, precisely how the events unfolded really does matter. My suggestion is to read the source material and use common sense; Occam's razor most certainly applies here. Do not allow yourself to become enthralled by bizarre scenarios, but remain rigorous in your analysis of the details which, more often than not, hold the most salient clues.
Good luck!
