The chairs in the murder room

[Elisabeth]

I do recall reading that the empress asked for chairs. Sources seem to vary on whether 2 or 3 were brought.

I'm disinclined to believe Yurovsky made that statement about dying in chairs, but it's really just a gut reaction; I don't have any sources at hand to check. At any rate, I don't believe it's something he would have said in front of the IF -- plenty of sources do state that the family was completely unsuspecting until confronted with the firing squad itself.

Evidently it was not Yurovsky, but Yurovsky's assistant Nikulin, who uttered these words, and moreover, not within the earshot of his victims, but only as an aside to one of the guards stationed outside the murder room, Andrei Strekotin. See Radzinsky, The Last Tsar, p. 384. The entire quote from the guard Andrei Sterkotin is:

"They were all led into the room.... Next to my post. Soon Akulov [Nikulin] came out and walking past me said, 'The heir needs a chair... Evidently he wants to die in a chair... Oh well, let's bring them'" (Radzinsky, p. 384.) Personally, to me, this exchange sounds perfectly believable. In other words, Nikulin told the truth about what was about to transpire to a guard standing by (who, at any rate, probably already suspected what was about to happen to the Romanovs). But this occurred in the hallway - the imperial family and their servants could never have caught wind of Nikulin's cold-blooded remark.

[Elisabeth]

The 'photograph' was probably purely conjecture on the part of Radzinsky.   From the description of the positions taken up by the family and servants in the murder room, given by Yurovsky and Ermakov combined with Yurovsky having been a photographer, Radzinsky, the script writer, probably added these two facts together and came up with the 'group photograph' scenario.

tsaria     

I'm not totally inclined to agree with this proposition, as tempting as it is. The fact of the matter is, and remains, that Eduard Radzinsky, whether one likes it or not (and most of us do not) had myriad KGB contacts throughout the last decade of the Soviet Union and beyond, and it's quite possible that his description in The Last Tsar of Yurovsky pretending to be a photographer in order to facilitate mass murder is accurate. Think about it, is it so very unlikely that the Soviet secret police throughout the 1920s included training sessions for its members that were based on the execution of the imperial family? Even Valentin Speranski apparently got wind of this story when he interviewed former Ipatiev House guards and executioners in 1924. He heard a story that Anastasia asked of her executioners in the cellar, "Are you going to take our photograph?" Who's to say that this and the other story aren't echoes of the truth? We really don't know at this point. And as I understand it, even now some of the files relating to the murder of the IF remain closed to public scrutiny.

[Olishka~ Pincess]

In stories it says that two chairs and others suggest the it was three chairs.I realy wanted to know how many chairs were in there? I think it's two one for Alix and the other for Alix and that's when Alix said " may we not sit" something close to that I am not exactly sure.

[tom_romanov]

i always imagined bentwood style chairs too!

[RomaFan96]

The photograph story does not seem to make much sense. If all they needed was a photograph, why would they wake them up at midnight when they could just take it the next day? Also, the fact that a lorry was present further supports the story that Yurovsky told them they were going to be moved. The lorry provided the Romanovs assurance and the gunmen a buffer to muffle the shots that would kill them. The IF also took personal belongings down to the cellar with them, which they probably would not have done if they thought they weren't going to be moved. But whatever they were told, it was a lie. We can be absolutely certain that Yurovsky never told them to come down to the cellar to be shot; however, he excuse he did give them, remains unknown pretty much.

As for the chairs, I certainly read in a book that they were put back where they were taken from. Then a year later some people sat down on the chairs which 'Empress Alexandra and her son died in'.

[blessOTMA]

The IF also took personal belongings down to the cellar with them, which they probably would not have done if they thought they weren't going to be moved.

As far as I can tell, they took thier hidden jewels ( pillows) and Jemmy. So the must haves at all times  regardless were taken by them.  I believe they felt as long as they were together, the danger to the Tsar was at least  put off . That is, the Tsar would not be shot if he was still with the family. That's why separation had an even more awful quality for them, it heightened the danger to Nicholas's  life.  When he abruptly  left Tobolsk, the children would have to feel they could easily never see him again. Marie was very much needed by her parents on the trip , but her presence  was also a note of hope . Her parent's  " bodyguard"  in the hope only the Tsar was in mortal danger and if she was there, perhaps he would be safer. There's a saying : better a false hope, than no hope" we will weave hope out of the slenderest of reeds

Because  I think  it would be difficult for them to believe  that  the whole family was in as much in danger as the Tsar. However ,Olga told Isa on the Rus  in May 1918 they were lucky to still be alive and able to see thier parents again come what may...one can have an idea, , even a clear vision , but  still think : " but not now". The moment when our ideas about something cease to matter, because the moment is here... is always a shock

[TimM]

The photograph story does not seem to make much sense. If all they needed was a photograph, why would they wake them up at midnight when they could just take it the next day? Also, the fact that a lorry was present further supports the story that Yurovsky told them they were going to be moved. The lorry provided the Romanovs assurance and the gunmen a buffer to muffle the shots that would kill them. The IF also took personal belongings down to the cellar with them, which they probably would not have done if they thought they weren't going to be moved. But whatever they were told, it was a lie. We can be absolutely certain that Yurovsky never told them to come down to the cellar to be shot; however, he excuse he did give them, remains unknown pretty much.

Yurovsky told them that, with the Whites closing in on Ekaterinburg, fighting could break out at any moment, so the IF were to be moved to another location for their own protection.   It was all a lie, of course.