From Atlantis' Magazine's special Fate of the Romanovs issue:
"In 1966, author Victor Alexandrov published his book The End of the Romanovs. Although it contained some interesting new information, the book’s value was undermined by its numerous factual errors. Alexandrov asserted that Rasputin’s real surname had been “Novikh,” and that he had been a German spy during the First World War. (Alexandrov, 106-08) He apparently had little understanding of the Romanov Family, writing that Alexandra had been awarded a doctorate in philosophy from Heidelberg University before her marriage; (Alexandrov, 109) that “Alexandra Feodorovna’s brother the Duke [sic] of Hesse had died” from hemophilia; (Alexandrov, 148) that Lili Dehn was the Empress’s “Lady’s Maid;” (Alexandrov, 142) and that Empress Marie Alexandrovna had given her eldest son, Tsesarevich Nicholas, hemophilia, which resulted in his premature death. (Alexandrov, 148) A simple reading of any of the available source material then published would easily have revealed Alexandrov’s errors.
"Then, too, Alexandrov engaged in some literary flights of fancy. He spent several pages recounting an entire conversation between Nicholas and Alexandra in his Study in the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo, a meeting for which, according to the author, the pair was alone. According to Alexandrov, he “recreated” this scene from, which appears on pages 124-125 of his book, from an alleged unpublished story told later by the Empress herself-to whom he does not say, and his book was published at a time when source notes were presumably deemed cumbersome. Like much of what is contained within his book, it raises an instant note of caution.
"Yet for all of these problems, Alexandrov’s book is not easily dismissed. Of Russian heritage himself, he moved through Parisian émigré circles and certainly interviewed many of those still alive who had in some manner been involved in the final months of the Romanovs’ captivity. Then, too, his access to some obscure information and documents helped fill in some gaps in the existing record, particularly in reference to events within the Ural Regional Soviet during the crucial first two weeks of July 1918. His biggest coup, however, rested on a previously unpublished source, the “Gutek File,” which was said to contain an eyewitness account of the murders and disposal of the bodies as related by Peter Voikov, the former Ural Regional Commissar of Supplies. Alexandrov concluded, on the basis of this document, which largely echoed the information to be found in any number of previous accounts, that the entire Imperial Family had been murdered, though the “Gutek File” itself contained any number of potential problems."
And about the Gutek file:
"In 1930, Gregory Bessedovsky, a secretary at the Soviet Embassy in Warsaw who had served under former Ural Regional Soviet Commissar of Supplies Peter Voikov, published his memoirs, Im Dienste Der Sowjets, in Leipzig. Bessedovsky devoted several pages to an account of the Ekaterinburg murders. He related a peculiar tale. According to Bessedovsky, one night in 1925, Voikov drank too much and drunkenly spilled out his story of the murder of the Romanovs. This essentially followed the accepted White version, though Voikov included himself as a participant in the shooting. (Bessedovsky, 200-208)
