Why wouldn't Yurovsky et al then just replace the two missing bodies with two other corpses (even if they had to do this later on) and be done with it, instead of making up an elaborate story about burning two bodies (and not even being sure which ones they burned in retelling)? That would make a lot more sense - if they were trying to cover up the missing children issue.... They wouldn't even have to kill a pair of other children to do this, since both Anastasia and Alexei were pretty much full grown. They could have just obtained a couple of bodies of small-ish adults (and it couldn't have been that hard during that time since, many people were getting killed in the civil war in that region), and disfigure them enough to pass for those two (sorry for being graphic). Why make up a story about burning the two bodies, then not even remembering the right bodies when retelling the story? That's the part that doesn't really make if this were a cover up.... Â
The part that really doesn't make sense is why no one can find the bodies which were buried near the mass grave?  Since the burning would have left only  charred corpses and they didn't use acid on their bodies then these bodies would be in better shape than those in the mass grave.  And, with everyone digging up Pigs Meadow, one would think they would have been found by this time.
We can speculate about Yuruovsky's and the other's testimonies  but it's the absence of the two missing, Alexei and one of his sisters, which tell us  Yurovsky and the other Bolsheviks were lying about what happened.
Far as we know,  Marie and Alexei could have escaped on her birthday.  What Alexandra and others wrote in the diaries about their presents could have been something they were told to write and  NOT something they wanted to write.  I, also, believe forgery  cannot be ruled out.....
Nicholas II refused to write anything for a number of days.
Or they were all still in the Impatiev House but the Germans came onto the scene on the night of 16 July, found everyone drunk, and they swept the eleven away but were hunted down by the Reds and were murdered later.... Â accept two, Alexei and Anastasia or Maria.
There are suggestions that it was the Reds who killed Nicholas II and Alexei then took Alexandra and the girls to Perm. Â From here it is said that Anastasia escaped not once but twice from the CHEKA.
Or, maybe, the British or some independent Whites managed a rescue but it failed somewhere along the route of escape and nine of the eleven were found and executed.
Or, two survived the execution, and, two brothers or cousins rescued Alexei and one of his sisters. Only Alexei didn't survive but the one sister did....
We've gone over these possibiliities over and over and over but it seems to be the opinion of most that Alexei probably didn't survive very long after the 16th.
Then, again, there were Reds and Whites still looking for him as well as interviewing possible claimants for years. Â Even the US believed a claimant was Alexei and actually transported him to the US but then it was proven he was not the real Alexei....
My speculations are no better or no worst than anyone elses, because many possible senarios are possible. Â Why? Â Because we just do not know what happened.
Until the bodies of Alexei and his sister are found, I'm sure we'll be continuing this conversation here and on other threads for months and even years to come. Â Heck, I've been doing research since 1959, I was a Junior in High School, Â and I'm still searching for the truth.
AGRBear
