Author Topic: Imprisonment, Last Days & Death of Romanovs in 1918  (Read 66174 times)

0 Members and 3 Guests are viewing this topic.

bluetoria

  • Guest
Re: Imprisonment, Last Days & Death of Romanovs in 1918
« Reply #90 on: September 10, 2005, 06:48:17 AM »
I feel so sorry for Alix at that point. The decision she faced was so difficult - to leave her husband or her son. It may well be that she feared that without her support, Nicholas would be led into making some other concession (and I think it may have been she feared he would sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk) but also after all he had gone through already, I think there were 'human' motives in her decision to accompany him. Her letters immediately following the abdication are filled with pity for him being alone - perhaps she didn't want him to feel that again.

Jackswife

  • Guest
Re: Imprisonment, Last Days & Death of Romanovs in 1918
« Reply #91 on: September 10, 2005, 03:53:58 PM »
 My personal feeling is that Alexandra's chief concern at the time was keeping her family together. I think that her devotion to her family is the single most admirable characteristic she possessed, and despite her failings as an Empress she was cherished her husband and children, and when the abdication was "a done deal",  she was more interested in keeping her family intact than anything else.

Tania

  • Guest
Re: Imprisonment, Last Days & Death of Romanovs in 1918
« Reply #92 on: October 20, 2005, 04:15:31 PM »
In the last house the IF were held, did the IF know others had been killed? Were they told at any time of other members of their families, or that their staff had been killed? Or the leaderships of the Orthodox Church had been murdered ?

Could they at any of their places of imprisonment hear fighting, or shooting? If so, any reasons given to them by the commandmant or soldiers ?

Offline Sarushka

  • Moderator
  • Velikye Knyaz
  • *****
  • Posts: 6489
  • May I interest you in a grain of salt?
    • View Profile
Re: Imprisonment, Last Days & Death of Romanovs in 1918
« Reply #93 on: October 20, 2005, 05:17:33 PM »
Also, did they know the house was being referred to as "The House of Special Purpose"?  :-X

Offline Sarushka

  • Moderator
  • Velikye Knyaz
  • *****
  • Posts: 6489
  • May I interest you in a grain of salt?
    • View Profile
Re: Imprisonment, Last Days & Death of Romanovs in 1918
« Reply #94 on: October 20, 2005, 05:21:46 PM »
They did not know that Nagorny and Sednev were shot. If I recall correctly, they were asking for information about Nagorny even on their last day alive. It seems to me, though, that the majority of the murders took place after the IF were executed.

I believe they could hear artillery fire, and that they were aware of the civil war. (Perhaps why they didn't question Yurovsky when he told them they were being moved into the basement for their own safety.)

Offline clockworkgirl21

  • Velikye Knyaz
  • ****
  • Posts: 2667
    • View Profile
Re: Imprisonment, Last Days & Death of Romanovs in 1918
« Reply #95 on: October 20, 2005, 05:59:24 PM »
Why was the house being called "The House of Special Purpose"?

Offline Sarushka

  • Moderator
  • Velikye Knyaz
  • *****
  • Posts: 6489
  • May I interest you in a grain of salt?
    • View Profile
Re: Imprisonment, Last Days & Death of Romanovs in 1918
« Reply #96 on: October 20, 2005, 06:43:05 PM »
Quote
Why was the house being called "The House of Special Purpose"?


It's a reference to the Bolsheviks' intent to execute Nicholas.  :P

Offline clockworkgirl21

  • Velikye Knyaz
  • ****
  • Posts: 2667
    • View Profile
Re: Imprisonment, Last Days & Death of Romanovs in 1918
« Reply #97 on: October 20, 2005, 10:47:54 PM »
Wow. Imagine if you were in the Romanov's place, and you overheard it being called that. Wouldn't it send a chill through your spine?

Tania

  • Guest
Re: Imprisonment, Last Days & Death of Romanovs in 1918
« Reply #98 on: October 21, 2005, 07:40:08 PM »
Clockworkgirl21,

Indeed, the whole episodic events of their IF difficulties, and their murders, did more than send a chill through my spine.

How did it make you feel ?

With the events you have read on them, what if any do you think they knew, as was my original question ?

Tatiana

Quote
Wow. Imagine if you were in the Romanov's place, and you overheard it being called that. Wouldn't it send a chill through your spine?


Offline clockworkgirl21

  • Velikye Knyaz
  • ****
  • Posts: 2667
    • View Profile
Re: Imprisonment, Last Days & Death of Romanovs in 1918
« Reply #99 on: October 21, 2005, 07:53:01 PM »
Well, I'm sure they knew they were close to the end of their lives, even if they didn't realize that they knew. Sort of like blocking it out.

Erichek

  • Guest
Re: Imprisonment, Last Days & Death of Romanovs in 1918
« Reply #100 on: October 22, 2005, 03:18:03 AM »
"It's a reference to the Bolsheviks' intent to execute Nicholas. "

I do not agree - since the house was openly called "dom osobogo naznacheniya", and it was called like that ever since the bolsheviks had Ipatiev leave it and moved in Nicholas, Alexandra and Maria, I believe it referred to the house being allocated for the imprisonment on the Romanovs - NOT their execution. Moscow must have gotten information like this within a short amount of time, and if the name refered only to the execution, then that doesn't fit with the rest of the story.
Since we all know what happened in the house, we tend to understand the phrase "house of special purpose" only in one certain way.

Like I stated, I believe that, by calling the house like that at/after arrival of the first prisoners, it only meant to state the purpose the house was used for - imprisonment of the Romanovs. Had they been put in jail, it wouldn't have been called "osobaya tyur'ma - the special jail".


Erichek

Offline Ortino

  • Velikye Knyaz
  • ****
  • Posts: 1032
  • Ortino
    • View Profile
Re: Imprisonment, Last Days & Death of Romanovs in 1918
« Reply #101 on: October 22, 2005, 06:39:19 AM »
Quote
I do not agree - since the house was openly called "dom osobogo naznacheniya", and it was called like that ever since the bolsheviks had Ipatiev leave it and moved in Nicholas, Alexandra and Maria, I believe it referred to the house being allocated for the imprisonment on the Romanovs - NOT their execution.


I agree with this. I've always took the name to mean the place of their imprisonment, not their execution. The name was openly used even before the idea to shoot the IF.

Offline Sarushka

  • Moderator
  • Velikye Knyaz
  • *****
  • Posts: 6489
  • May I interest you in a grain of salt?
    • View Profile
Re: Imprisonment, Last Days & Death of Romanovs in 1918
« Reply #102 on: October 22, 2005, 08:31:27 AM »
I can agree with that as well, though I do think that at least the idea of Nicholas's execution was imminent by the time they arrived in Ekaterinburg.

Offline Romanov_fan

  • Velikye Knyaz
  • ****
  • Posts: 4611
    • View Profile
Re: Imprisonment, Last Days & Death of Romanovs in 1918
« Reply #103 on: October 24, 2005, 10:36:17 AM »
I think they did not know, but one would suppose they always lived with a sense of danger and peril at every point. They still had hope to the end, but maybe that was a brave front for when they thought about it, they must have realized it might be a dark future for them. But, though some of their relatives died, some of them escaped. They must have hoped for escape too. Apart from Nicholas, who was in the most danger, one wonders if the girls ever thought they woudn't get out of the situation alive. But, I think whatever their fate, they accepted it. Although it is true they wanted to get to a better point in their life.

Offline Sarushka

  • Moderator
  • Velikye Knyaz
  • *****
  • Posts: 6489
  • May I interest you in a grain of salt?
    • View Profile
Re: Imprisonment, Last Days & Death of Romanovs in 1918
« Reply #104 on: October 24, 2005, 11:00:19 AM »
Quote
Apart from Nicholas, who was in the most danger, one wonders if the girls ever thought they woudn't get out of the situation alive.

Quite a few sources mention that Olga realized, more so even than her parents, the danger they were in.