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Recreated in 3D: the basement room where the Russian royals were murdered

By Olga Gertcyk
17 July 2017

New computer model of Ipatiev House lets you wander around the residence where the Romanov dynasty was obliterated.

The house in Yekaterinburg had been their home as captives of the Bolsheviks for 78 days. Picture: PINA

It was here in a cellar room with striped wallpaper that abdicated Tsar Nicholas II, his empress Alexandra and their five children were shot dead on the night of 16-17 July 1918. 

The house in Yekaterinburg had been their home as captives of the Bolsheviks for 78 days after a period when they were held in Siberia after the two revolutions of 1917. 

In 1977 the house was razed on the orders of Boris Yeltsin, then the local Communist Party head, who would later be the first president of the Russian Federation after the fall of the Soviet Union; Mocow had become concerned that it was seen as a place of pilgrimage for Soviet citizens. 

3D model


Real interior

Visitors can see the rooms where the royals lived in their final weeks. Picture: PINA, N. Vvedensky

But now it has been brought back in minute detail with a 3-dimensional computer mock-up on a 50-inch screen which lets you walk around the historic building.

Their medic Dr Botkin had been ordered by Soviet guards to wake the royals, and they were told - falsely - that they were to be evacuated from the city because the White forces were nearing Yekaterinburg. 

99 years since execution of the Romanov family

Room of Princesses


Room of Nicholas

Room of Princesses and room where Nicholas, Alexandra and Alexei lived. Pictures: PINA

The Romanovs, Botkin and the three servants were led down a flight of stairs, into the courtyard of the Ipatiev House - which belonged to a railway merchant before the revolution -  and then through a ground-floor entrance to the small semi-basement room at the rear of the building. 

Chairs were brought for Nicholas and Alexandra at the latter's request. 

The remainder of the party stood behind and to one side of the seated couple, except for the frail former crown prince Alexei who sat on his father's lap.

Commander Yakov Yurovsky, a senior member of the Ural Soviet, and a party of armed men entered the basement room through the double doors.

Execution room


Execution room

Execution room. Picture: Vitaly Shytov, PINA

Yurovsky told them that their relatives had attempted to save the Imperial family, that this attempt had failed and that the Soviets were now obliged to shoot them all. 

He and his squad then opened fire with pistols on the prisoners. In chaotic scenes, bullets bounced off the princesses who had diamonds and jewellery sewn into their clothing. 

Astonishingly it took up to 30 minutes to kill the group group. 

Today the Church-on-the-Blood was built on the spot where the Ipatiev House once stood.

Ipatiev House


Demolition


Cathedral

Today the Church-on-the-Blood was built on the spot where the Ipatiev House once stood. Pictures: Vitaly Shytov, Ivan Pshenichny

Nikolai Neuymin, head of the Romanov history department of the Sverdlovsk regional local history museum, said: 'The employees of our museum developed the 3D reconstruction of the house of engineer Ipatiev. This is where the Church-on-the-Blood is built now.

'A particular feature of the project is that we've used real photos from the investigation of [Nikolai] Sokolov that is kept at Russia's State Archive.

'We recreated the interiors of the rooms, and you can walk through all of them including the gloomy room where the tsar family were shot dead.'

Comments (24)

-- addendum:
Lisa Sperling , FL> The tsar and his family were shot with their doctor, maid, cook and valet. DNA testing has confirmed this. There were no survivors.
Louis XVI and Maria Antoinette were both executed. Their son, the Dauphin was taken away from his mother beaten and forced alcohol ultimately alienated and died young. Their daughter did survive. She had no children thus the line of succession ended. Read Lady Antonia Fraser spectacular achivevement: Marie Antoinette: The Journey>
Lastly. Phelps is known shameless self-promoting conspiracy theorist. His followers are cultish. He is also a 9/11 truther.
Again. Read history. its rich with intrigue and interest all its own. it doesn't need embellishment from Lisa ( who is i'm sure LH in Naples ) nor any conspiracy theorists.
Jack Hutton, United States of America
02/08/2017 10:47
17
3
First. An amazing accomplishment. Congratulations to the museum on an important and provocative exhibit.
Second, cannot let these absurd and dangerous false weird conspiracy theories fester without pushback .
Lisa Sperling (USA) make the wholly unfounded absurd claim of a substitutes assuming the place of the Romanovs . Entirely baseless and hysterical. Lisa is a conspiracy theorist. We need more comments grounded in fact not fiction.
Then the thin veiled anti Semitic comments from LH in Naples FL ( Florida, of course—sad.) No. conspiracy and worse. Fanning the flames of hate.
History is history . Read and learn. We appreciate the diligence & academics employed with this exhibit which affords us a deeper understanding of a tumultuous time .
Jack Hutton, San Francisco, CA USA
01/08/2017 18:47
16
3
Very interesting reconstruction. BUT, I read that the Russian family did not die, they were taken elsewhere and a fake family, almost identical but with some discrepancies, like the length of hari being long when it had been short the day previously, and it was they who were killed. The Russian family was in on it, as all the elite are in on the scams of revolution and war and misery.for the peasants.(Lous XVI and Marie Antoinette did die, but their son was saved) The czar's family were not martyrs.. The young son lived on, in America I think. The story is in Vatican Assassins by Eric Jon Phelps.
Lisa Sperling, USA
25/07/2017 16:55
4
46
Let us never forget the actual ethnicity of the murderers, who were Rothschild agents. They then stole the wealth of this family, and have been using it to subjugate the entire world ever since.
LH, Naples, FL
23/07/2017 23:45
34
32
#Magda, USA, #Sean O'Brenan, Canada: Yurovsky never left Russia. He is buried in Moscow.

Oleg, Novosibirsk, Russia
23/07/2017 21:52
9
0
Yurovsky emigrated to USA after this horrific crime. Used to live on Fifth Ave. in Manhattan. Probably is buried in one of Jewish cementaries. His grandson still owes a pistol which his grandfather used to kill the Tsar and his son.
Magda, USA
23/07/2017 21:23
7
13
A terrible thing . . .readung about it game me chills When I visited the place there I felt very sad but I had to go and pay my respects
Patricia a. gothard, Laguna Wiods CA USA
23/07/2017 03:39
9
0
very interesting but how do you see the entire rooms, not just the photos of the rooms.?
m. artines, usa
22/07/2017 00:56
1
1
I am curious as to where Comrade Yurovsky is buried? I think it would be a fitting trbute to him, in recognition of the evil and violence of his deed that night, that he be exhumed, his grave site obliterated, and his remains, if there are any, be scattered through out the nearest abattoir.
Sean O'Brenan, Canada
21/07/2017 05:21
35
4
12

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