The Romanovs – 4 July 1918

Today we begin our countdown to 17 July 1918 when the family was murdered.

By July 1918 life at the Ipatiev House had become numbingly routine for the Romanov family. The family woke up at eight in the morning. They washed, dressed and said their prayers together.¹ Tea and bread was provided over roll call. In the afternoon, a simple lunch of cutlets or soup with meat was delivered to the gates. Supper was delivered at eight in the evening. There was little to do but read and write letters. Few letters ever reached their destination.² The Grand Duchesses were helping with the laundry and were taught to cook and make bread.

On 4 July 1918, the Romanovs had an unexpected visitor. Aleksandr Beloborodov, chair of the Ural Regional Soviet, arrived just as they were eating lunch. Their Commandant Avdeev had been dismissed and would not be returning. Nor would his assistant Moshkin. While the Romanovs did not care for Moshkin, they would miss the commandant, who had sometimes been kind to them. The new commandant was Yakov Yurovsky, and his assistant was Grigory Nikulin.³

Yurovsky was even more meticulous than Avdeev, and he set about making a detailed inventory of the family’s jewellery and valuables. The family did not seem to suspect anything sinister from the sudden change, and the new commandant even asked about Alexei’s health.⁴ On the day of his arrival, Yurovsky began a “complete disinfection” of the guard at the Ipatiev House and insisted on the daily making up of bunks.⁴

Alexandra recorded in her journal, “very hot, went early to bed as awfully tired & heart ached more.”⁵

1. Helen Rappaport – The Last Days of the Romanovs p.23 US & UK
2. Helen Rappaport – The Last Days of the Romanovs p.24
3. Helen Rappaport – The Last Days of the Romanovs p.29
4. Helen Rappaport – The Last Days of the Romanovs p.31
5. Helen Rappaport – The Last Days of the Romanovs p.43