causing widespread failure forcing desperate virus to seek state support. it's ninety two years to the day since the boss of its executed the last russians are nicholas the second and his family the deaths and a three centuries of rule by the remind of dynasty r.t. has talked to historian helen ravel board who's written a book the last days of the ramada about the tragedy its mark on the country's history. today i'm in oxford with helen rappaport she's an expert on the russian imperial family particularly the last days of that arm on us who were assassinated in a classroom by a jury in the bolshevik revolution helen rappaport thanks very much for talking to r.t. now you focus on the last thirteen days of that amount of slides in your catron but why did you choose that period well when i looked at the stories of. the end of the

dentistry i suddenly realised that although we knew the broad span of nicholas's rain and the overall story no one had looked at any great detail in those final few days particularly a new culture in vogue and the main reason for that was because until the collapse of communism there was no access to some of the important eyewitness testimonies by the guards and your coffee or ski who was in charge of the positive so we didn't have enough evidence to look at that really closely and when i did start looking at it closely i found it absolutely fascinating and gripping and it was the story i wanted to tell the city was in a terrible state of panic the bolsheviks were basically taking everything they could out of your culture and work that was worth anything because it was the center of the mining industry so it was gold semi precious minerals and they wanted to get that all out before the city fell so in terms of taking the

imperial family there what do you think the saw for example must've felt when he knew they were going to catch him because your book had a large factory and industrial population a very heavily politicized workers who were very loyal bolsheviks and the sars heart sank when he was told that he was going to be taken there he said i would go anywhere but if you catch him but because the people there are so against me. once the family arrived in a pattern back they lived in increasingly horrible circumstances they were actually told the minute they arrived you are now entering a prison regime and there was a big difference between how things were in some polls square they had a rare relative degree of freedom to move about to go to church to go outside to see people in the outside world the awful thing that happened when they arrived at you catherine but they're immediately greeted by a place surrounded by an enormous stockade

a wooden stockade was built right around the house the windows were painted white so the family once or inside that house could not see the outside world they were denied newspaper said region i'd latter's and parcels no visitors so they were effectively cut off and what kind of family were they at that stage well they were incredibly close knit family very devoted to each other and i think the thing that one of the fundamental things that held them so closely together was they had this very deep very profound orthodox faith and they did take a rather fatalistic attitude to god's will and what would happen happened to to them also the girls in many ways were very image sure of their age very on worldly they had lived such a cuckoo life that the alexander palace in outside some petersburg once alexei was born found to be hemophiliac everyone closed in to protect him to protect the

family so in that way they managed to survive better i think than other families word because they were so proud so used to being only in each other's company but it wasn't just the family who were in their pattern of house was that they were also accompanied by some of their old retainers while the retainers were intensely loyal they volunteered to go with the roman australia and it was very uncertain what was going to happen to them they might must have had some sense that it might all. and horribly so they're intensely loyal particularly dr port king who i think of all of them had a sense that this might end in something dreadful he was very pragmatic very realistic and one of the last letters he wrote from the house an unfinished letter said basically i don't expect to get out of here alive but what was interesting was that when the romanovs first arrived there was an obvious in intensely hostile attitude to them from the guards many very young local fact she workers who

volunteered for they considered was an honor to guard in this bloodthirsty tsar and his family and as time went on a strange thing happened some of these young guards began to develop a sympathy for the family especially the girls and especially alexei who was very very sick but interesting lee although they could empathize with the children especially and came to like the girls actually and even thought this all was a perfectly decent chap they never liked that sari tsa they always found a very. stuck up and still demanding that people bow and scrape to even in that situation but as time went on the guards began to fraternize a bit too much became a bit too friendly with the girls especially and that was when there was a massive clamp down and your cool furore ski was brought in and the whole thing changed and so it's made it more about yakov little ski he is often portrayed sort

of maniac all merger us but in fact you sort of bring out a slightly more complex side to his personality well he was an absolutely ruthless cope blooded pragmatic dedicated bolshevik he was also a local checa chica was the precursor of what became the k.g.b. the the russian political secret service so he was there for a purpose he was sent in to inforce clan. on the first nice ation to really make the route regime there are very strict prison regime and effectively to prepare for what was now an increasing venture as he was that they might have to kill the family because the white and the counter-revolutionary forces were working their way east from blood of all stock right in far the far west of russia working their way back to walk along a trance iberian rare way towards a culture which was then

a focal point on the railway line amongst the gods was there anything lang that they weren't going to go through with it yes absolutely just before they came to kill the family you're asking was issuing orders about who was supposed to kill whom they were all given an individual target and some of the guards immediately said we will not kill the girls and the number of killers in the end was reduced because of that and in fact the ultimate solution was pushing all in a room and and killing them all together but that turned into a bloodbath didn't it and you've spoken to a forensic expert tell me what you what his opinion of what happened was what concerned me was the terrible inefficiency with which they murdered them i mean some some people think they were just lined up in a row bang bang bang you're dead it was not like that it was a dreadful ill conceived ill executed murder you can't say it was an execution it was brutal because you know you're also didn't plan it he didn't check out whether

they were these guys were good shots they didn't check the guns they had a mixture of some efficient guns browning's and colts and also old army issue not guns which probably didn't work they didn't count the fact they were killing eleven people in a small dark basement room which rapidly became full of acrid smoke noise panic hysteria people screaming and running around it was an absolute catastrophe because they then had to brew. salie finish them off any one of them the family really who had a quick death was actually nicholas because the minute they the order came to fire they all want to take a pop pot shot at the star of course so they could say well i shot nicholas so he died immediately but the others suffered horribly particularly the children and then the burial also. total. total mismanaged from the sub worst of it was that the man in charge of the detail to take the bodies out

into the forest in a truck a very rapidly old fear truck arrived dead drunk and late so with one shovel one shovel to bury some people that was it was just silly and the other thing was they hadn't properly checked out the site they'd chosen which was a mine working in the forest and when they got there they discovered first of all it was too shallow and secondly it was full of water and that to get thro eleven bodies down there they'd almost immediately be found by the local peasants so they had to go back the next morning hold the bodies out and going dump them somewhere else it was just dreadful now the murder of them on a family is often attributed to a sort of maverick branch of the castor and bolsheviks but you believe that the order can be traced directly to lenin well lenin was very careful to always cover his tracks and he he never ever took responsibility for anything as controversial

as the merger of the roman arts but he said categorically we must not have a living banner we must not have anyone surviving from the family around whom the counter-revolution could could gather and gain a you know gain gain power so the decision was made in moscow during meetings with gul a short in a man from the book soviet who went back and forth quite a few times to moscow now got a shock and was very good friends with the arc of spirit love who was lenin's right hand man said lapham had worked as opposed to tater new country but he knew the city he knew the bolsheviks there and i think fundamentally a tacit agreement was given by lenin that when the time came and the judgment of when that time came was left to the culture bolsheviks when they knew that the game was up and the city was going to fall to go in and kill more i mean. going forward to the present day what would you say is the abiding legacy that i'm on a family to me the most interesting thing i found when i went to russia when i went

to catch a bug was this incredible developing this this sense of identification of the romanovs with off the top sea and specifically with everything all for mother russia of nationhood of a united country but everything that russia lost under the depredations of seventy years of communism this is terrible nostalgia for the roman also because nicolas wasn't a good saw he was terrible terribly incompetent in many respects but the biting thing is this terrible sense of the merger of innocence and the roman also represent for ordinary russians for believe as a sense of nationhood an orthodoxy that they feel they've lost for the rest of what thanks very much like you.

did i kill innocent. or was it a race of course and that's never answered. i'm a song that's called me i think of it every day. i steal the flyers by try to memorise. so much so that the one time of the serious crime. i was a charade. i was ashamed that i been muted i was ashamed that i had. to go. my way. in the mine. where i would be out in all the hours of four to. get out or i would go. no words or i think. that i was a good soldier. shoulder on the other side and i think i'm just in the good.

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to wear the latest headlines and the week's top stories here and here is our t.v. international threat members of two terrorist cells have been arrested on suspicion of planning attacks on russian cities all groups are believed to have links from global terrorism. startling statistics three decades twenty five million deaths and over sixty million infections much to talk about and the international aids conference which starts today. kidnap confusion the u.s. media claims that an iranian scientist just as he was abducted by american secret services was spying for washington. drying record high temperatures in russia are causing widespread fraud failure forcing desperate farmers to seek state support. time now to look take a look at what's happening and sports entertainment now. close again here and now

a formula one grand prix this weekend but there's a good spectacle in moscow this happening for fans so what's all that everybody can stand the heat a russian formula one driver of the tally petrol will be racing around the kremlin against jenson button in an exhibition of bent in a couple of hours time thousands will be out to watch that probably with them brothers to protect themselves from a baking sun more on that in a my. hello there welcome to the sports on these are the headlines so far this sunday still on greetings any record when number ten to stay seven points clear at the top of the russian premier league. clubs and you name looks likely on the claridge. open. russia's first formula one driver prepares for his rights in the russian capital. with the football there was

a need to still be any unbeaten team in the russian premier league to know when to been means they've now gone thirteen games with that defeat and a seven points clear at the top ahead of rubin goals coming just each side of half time in the prophecy stadium and could have easily had a few more but the opener did come from a corner and a clear from but getting his head on it to make the half an hour i and then a little money should've called made it in the fifty fourth it was a real page two way a great back heel sets him up for this one i stopped the ball this is to be a flaw of the season the third week fans are enjoying. the left and doing no wrong so i. go second after holding on to a one zero win over spartak moscow in the russian capital. the defending league champions getting on the school sheet after just a bad man talk about the sense that it is the copy of the two coaches his opposite

number been with a lot to ponder spawn that spot i have one for drawn for our last four and a mid table and to make matters worse i had to deal with the rush of cental from the dying minutes for a second before the less thanks. i just about spot like it did now moscow day one i five go through that again frost of off to concede never go dormant at the mo of saying hey the nama went into the league to put god said equaliser was from ben is already a great volley into the corner. and then andre voronin showed his strength to give the nama two one lead. he had missed a couple good chance before this but was the face of that way when detaining first half the lead story that being pro level just before half time of what this grasping for in case it was the nominee who had the last laugh but let me get on it giving the fireside three more. i think moving today

thank you dr might of moscow could leap frog the last album to fit the winter badland yes and before that tom's face and i walked eric entertained i'm cal. it's the final day at the open at st andrews and south african lose will start his last round with a four stroke lead over england's poor casey who susan had led the field by five straight at the halfway stage but was never overtaken throughout yesterday due to a superb three under par and of sixty nine he hit two birdies on his final three holes including the political on the sixteenth paul casey had one of the lowest scores of the day a sixty seven for him putting him in contention for his first then they retired from germany's martin car and that is another three shots back in third so it does look likely they'll be a new name on the character oh this is chase in fact we will try them frequently lee westwood in the stands in

a one hundred world number one tiger woods struggled again and is tied in eighteenth place but despite him being out of the running leaving our area where. it's probably not going to hit me tonight because i'm going to go straight to read when i go yeah it's amazing opportunity and you know tomorrow's another round of golf or just going to try and remember this there is a big gap. is as tom watson said earlier this week you know what she gives away today she takes away tomorrow and you know i believe that i had a great round of golf going yesterday and made seven on seventeen through really not doing too much wrong and that's the nature of this golf course or a loss of birdies out there will yield birdies but it will and it can buy if you get it wrong now russia's first and only formula one driver vitaly petrov will make a bit of history today he'll race in front of home fans for the first time taking

a world champion jenson button around the streets of moscow and is part of methe one exhibition event in constantine part of caught up with. the race near the kremlin walls in the middle of july has already become a summer tradition. this year old russian formula one fans are in for a special treat as the first russian driver ever to compete in f one. has come to moscow to take part in the race. the twenty five year old driver who took to the wheel of his racing career in march explained the main challenges of being an f one driver you need to work much out of that you don't and you can say that i'm still at it it'll. start at eight o'clock in the mine well so that's much much more now crockett hasn't earned a point since his successful display in shanghai and is no fifteenth in the rankings their team has revealed an improved core that will hopefully help the driver to climb up the table in the last ten races of the season recently

speculation has emerged that the transfer bill for the new contract for next season and placed with another driver however remains team principal says hughes said his fight with the result in the way petrov is improving and are very very pleased. to tell you do that. you clearly are very aware and think very well i was for marijuana there is not a terrorist or a how you know by design or for that like every new driver in formula one you know you need time so to understand to to get the best of your car it's not easy is very tough competition needs to develop like a normal driver you know either he did very well so fast so we just there now we're just waiting to see how he develops and before the onus is on the way we saw this case for next year recently the sport's commercial kingpin barely ecclestone said that russia could be among the countries that could be considered for staging an f one grand prix the whole day working that helped. me know that i am just now an informal the way. this is why i'm here i think it's

very good if from anyone comes into russia and try to explain i show we all. i know what we do carrying a russian drive our results seriously we would love to have a grand prix in russia and some discussion are our thing now starting but it's always complicated undoubtedly events like this will help bring the prospect of. a little closer contender but top of our cheap. staying with my disport night a g.p. championship need your friends i will start on pole for the german grand prix the sanctioned ring the yamaha ride a clock in the fastest time in qualifying that was red flag me wait for a g.t. his bike spinning oil on the track bends lines and rounded up when you fell in the spilled oil but avoided serious injury while also held on to take a case the stone out launched this challenge for a first win of the season from second place down the price of joining him under renzo on the front drive well champion valentino rossi returns racing and six weeks after breaking his leg stuff. has been difficult

harder to get it because stoner were so fast but i push at the must i write so well and we've. improved so much. time from just. on to the top of france where the ride is and to the pyrenees today for the first of four tortures days in the mountains and each leg still holds the yellow jersey after yesterday's stage the scene which was won by a star's alexander when a quarter of but it didn't start well for the seven time winner lance armstrong who can stomach a little bill mcbride will start this day jack anyway by the end of the day he's going to show the strength breaking away from his b n one hundred ninety six cologne three which ended in the town of revel a great return in a quarter of that came back from a two year suspension to slash after the drugs ban the standish like you still stays in yellow he is a thirty one second lead of pinnacle of teammate and defending champion alberto

contador. and finally some tennis shoes the world number one through no williams has been drawn from next month's rogers cup half the cutting her right foot on a broken glass at a restaurant the younger williams all smiles here the billion dollar lightly wolf you know the red carpet at the end of the set the sun time of the twenty eight year old the surgery prevention you know the usa in williams office now where the details about what happened but she says she was upset to have discovered the torn down for nancy. we wish her a speedy recovery that is all the sport for the moment more a bit like her face. the chinese still build nukes and lasted for almost a fantasy is the jewel of two superpowers and two things.

the. jewel of the spins congress. areas which are made to police children's. health. insurance illnesses give them a person. to secure their stuff against. that i kill innocent. allies across this of course and that's never answered. most often those cars filled with me i think of it every day. from the memories. of so much so that

a long time in the series trying to tell. i was. i was ashamed that i had been. i was ashamed that i had been a hero while. i got my legs. what i wanted to be out of. what i was growing up once or i think. that i was a good soldier. but now most soldier on the other side and i think i'm just in a good.

in some pieces books available in grown to tell your grand total emerald. of the club supposed to turn circles photo a little bit gold. corinthian if the planets. kempinski go twenty two looking. for.

the latest headlines and the week's top stories in our international thread members of two terrorist cells have been arrested on suspicion of planning attacks on russian cities both groups are believed to have links with global terrorism. startling statistics three decades twenty five million deaths and over sixty million infections much to talk about of the international aids conference which starts today. kidnap confusion the us media claims that an iranian scientist who says he was abducted by american secret services was spying for washington. dry up record high temperatures in russia causing widespread crop failure forcing desperate farmers to seek state support.