and drying up record high temperatures in russia causing widespread crop failure forcing desperate bombers to seek state support. it's ninety two years to the days since the bolsheviks executed the last russian tsar nicholas the second and his family the deaths and three centuries of rule by the dentist the laws he has taught to historian have unraveled poor who's written the book the last days of the remodels about the tragedy and his 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 pattern

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 new culture in berg 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 crew for your oscar who was in charge of the party of 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 a 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 the culture in vogue 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 severed tonight letters 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 immature for their age very on worldly they 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 culture 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 dot to 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 what 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 aleksei who was very very sick but interestingly 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 sorry tsa they always found a very. stuck up and still demanding 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 yeah call fewer or 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 murderer 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 man 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 enforce clan. on the press nice ation to really make the route regime there a 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 our 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 guards was there anything 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 putting 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 well 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 pop pot shot at this hour 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 start worst of it was that the man in charge of the detail to take the bodies out into the forest in a truck at 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 caster and the bolsheviks but you believe that the order can be traced directly to leonard well lennon was very careful to always

cover his tracks and he he never ever took responsibility for anything as controversial as the merger of the wrongness but he said categorically we must not have a living banner we must not have anyone surviving from the family around whom a 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 he 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 a bolshevik educator a 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 and bolsheviks when they knew that the game was up and the city was going to fall to go in and kill more and me. 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 developments this sense of identification of the romanovs with off the sea and specifically with everything of 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 to believe as a sense of nationhood an orthodoxy that they feel they've lost for the rest of what thanks very much i.q. .

after. three months to see. the. congress. that are killing innocent. allies are they a course and that's never answered. i think of it every day. to memories. say much so that tom. i would. i was

ashamed that i. i was ashamed that i had money. to go my way. or. that i believe what i would do or not wants or i think. that i was a good soldier. shoulder on the other side and i think i'm just not good. wealthy british style it's time to. market and. find out what's really happening to the global economy for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines to name two crimes

a report on our. school. members of terrorist cells have been arrested on suspicion of planning. groups are believed to have links with global terrorism. so as to just six in three decades and twenty five million deaths and over sixty five million infections most of the international aids conference which starts today. kidney confusion the us media claims that the radiance finances who says he was abducted by american secret services was spying for washington. drying up record high temperatures in russia are causing widespread. desperate farmers to seek the state's support. although i suppose in

a way now with. hello there welcome to the sport and these are the headlines so far this sunday russia's first formula one driver vitaly petrov is in moscow and says he's confident of a new contract with ground zero. plus there's more action in the russian premier league whereas in the remain the only unbeaten side. planned a new name looks likely on the carrot jug as you susan the put. the first russian is a first for me one driver vitaly petrov says he's confident he will be offered a new contract with renault the twenty five year old is in moscow this weekend to promote the sport with an exhibition race around the kremlin he's taking a stroll around red square this morning before taking part in a fundraising f one cars through the heart of the capital where he'll compete

against world champion jenson button but the talk was about petros future talking. about a new contract but so far a new one hasn't been offered to petrol who lives fifty in the drivers' championship although the russian says he isn't doing this about his future. the way we were walking he still hopeful this is it would be helpful this is not to burden the holders of a good reason why that is a mother but then it will come next season. or it will be will be thinking about the point of little girl it's over the. super bowl little bit late so you feel confident we'll force i'm going to feel it is just. a lot of things but the music doesn't work for me molly's third time in a row this one exhibition has been held in moscow it's proper name is the very moscow city racing event giving fans a chance to see all sorts of fast cars up close and be

a fun f one race between petroff and button or do three laps the kremlin. at the top speed of sixty kilometers and. this isn't suitable for more but the hope is one day russia will host the ground pray that one supremely is bernie ecclestone the gender and pet shop he's going to do. first of course i want to run for a year this is where i. can help something to bring the one person that's going to get but i don't know with women who will be i hope soon i want to be a little more of the little that's done pretty well now another motor sport this afternoon your release to may take g.p. championship will start on pole for the german graham praised if a yamaha rider clocking the fastest time in qualifying but it wasn't smooth it was red flag midway through to his bike spilling oil on the track and spies and managed to fail in the spilled oil but avoided serious injury while already held on to take pole stoner which his challenge for

a first win of the of the season from second place and tries of joining in and around on the front row champion valentino rossi his return to racing in six weeks after breaking his leg will start to pick. up has been difficult harder to get it because. there were so fast but at the most but i write so well we've. improved so much that the time. now is anita still the only unbeaten team in the russian premier league there to know when it was a bear means they've now gone thirteen games in that defeat and a seven points clear of rubin the top goals coming just each side of half time at the patrol the stadium is any could have easily had a few more but the ones from a corner and nicklaus line bet got his head on it to make it one nil after half an hour. and then roma should of course made it to in the fifty fourth minute

a real page to a great back. sima. in the eighty's had to find the bottom corner. this is the last of the season they are third boston disney fans enjoying winning the ten people splatting so far doing no wrong. already being go second off the holding on to a one year when i was spotted at moscow in the russian capital defending the champions getting on the scoresheet after just four minutes christian about the man on target off a deceptive cross i think they have the copy of the team coach is his opposite number car been with a lot to ponder a spot i have one for drawn for last fall and remain mid table and to make matters worse they had feared or could the rush of sent off in the dying minutes for a second book of the offense. well just above thought i could get our moscow they want to five go through life against ross garnaut to concede a nearly going to romance and the moral thing to normal went into the league with cheap quick go equaliser. was from dennis calling the great volley.

right into the corner and then andre braugher name showed the strength to be the normal one. he's glad this went in he had a few chances before this effort and then to tell me first off you go bang eleven just before half time another great goal or rasping free kick there but it was the nama who had the last laugh granites effort by giving the home side a three point six. i draw three more games today in the russian primarily moscow could leap frog rostov into fifth with a win over a lanyard and before that tom's face angie while terry entertained. it is the final day of the open it's in tangerines and in just over two hours time south african louis which throws in will start his last round with a four stroke lead over england's paul casey which these in hand led the field by

five stripes at the halfway stage but was never overtaken throughout yesterday due to a stupid three under par and of sixty nine he hit t. birdies on his final three holes including our forty foot putt on the sixteenth paul casey had one of the lowest scores of the day sixty seven for him putting him in contention for his first ever major title germany's martin karma is another three shots back in third so it looks likely they'll be a new name on mclaren this is chasing pack of three one tied in fourth including westwood pennell stenson one hundred can azhar is while world number one here tiger woods struggled again as in and is tied in eighteenth place but despite him being out of the running meeting and getting carried away. it's probably not going to hit me tonight because i'm going to go straight to rid of. you know it's amazing opportunity and you know tomorrow's another round of golf then just going to try and remember this there is a big gap. is tom watson said earlier this week you know more 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 i can buy if you get it wrong that's also a big day in the tour de france where the riders enter the pyrenees today the first of four torturous days in the mountains and the schleck still holding on to the yellow jersey after yesterday's stage thirteen which was won by stan as alexander vinokourov but it didn't start well for the seven time winner lance armstrong who even stumbled on a little warm up right before the start of the stage anyway by the end of the day it was because of the show the strength breaking away towards the end of the hundred ninety six kilometer which ended in the town of travel great returns have been called off and came back from a two year suspension taking drugs in all this last year but it's and each day

still using he has a thirty one second lead in the core of teammate and defending champion alberto contador. and one bit of tennis news now the world number one through williams has withdrawn from next month's rogers cup with after cutting a foot on a broken glass at a restaurant the younger williams sister all smiles here at the blue collar. walking the red carpet or any other surface for some time the twenty eight year old needs surgery and he missed three events leading up to the u.s. open williams offers no other details about what happened but says she's upset she had to speak to torment the stamp of cincinnati. so that's me for moments i'm back with more as usual a bit later on next. toys which are made to police children's. health.

medicine. should treat illnesses. nurse in the. face. to secure itself against. say let's call it the same canary due to its high pitched. this monumental communicated. to trying to sell me. something which. the sequence of. ninety nine she trained carries away in the russian empires gold reserve. to save it from the soviets. five hundred tons of gold. dozens of counted. six hundred fifty millions in czarist rule. the

crane that is still a way to have the arrival station. a century long way. the mystery of the golden drain on. wealthy british style holds. the. markets why not scandal. find out what's really happening to the global economy in the kinds of reports. they faced this is not a provocation but it was. be fortunate and you should use several you should disapprove retraced pieces they have no idea about the hardships to face. one it is this is it all

too nuisance for any army the life of a usaf is the most precious thing in the world. is of self-sacrifice and heroism with those who understand it fully but you have to live a. real life stories from world war two. victory nineteen forty five dot dot com. in moscow ots available in first marriage grand hotel ritz carlton royal marriage or renaissance kookie audubon marriage profiles holiday encircled the kids holiday inn holiday inn ski patroller rhydian national the meridian country club savoy shirton fanis peter the first client sure can pinsky swiss hotel close knit hold. golden apple boutique hotel.

with the latest headlines of the week's top stories international threat members of two terrorist cells have been arrested on suspicion of plotting it's hot so russian cities both groups are believed to have links with global terrorism. so feeling is to two sticks a three decades twenty five million deaths of over sixty million infections most of the international aids conference which starts today. kidnapping confusion the u.s. media claims that iranian scientists who says he was abducted by american secret service is with spying for washington. done drawing off record high temperatures i'm not sure it was in widespread quote fate desperate far as to seek state support.