some regions suffering a severe drought have left farmers without a harvest. it's ninety two years to the days since the bolsheviks executed the last russian tsar nicholas the second and his family the deaths ended three centuries of rule by the roman often a city. to historian haven't wrapped up or about burke the last days of the tragedy and in small countries 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 the catcher 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 realized that although we knew the broad span of nicholas's

reign in the overall story no one had looked at any great detail in those final few days particularly 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 crew for your oscar who was in charge of the party 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 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 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 but built right around the house the windows were painted white so the family once they're inside that house could not see the outside world they were denied newspaper said to night 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 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 the a party 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 guards 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 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 shop 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 call furore ski was brought in and the whole thing changed and so it's made it more about yakov little skit 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 checker manner 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 asian to really make the root 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 the translight byram rare way towards a culture which isn't

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 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 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 account 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 sub worst of it was that the man in charge of the detail

to take the bodies out into the forest in a truck or 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 throw 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 go in 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 katherine bolsheviks but you believe that the order can be traced directly to leonard 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 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 lawford 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 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 development with this sense of identification of the romanovs with off the 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 a terrible terrible 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 thanks very much i.q. . the

drain carries away the russian empires gold reserve. to save it from the. five hundred tons of gold. dozens of. six hundred fifty million dollars ruble. that is still awaiting the arrival. sentry long way. mystery of the. wealthy british. high.

market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into a report. well geez available in hotels for. a little toto keep published it is called us photo east west nova told. scott brown assume the c.s. sloviansk i book in soldiers historical hotels of escape culture in the city. most . elegant up until the stroke for us to become a her toe. skeptics

challenge traditional theories behind it says a panel of scientists and politicians gather in vienna to discuss the spread of the disease it's. russian security services that broke up with suspected terrorists out in the southern republicans this week that included a link to the deadly mosque a metro it's kind said earlier this year. and a brain in nuclear scientists who claims he was kidnapped and held by the cia and us from all the names. but this still in there of mystery with reports in america that he was spying on washington. and as russia remains in the sweltering grip of a. summary to suffering a severe drought. farm is one thousand pounds. spalls up next with an injury. and i found

a craving meet outside all day to see the foreman of one exhibit bass in moscow a young white that i'm indoors actually for me one is in. the russian drive of the telly petroff spoke to us about his future in the sport with all the details just after this. hello they're welcome to the sport here in artane this is what it's coming up over the next few minutes. brushes first formula one driver on the telly petrol is in moscow and says he's confident about a new contract with brenna. plus is more action in the russian premier league president remain only unbeaten sign. and a new name looks likely on the cleric who stays in the gulf so you put. first rushes at first for me one drive the tally pair drive says he's confident he will be offered

a new contract with the twenty five year old is in moscow this weekend to promote the sport than exhibition race around the kremlin he was taking a stroll around red square they this morning before taking part in the fun race in f one cars through the heart of the capital where he'll compete against world champion jenson button for the tour that's about petrol future run out by discussing with their first dr rob it could be about a new contract that so far you want hasn't been offered to petrol he lives fifty in the driver's championship and though the russian says it is about his future. well below the knee we were walking he still hopeful this year would be called for the season not to burden the holes that were put in by the mother but they will for next season the. all be will be thinking about the contemplated on local it's over the course doggedly. considering the local little bit later show you feel confident enough to a friend going through the first is just a lot of things but to me it doesn't work that. it's the third time in

a row this f one exhibition event has been held in moscow its proper name is the very most cases racing event giving fans a chance to see all sorts of fast cars up close and they'll be a fun f one race between petroff and button who do three laps of the kremlin albeit at a top speed of sixty kilometers an hour the road surface isn't suitable for more but the hope is one day russia will host a grand prix so on f one supreme bernie ecclestone is agenda and petrobras keen to do what he can. still of course i want to overdose and run pretty dear this is what i. can hope something will bring the one verse of the cross country but i don't know with who win the will be a hope so i want to be a little more of the same but i wouldn't believe it's done pretty well and fingers crossed now there's more action in the russian premier league today we're lucky motif have the chance to take fifth spot they face a long year later this evening on three points would see them leapfrog and if lucky

do slip up thomas could also play not fifth spot they're taking on angie for a goal up as half time approaches can mail. scoring that eric entertain the gang which kicks off in a couple of asked time. meanwhile are still be on the unbeaten same in the russian primarily to know when i was to be yesterday means they've now gone thirteen games that defeating the seven points clear through being at the top nicklaus time but getting his head on a corner to make it one of the half an hour and then sheer old calls made it seem in the fifty fourth minute real page to the great back we'll hear from danny gal setting him up. for something tommy disney disobeys close of the season they are often to meet fans are enjoying when number ten will split to bring much rob cypher . the second after holding on for one year when i was spot at moscow in the russian capital defending league champions getting on the scoresheet after just destroying

the target to set the cross today of the. coaches like his opposite number col been as not to ponder spot one for drawn for last for him a mid table and to make matters worse had. sent off in the dying minutes for a second book over the fence. and just above spot i could be normal they want to five goals against ross start off and see me go at them all saying hey the nama went in to me to quit go was an equaliser from dennis is worth watching i assume per says it k.k. into the far corner and then andre voronin showed his strength to get the nama she finally he plays this one in because he did miss several chances for success. and the nineteen in first half he got the bank level just before half time and it was a rasping free kick but it was the noma who got lost trying to make good on s.s.

it giving a high side of free point so. i can transfer news for you to you and spurs boss harry redknapp says it's likely he'll sign spot at the goalkeeper stipe. international is wanted by the north london club on a season long loan type his competition for that hallowed gomes redknapp said there is every chance of a deal after his side's goal is proved with the semis a fight yesterday that it has fallen out of favor a spot that as the club struggles to meet the russian premier league rules limiting the amount of foreign players. it is the final day of the open it's in town and south african louis susan is just starting his last round with a four stroke lead over england's paul casey who susan had led the field by five straight to the halfway stage but was never overtaken throughout yesterday due to a superior three under par and of sixty nine he hit two birdies on his final three holes including that forty foot putt on the sixteenth. casey had one of the lowest

scores of yesterday a sixty seven to him putting him in contention for his first ever major title toonies martin karma is another three shots back in third so it doesn't look likely they'll be a new name on the current job this is chasing pack of three in a tie given fourth including lee westwood and stenson another hundred while world number one tiger woods struggled again and he's tied in eighteenth place but despite him being out of the running. to be carried away. it's probably not going to be tonight because i want to go straight to rid. 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 tom watson said earlier this week you know what she gives away today she takes away tomorrow and. you know i believe 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 lots of birdies out there will yield birdies but it will and it can buy if you get it wrong . the tour de france where the riders and to the pier are nice today in the first of four tough days in the mountains and each leg still holds the edges the after yesterday's stage the team which was won by stars alexander vinokourov but it didn't start well for the seven time winner lance armstrong who can stumble on a little warmup ride before the start of the race that anyway by the end of the day has been a core of the show the strength breaking away it's worse than the n b a hundred ninety six plummet to reach ended in the time in forever a great return when you pull off and come back to the spring break to get drugs banned but it is andy schleck and holds the yellow jersey he has if there's one secondly i've been proud of teammate and defending champion helplessly contador i finally some tennis shoes are the world number one cheering the williams house with throne from next month's rogers cup with after cutting her right foot on

a broken glass at a restaurant she seen here it's all small. little a few weeks ago but in the red carpet or any other surface for some time the twenty eight year old surgery missed three events leading up to the u.s. open office no other details about what happened but say she's upset with having to speak to istanbul cincinnati montreal. so that brings you up to date we've got more sport feel a little later. did i kill innocent. a was it a call of course and that's never a. song from the skull spoke with me i think of it every day. from the

memory. of so much a long time i'm just here trying to tell. i was. i was ashamed that i had been. i was ashamed that i hadn't been a hero why. i got my legs. when i went to vietnam. what i was going on once or i think. that i was a good soldier. but now most soldier on the other side and i think i'm just a good. nineteen nineteen. away in the russian empire. to save from the soviets. five hundred tons of gold.

dozens of counted. six hundred. roubles. the train. station. a century long the way. the ministry of the golden train on. ancient sailors call it the sea canary due to its high pitched. this moment now on this highly communicative. what's it trying to say and how can we decode its meaning which. just in the secrets of the moon go on t v faced it this is not a provocation but warns of the. day for which it could be shared interests

everybody is sure to support retraced because they have no idea about the hardships to face to. face one it is this is it is open to new systems for any army the life of a usaf other 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. victories nineteen forty five don't r.t. dot com.

in some petersburg oh she's available in hotels a story and a look to the ducks in a small speech to kowtow to truthfulness her toe the true speech otoh golden. still a dostoevsky. in a sea of colors if you visit. conventional

treatment has actually caused the death of a whole generation of young gay men in america. traditional theories behind aids is a pal's of the scientists and politicians in vienna to discuss also how to prevent the spread of the disease. and the week's top headlines a russian security says a break up a suspected terrorist threat in the southern republican duck a stunt which includes a man that links to the deadly mosque a metro attacks in syria. on a rein in nuclear scientists you claims he was kidnapped and held by the cia at this u.s. for more than a year we're tons home mysteries still surrounds the story with american media reporting he was spying for washington. does russia remains in the sweltering agrippa.