Ekaterinburg became famous throughout the world as the city where the Bolsheviks ruthlessly shot the family of Emperor Nicholas II. The Ipatiev house was chosen as the place of the last imprisonment and execution of the monarch, his wife and children. The address at which it was located (Voznesensky Prospekt, 49/9) is remembered today by many local residents, but not everyone can tell how the building itself looked. And this is not surprising, because the house in which the royal family spent the rest of their lives was demolished in 1977. Today, only old photographs and rare exhibits in the museums of Yekaterinburg remind of him.
Strange coincidence
Studying the history of the Russian royal family, one can notice an interesting fact. Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, who became the founder of the Romanov dynasty, was proclaimed the ruler of Russia in March 1613 after a ceremony held in the Ipatiev Monastery near Kostroma. Well, what will be written next, causes bewilderment in many. The last representative of the same royal family, Nicholas II, together with his entire family, was killed in July 1918 in the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. After that, the Romanov dynasty ceasedexistence.
Why the Ipatiev Mansion?
The same name of the monastery in which Mikhail Fedorovich was blessed to rule, and the house where Nicholas II and his family were shot, was considered a mere coincidence in Soviet times. But is it really so? Modern historians are sure that the Bolsheviks chose the house of Ipatiev Nikolai Nikolayevich as the place of execution for a reason, and they cite strong arguments to prove their theory.
After the abdication in March 1917 of the throne, the last Russian emperor and his family were exiled to Tobolsk. Nothing prevented the Bolsheviks from cracking down on the hated monarch in this Siberian city, but for some reason they took him to Yekaterinburg. Despite the large number of buildings, the inconspicuous house of the engineer Ipatiev was chosen for execution. Some modern historians believe that the reason for this choice was the acquaintance of Nikolai Nikolaevich with Pyotr Voikov, the commissar of the Ural Bolshevik Council, who was directly involved in organizing the execution of the royal family.
In 1913, the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty was solemnly celebrated in Russia, and the Ipatiev Monastery was one of the main centers for the festivities. Everyone heard its name, so when the Bolsheviks chose the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg as the place of execution of the royal family, they most likely did it thoughtfully and purposefully, endowing the upcoming murder with a certain symbolism.
The first owners of the mansion
The ill-fated house was built in the late 80s of the XIX century by a mining engineer, State Councilor Ivan Redikortsev. He chose the western slope of Voznesenskaya Gorka as a place for his future estate. The house was built taking into account the terrain. Its east side was one-story. Here were the main entrance to the building, rooms and a basement with an exit leading to the southern facade of the estate. The western side of the house consisted of two floors and a veranda. The width of the building was 18 m, and the length was 31 m. It was built with the latest technology: it had electricity, running water, sewerage and telephone communications. The rooms of the house looked rich: their walls were decorated with stucco and cast iron, and artistic painting was applied to the ceilings.
Redikortsev was not destined to remain the owner of the mansion for long. Due to financial problems, in 1898 he sold the estate to the gold miner Sharaviev. After 10 years, the house again changed its owner, this time it was civil engineer Nikolai Ipatiev. His family settled in rooms on the second floor. In the premises located in the lower part of the building, Ipatiev opened his office of contract work.
Arrival of the royal family at the estate
By order of the Ural Council in April 1918, the Ipatiev house was requisitioned. The Bolsheviks gave the owner 2 days to leave the mansion. Since Nikolai Nikolaevich was not in Yekaterinburg at that time, his personal belongings were taken to a storage room located near the basement, in which the Romanovs were shot a few months later. After requisitionthe estate was surrounded by a double fence, security posts were installed throughout its territory, and a sentry was placed in front of the entrance. From that time until the execution of the tsar, the Bolsheviks called the estate the House of Special Purpose.
The arrested monarch and his family were brought to the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg on the last day of April 1918. Together with them, 5 people serving them came to the engineer's estate: doctor E. Botkin, lackey A. Trupp, maid A. Demidova, cook I. Kharitonov and his assistant L. Sednev. Nicholas II with his wife and children were placed in two adjacent rooms located in the eastern wing of the building. There was a basement directly under these rooms. The maid of the empress was settled in the dining room, and the doctor and footman were placed in the hall. The building was equipped with several posts with a guard. To go to the restroom or bathroom, the prisoners of the House of Special Purpose had to pass by the guards.
Shooting
In the Ipatiev estate, members of the royal family, together with servants, spent the last 78 days of their lives. Late in the evening of July 16, 1918, the Romanovs went to bed, as usual, at 10.30 pm. At night they were awakened and ordered to go down to the basement of the Ipatiev house. When all seven members of the Romanov family, as well as 4 servants (the assistant to the cook L. Sednev was not among them, since he had been removed from the mansion the day before) ended up in the basement, they were read out the sentence and immediately after that they were shot.
Further fate at home
A few days after it was madethe execution of the Romanovs, White Guards entered Yekaterinburg. The house again passed into the possession of Ipatiev, but he lived in it for quite a bit and emigrated from the country. After that, the headquarters of the commander of the Siberian army, General Radola Gaida, was located in the mansion. A year later, the city was again under the control of the Bolsheviks. The Ipatiev House became the headquarters of the Red Army.
In subsequent years, various offices were located in the mansion. In 1927-1938, the Museum of the Revolution was opened in it. Its visitors were shown not only the premises of the house, but also the basement in which the execution of the Romanovs was carried out. In the 1930s, the mansion was turned into an anti-religious and cultural and educational museum, then into the Council of the Atheists, a branch of the Institute of Culture, and a party archive. During the war, the Hermitage expositions evacuated from Leningrad were stored in the Ipatiev House. In the post-war period, the party archive was opened in it again, then the building was transferred to the Regional Department of Culture, and a training center started working here. One of the parts of the mansion housed the office of Soyuzpechat. There was a warehouse in the basement of the house. In 1974, the building was included in the list of historical monuments of all-Russian significance.
Building demolition
In the mid-70s of the XX century, the government of the USSR was very worried about the increased attention of foreigners to the house of engineer Ipatiev. In 1978, 2 round dates were planned at once: the 110th anniversary of the birth of Nikolai Romanov and the 60th anniversary of his assassination. In order to avoid the excitement around the Ipatiev house, KGB chairman Yuri Andropov proposed to demolish it. The final decision to destroy the mansionhosted by B. Yeltsin, who then held the post of first secretary of the Sverdlovsk Regional Committee of the Communist Party.
The Ipatiev House, which stood for almost 90 years, was razed to the ground in September 1977. For this, the destroyers took 3 days, a bulldozer and a ball-woman. The pretext for the destruction of the building was the planned reconstruction of the city center. Today, on the site where the Ipatiev mansion once stood, stands the Temple on the Blood. The townspeople built it in memory of the murdered emperor and members of his family.
