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Soon the executioners entered. Yurovsky announced the sentence of death, cut short the Tsar's agonized protest with a bullet from his revolver. The Cheka gunmen opened fire. Last to fall was the parlormaid, who shielded herself with the jewel-packed pillow, ran screaming back & forth. She was killed with bayonets. When they examined the bodies they found that the Grand Duchess Anastasia had merely fainted. When she had been shot, the executioners wrapped the bodies in cloth, loaded them on a truck and carried them ten miles to an abandoned mine, where they were dismembered, burnt on gasoline-soaked pyres.
Twenty-four hours later, at Alapayevsk, six more captive Romanovs and two of their faithful followers met an even harder death. Grand Dukes Sergius, Ivan, Constantine and Igor, Grand Duchess Elisabeth, Prince Vladimir Paley, Secretary Romez, Nun Barbara Yakovleva were taken to an abandoned mine and thrown down a shaft. According to Investigator Sokolov, all were still alive after the fall except Sergius. The hand-grenades that were thrown down after them killed Romez; the rest died more lingeringly.
When Sokolov's findings became known, many a White would have given his right hand to lay his other on Yurovsky. the Russian who had killed the Little Father of all Russians. Two of Yurovsky's brothers were later captured by the Whites, but what became of Yurovsky himself Bulygin does not say. Sokolov's published report raised a storm among the Whites, because some of them still hoped the royal family were still alive somewhere, and because some were backing fakes. But Author Bulygin smiles bitterly at the hopes, laughs bitterly at the pretenders.
*But they might not recognize the existence of Ekaterinburg, whose name they changed to Sverdlovsk in honor of Jacob Sverdlov. chair-man of the Central Executive Committee, who arranged the executions.