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Detective in Russian imperial family execution case deliberately conceals real burial place outside Yekaterinburg - expert

Nikolai Sokolov sacrificed his reputation of detective to save the remains of the emperor and his family

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

WASHINGTON, July 17 (Itar-Tass) - The detective in the execution case of the Russian Imperial Family Nikolai Sokolov was aware of a real burial place of Emperor Nicholas II and his relatives back in 1919, but he concealed it to save it from the full destruction by the Bolsheviks, U.S. engineer Alexei Zakharyin, who participated in the identification procedure of the human remains found outside Yekaterinburg, told Itar-Tass on the eve of the 85th anniversary of the execution of the members of the Russian Imperial Family that is marked on Wednesday, July 17.

In his famous book “The Murder of Russia’s Imperial Family” Sokolov wrote that the bodies of the Romanovs and their servants were burnt down in an open pit in the area of Ganina Yama, Zakharyin said. The modern idea that the detective was sure of the truth of this version resulted in the situation that a wooden cross was placed particularly at this place in 1991 and then a magnificent monastery was built there, Zakharyin noted.

However, he noted that Sokolov almost did not write about Ganina Yama in his book, but describes in detail and even makes public the photo of Porosenkov Log, where finally two burial places were found in modern times. In 2008 the laboratories in Austria, the United States and Russia confirmed that the human remains found in these burial places belong to the members of the Romanov family and their servants. Zakharyin was participating in the survey, which was conducted at one of the most modern world laboratories of the U.S. Land Forces in the city Rockville, Maryland.

Sokolov sacrificed his reputation of detective to save the remains of the emperor and his family. He knew where exactly they are buried, but decided to keep silence. Before the offensive operation of the Red Army he just managed to bring out of Russia a small suitcase with the material evidence, but he failed to hide 11 bodies in such conditions. Moreover, he calmed down the Bolsheviks by his publication and thus saved the relics of the saint royal martyrs from full destruction, Zakharyin said with confidence.

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