The Files That Escaped Russia

Name: The Files That Escaped Russia
Genre: Documentary

As Soviet silence closes over the murders, copies of the Romanov investigation travel abroad and become the foundation of a forbidden history.

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Transcript

A set of Romanov murder files left Russia while Soviet silence closed in.
The family was executed in the early hours of July 17th, 1918.
Soon after the murders, the first murder inquiry began in Ekaterinburg.
Within days, Admiral Alexander Kolchak's White Army entered Ekaterinburg.
On July 30th, 1918, Kolchak ordered a murder investigation.
He removed forensic materials from the inept original investigators.
February 6th, 1919, Kolchak gave the case to Nikolai Sokolov.
Sokolov questioned witnesses, gathered photos, built eight evidence volumes.
Sokolov transported a set of documents through Vladivostok to Paris.
Sokolov's posthumous book on the family's fate appeared in 1925.
In 1920, George Tellberg published The Last Days of the Romanovs.
George Tellberg deposited Sokolov's documents at the Library of Congress in 1953.
In 1954, he donated more Romanov materials to the Law Library.
Seven of Sokolov's original eight volumes are held at Harvard University.
The Soviet government refused to reveal Nicholas and his family's fate.
That silence produced popular stories that one or more children had survived.
Maria told Gibbes she would happily stay in Tobolsk forever. I would happily stay in Tobolsk forever.
Anna Anderson claimed for many years to be Anastasia.

Soviet silence created the perfect opening for a stranger to declare that Anastasia had survived.

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