Life at the House of Special Purpose As soon as the Bolsheviks took over, life got progressively more difficult for the Romanov family.
Tserevich Alexei had seriously injured himself in Tobolsk. The Communists were unable to move Alexei, because he was in so much pain, so they were forced to separate the family. Alexandra, Nicholas, and their third child, Maria were sent to Yekaterinburg and waited a few weeks for Alexei and his three other sisters (Tatiana, Olga, and Anastasia). This caused extreme misery for the family, as every choice they'd made up until that point, for example Nicholas's decision to leave the throne to Grand Duke Michael, as opposed to Alexei, was made so that their family would not be separated. Upon arrival at the Ipatiev house, the gates were reportedly slammed behind Nicholas, and he was welcomed with a warm, "Citizen Nicholas Romanov, you may enter." |
The steamboat ride to Yekaterinburg was decidedly miserable for the children. They were escorted by Alexei's companion and protector, Klementy Nagorny. Alexei and Nagorny were locked in one cabin, and the girls in another. On the ship, a story goes that Nagorny heard the Grand Duchesses screaming at night, and went to investigate. However, he was accosted by their Bolshevik guards and was severely beat by them.
Despite the difficulties in their new lives, the Romanovs did their best to show humility and were grateful that they were together. At first, the ex-Imperial family were allowed to live in fairly good conditions, under Colonel Kobylinsky, who treated them with civility. However, when Kobylinsky was replaced by brutal Bolshevik Yurovsky, who showed no remorse when treating his charges like animals, their lives took a turn for the significantly worst. |
Punishment in the KitchenThe royal family, who'd always lived in rich and lavish conditions first saw the effects of their captivity on their table. All expensive foods were taken away from them, from the very beginning. However, as soon as the guards were changed, the family began seeing even more food taken off their table. Soon, they were losing more rudimentary parts of modern diet, for example, cream, milk, butter, sugar, and worst of all, coffee. Fortunately for the Romanovs, they coped well with their situation, taking everything in stride. The girls spent time with the cook, on of the several servants who'd been permitted to follow the family from Petrograd, learning to bake bread.
Mental AbuseThe guards at Yekaterinburg were not above mentally abusing their captives. They would go above and beyond to make sure that the Romanov family felt like prisoners. When the Grand Duchesses went to the outhouse, the soldiers would follow them, making lewd and suggestive comments. They painted the walls of the outhouse with graphic images of Rasputin and Czarina Alexandra. Indecent words and phrases were carved into the children's swing in the garden. Faya Safonov, one of the most offensive of the guards, would even climb a fence until he was eye level with Czarina Alexandra's window and sing inappropriate songs at her.
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RestrictedThe lives of the Romanovs were restricted in two main ways, first the rules that they were forced to live by, and second, their view was literally restricted by walls, which separated from the outside world. Two fences of wood logs and planks were built surrounding the Ipatiev house. They were built to be tall enough that one couldn't even see outside from the second floor. To further this separation from the world, the windows were painted black later on. The Ipatiev house quickly grew unbearably sweltering during the summer months (especially with the windows blacked out). This eventually induced a bored and hot Anastasia to open a window and lean out for fresh air. Immediately, as she slipped a little further out by accident, a bullet embedded itself in the wall where her head had been. To make the message clearer, the windows were later locked. This also led to the Romanov family being forcefully searched for the first time. The Communists feared a rescue attempt.
Of course, strict rules were implemented in order to keep the Czar's family in check. One of these was that they were only allowed five minutes outside per day. The Romanov family would make the best of this, running around outside and taking pictures, even carrying out the injured Alexei to enjoy the sunlight. The rest of the time was spent in the confines of the Ipatiev House. |
A Scandal at the House of Special Purpose
On June 27, the day after Maria, the third daughter's, birthday, a scandal broke in the Ipatiev House. Maria Nikolaevna, by most accounts considered to be the most flirtatious and attractive of the Romanov children was caught in a 'compromising position' (literally have no clue what that means, Mrs. Braun) with Bolshevik guard, Ivan Skorokhodov by commanders during an inspection. He'd apparently snuck a cake into the Ipatiev house the day before, for Maria's 19th birthday and a friendship between the two had been flowering into a romance in the heat and boredom of the House of Special Purpose.
After being discovered, Skorokhodov was sent to the city's prison. The entire guard was almost immediately switched out and replaced, because the authorities were afraid that there was an escape attempt being planned. Meanwhile, Maria faced punishment as well. Alexandra and her older sister, Olga, shunned her and refused to speak with her for the next few weeks. They felt that Maria had disgraced the family by sleeping with an enemy. Tragically, this punishment would continue until the execution of the family. Grand Dutchess Maria Nikolaevna |