The Cheka executioner who personally shot the last Tsar
I told Nicholas the Soviet of Workers' Deputies had resolved to shoot them. He asked 'What?' and turned toward Alexei — at that moment I shot him and killed him outright.
Born to a Jewish working-class family in Tomsk province, he trained as a watchmaker and joined the Bolsheviks in 1905. As commandant of Ipatiev House in July 1918, he personally directed the execution of Nicholas II and the Romanov family, shooting the Tsar with his Mauser pistol and overseeing the concealment and destruction of the bodies. After the Civil War he served as head of Yekaterinburg Gubernia Cheka and a Moscow district Cheka chief, then from 1921 headed the Gold Department of Gokhran, where he earned a reputation for fighting corruption. He ended his career as director of the Polytechnical Museum in Moscow and died of a perforated ulcer in 1938, shortly after his daughter Rimma was arrested as a Trotskyite during the Great Purge.
Career Timeline
- 1905Joined Bolsheviks in Tomsk
- 1912Arrested, exiled to Yekaterinburg; opened photography studio
- 1917Member of Yekaterinburg Soviet; deputy to Goloshchyokin in Military Dept
- 1918Commandant of Ipatiev House; led execution of Romanov family, 17 July
- 1918–1919Member of Moscow Cheka Collegium, head of district Cheka
- 1919Head of Yekaterinburg Gubernia Cheka
- 1921Chief of Gold Department, Gokhran (State Treasury)
- 1928–1933Director of Polytechnical Museum, Moscow
Related historical events
- 1905–1907The Revolution of 1905joined Bolsheviks
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionCommander of the Romanov family executionOn the night of 16-17 July 1918, as commandant of Ipatiev House, he personally directed the execution of Nicholas II and 11 members of the Romanov family, shooting the Tsar with his Mauser pistol, and oversaw the concealment and destruction of the bodies.