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.
Activities and affiliations
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
- 1917.12–1918.11Brest-Litovsk and Germany’s eastern occupationUral Soviet member rejecting the peaceAfter the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was concluded, he rejected the central government's decision and proclaimed revolutionary war against Germany.
- 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.
The Ural Soviet's Independent Course and the Coercive Apparatus (1918)
In the first half of 1918 the Bolshevik leadership in Yekaterinburg pursued a course of its own that brought it into conflict with the central government, and Yurovsky stood at the centre of it. In 1917 he had become deputy to Goloshchyokin, who headed the Military Department set up under the Ural Soviet. In a 1934 reminiscence Yurovsky stated that Sverdlov had prepared an alternative base in the Urals in case the revolution failed in Petrograd, and that for this purpose weapons were seized from railway trains heading for the front and used to arm workers. The Ural Soviet transferred factory administrations to workers' committees and nationalized the banks; when the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was concluded, it declared that it did not recognize the central government's decision and proclaimed a revolutionary war against Germany.
In this period Yurovsky was a member of the Ural Regional Cheka collegium and chairman of the investigative commission of the Revolutionary Tribunal. With Khokhryakov he led Red Guard detachments through the houses of the wealthy, requisitioning valuables in the name of funding the war against Germany; the goods were gathered at the national bank and handed over to Voykov, the commissar of the State Bank.
The removal of the Urals valuables provoked fierce opposition among Yekaterinburg workers. At the Verkh-Isetsk plant a meeting opened under the slogans "Down with the commissars!" and "Long live the Constituent Assembly!", demanding the return of the valuables, the release of hostages and the disbanding of the Red Guard. Goloshchyokin and Yurovsky arrived with Red Guard detachments and machine guns and broke it up. According to Alexander Medvedev's testimony, the participants were unarmed and could not respond. A specially constituted revolutionary tribunal handled the affair, with Yurovsky as a member and chairman of its investigative commission. Yurovsky himself did not report the number of victims.
This phase shows that before he became commandant of Ipatiev House he was already the man effectively running the Urals' coercive apparatus. The execution was not an isolated act but a continuation of a practical career formed in the tension between central party discipline and local Soviet power.