“I started reading... It was a shock: the whole monstrous night of July 17, the execution, the two-day fuss with the corpses was described in detail and dispassionately... The apocalypse recorded by an eyewitness! The document was not signed, but one of the typewritten copies was corrected by hand. And at the end of the document (also by hand) a terrible address was added - the grave site where, after the execution, the corpses of the Royal Family were secretly buried...” A unique art-historical study of the life of the last Russian Tsar is based on rare, previously unpublished archival documents. The book includes excerpts from the diaries of Nicholas and members of his family, correspondence between the Tsar and Tsarina, reports of ministers and military leaders, diplomatic mail and intelligence reports. The last months of the life of the royal family and the circumstances of its death are described day by day, and the night of the murder - almost minute by minute. The fates of the participants in the tragedy are thoroughly traced: the king’s relatives, his retinue, those who gave the order for the murder, and the direct perpetrators.