On 4th November 2023, ‘The Romanovs. The Final Word‘, a new Russian-language documentary series premiered on the Russian YouTube channel ‘Premier’, who have also released a trailer for the documentary – see below. .

The 5-part series – produced and narrated by Sergei Minaev – records the last months of the Imperial Family, while they were under house arrest at the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg.

What is different about this documentary, is that the fate of Russia’s last Tsar, his family and four faithful retainers, is told by their killers, notably by Mikhail Aleksandrovich Medvedev (Kudrin) (1891-1964), a devout Bolshevik and one of the executioners of the Imperial Family.

Kudrin died on 13th January 1964, he was buried with military honours at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. In his will, he asked his son Mikhail to give Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) the Browning pistol with which he alleges he had killed the Tsar with. It was following his death, that Krushchev ordered Kusrin’s son Mikhail Mikhailovich Medvedev, to carry out an investigation to the Tsar’s murder.

PHOTO: Mikhail Aleksandrovich Medvedev (Kudrin) (1891-1964)

Not only did Mikhail research his father’s diaries, letters, documents and photographs, he also searched for his father’s old friends to interview. Mikhail attempts to reconstruct the events of the murders of the Imperial Family, through the stories of witnesses and participants in the regicide at Ekaterinburg in 1918. Many testimonies and materials of the investigation are now being made public for the first time. The producers of the documentary series claim that the audio recordings of these interviews were kept secret for decades.

The documentary reconstructs the events of 1918, including the final months of the life of Nicholas II, his family and their retainers during their house arrest in Ekaterinburg, the details of the execution and attempts to hide the bodies. Some scenes were recreated – using actors – from the memories of eyewitnesses in order to show viewers the most reliable picture of the events.

NOTE: the 5-part series is available to view on a pay-per-view only. The current economic sanctions imposed by the West on Russia, make impossible to use a credit card for payment. Should the entire series be made available to view online for free at some point in the future, I will update this article – PG

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WATCH THE TRAILER

CLICK on the PHOTO above to watch the trailer for ‘The Romanovs. The Final Word’
Language: Russian. Duration: 2 minutes

NOTE:  the trailer above is in Russian, however, do not allow that to stop you from watching the trailer. You can still follow the gist of the audio in English, by doing the following:

[1] click on the red arrow in the YouTube image above

[2] turn on Google Translator, which will translate the text only

[3] click on the close captioning option [CC] option, located in the banner at the bottom of the video

[4] click START

The closed captioning will appear in English on the video, allowing you a better understanding of the people, places and events presented in the trailer.

FURTHER READING:

“The Romanovs. The Final Word” viewed more than 1 million times!

Watch all 5 episodes of ‘The Romanovs. The Final Word’ + VIDEO

© Paul Gilbert. 25 November 2023