Today – 23rd November – marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Nikolai Alekseevich Sokolov (1882-1924).
Sokolov, a lawyer, and investigator for important cases of the Omsk District Court, was appointed by Admiral Alexander Kolchak (1874-1920) in February 1919, with the investigation into the murder of members of the Russian Imperial Family in Ekaterinburg and Alapaevsk.
As a staunch Orthodox monarchist, Sokolov accepted his appointment as investigator with a deep sense of reverence and responsibility. Within a short time, working without rest from morning until late at night, Sokolov managed to collect a vast amount of material evidence and interviewed hundreds of witnesses, which included several members of Nicholas II’s entourage, notably Pierre Gilliard, Alexandra Tegleva and Charles Sydney Gibbes.
Sokolov discovered a large number of the Imperial Familys’ belongings and valuables that were overlooked by Yurovsky and his men in and around the mineshaft where the bodies were initially disposed of in the Four Brothers Mine.
The impending return of Bolshevik forces in July 1919, forced Sokolov to abandon his investigation, thus failing to find the concealed second burial site on the Koptyaki Road.
He evacuated Ekaterinburg, bringing with him the box containing the relics he recovered. Sokolov accumulated eight volumes of photographic and eyewitness accounts. Today, the box is stored in the Russian Orthodox Church of Saint Job in Brussels.
Sokolov fled from Russia to France, where he continued his investigation, questioning additional witnesses who had managed to escape Bolshevik Russia.
Sadly, Sokolov did not live to bring his investigation to an end – he was found dead in the garden of his house on 23rd November 1924, having suffered a heart attack at the age of 42. He died leaving a widow aged 23 and two young children, a daughter Nathalie (1920-2002) and a son Alexis (1923-1980). He is buried in the cemetery of Salbris, France.
“On Wednesday, November 26, he [Sokolov] was buried literally by the entire town of Salbris with the mayor at the head. It was not a crowd of curious spectators, but sympathetic Frenchmen who came dressed in mourning to pay their last respects to the deceased.
When, after the burial, the Russians thanked the mayor for the touching sympathies to their compatriot, the mayor replied that he, could not remember when the whole town turned out for a funeral for someone in Salbris, and that they, the French, had come to pay their last respects to the representative of the Russia that was their ally and friend.
Thus, in France, Russian émigrés, together with the French, saw off, the judicial investigator for especially important cases, Nikolai Alekseevich Sokolov, on his final journey, who died in a foreign land on 23rd November 1924.
Nikolai Alekseevich Sokolov (1882-1924).
Memory Eternal! Вечная Память! 
Click HERE to *watch a short 1-minute VIDEO of the event
*NOTE: for English subtitles, adjust the translation settings to the
language of your choice, and then click on the “CC” button – PG
On the morning of 23rd November 2024, a Divine Liturgy was performed by Metroplitan Evgeny (Eurgene) of Ekaterinburg and Verkhotursky in the Church of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers at the Monastery of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers at Ganina Yama. At the end of the Divine Liturgy, Metropolitan Evgeny performed a pannikhida [Orthodox memorial service for the dead].
During the service, prayers were lifted up for the ever-memorable servant of God Nikolai Alekseevich Sokolov, investigator in the case of the murder of the Imperial Family.
After the service for the departed, Vladyka Evgeny, along with the pastors, brethren and laity proceeded to the place where a pedestal and bronze bust of Nikolai Sokolov was installed last month to mark the 100th anniversary of the investigator’s death in 1924.
The bust-monument is located to the right of the RChurch of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers, near the entrance to the gallery which encircles the Four Brothers mine (collapsed), where the regicides threw the bodies of the Imperial family and their four retainers into the mine.
PHOTO: Metroplitan Evgeny (Eurgene) of Ekaterinburg and Verkhotursky performs a pannikhida [Orthodox memorial service for the dead], on 23rd November 2024
PHOTO: Metroplitan Evgeny (Eurgene) of Ekaterinburg and Verkhotursky with the sculptor Vladimir Vladimirovich Syreyshchikov, the General Director of Iriston PFC Raisa Soslanovna Kokoeva, and Andrey Viktorovich Zhukov Director of the Orthodox Christian Good Deeds Public Movement.
FURTHER READING:
© Paul Gilbert. 23 November 2024
Nicholas II 
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