PHOTO: Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna
and their daughter Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna
On this day – 26th (O.S. 13th) April 1918 – Emperor Nicholas II along with members of his family were transferred from Tobolsk to Ekaterinburg. It was on this day, that they embarked on their final journey to Golgotha.
Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, along with their daughter Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna departed Tobolsk for Ekaterinburg. They were accompanied by several members of their retinue: Prince Vasily Aleksandrovich Dolgorukov (1868-1918), Dr. Eugene Botkin (1865-1918), Anna Demidova (1878-1918), Terenty Chemodurov (1849-1919), and Ivan Sednev (1881-1918). All but one of their faithful retainers would survive the dreadful fate which awaited them.
In the early morning hours of 26th (O.S. 13th) April 1918 they departed Tobolsk under the escort of Vasily Yakovlev’s detachment, which comprised of a convoy of nineteen tarantasses (four-wheeled carriages). Yakovlev was acting on order from the Bolshevik leadership to “deliver Nicholas II to the red capital of the Urals” – Ekaterinburg.
PHOTO: A very sad photo . . . the tarantasses which transported Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna from Tobolsk to Tyumen, and then by train to Ekaterinburg. This photo was hastily shot by Charles Sydney Gibbes from the window of the Governor’s Mansion on the morning of 26th (O.S. 13th) April 1918.
As Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich was very ill, he remained in Tobolsk, with his three sisters Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia, as well as Pierre Gilliard, Charles Sydney Gibbes and other members of the family’s retinue. They reunited with their parents and sister in Ekaterinburg the following month.
Nicholas II wrote the following entry in his diary that day: “At 4 o’clock in the morning we said goodbye to our dear children and climbed into the tarantases. The weather was cold, with an unpleasant wind, the road was very rough with terrible jolts from a seized-up wheel.”
FURTHER READING:
© Paul Gilbert. 26 April 2024 [updated on 26 April 2025]
Nicholas II 
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