After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal - Final Days of the Romanovs (Part 2)

Episode Date: February 6, 2025

(2/2) We join the captive Romanovs as they are moved from The Alexander Palace to Siberia and then to Ekaterinburg, where their dreadful murder awaits them. It's a story that still has the power to shock us. Guiding us through is returning guest Helen Rappaport, author of "Ekaterinburg: The Last Days of the Romanovs".Edited by Freddy Chick. Produced by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

Hi, we're your hosts, Anthony Delaney and Maddie Pelling. And if you would like after dark myths, misdeeds and the paranormal ad free and get early access, sign up to History Hit. With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries with top history presenters and enjoy a new release every week. Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com forward slash subscribe. Wealthsimple's Big Winter Bundle is our best match offer yet. Get a 2% match when you transfer over an eligible RRSP.

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Learn more at Wealthsimple.com slash match. It's 1998 and petty thief Daniel Blanchard is about to carry out the heist of a lifetime, stealing a crown jewel, the last remaining Cece star. But what happens when ambition becomes obsession? Because what Daniel doesn't know is that no star stays lucky forever. I'm Ceren Jones, and this is a most audacious heist. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi there, it's Maddie. I'm just jumping in to let you know that this episode contains

some sensitive content. So if that's not for you, check out our back catalogue of amazing episodes. And if you're sticking with us, enjoy. and if you're sticking with us, enjoy. We join the Romanov family as they leave Alexander Palace on the 1st of August 1917. Having had only a couple of days of warning, the seven Romanovs and their skeleton staff, including Alexandra's lady-in-waiting and the loyal family doctor, carry their bags from the wing in which they have been confined and converge in the semi-circular hall. Bright and airy, with walls covered in smooth, white artificial marble, this is a room filled with memories. It is here, and in the portrait

and billiard halls through archways on either side, that in generations past, the Romanov family have welcomed guests for gala dinners, balls and receptions. In the portrait hall, guests would feast on cold hors d'oeuvres, bread, cheese and cold cuts, all washed down with French champagne and vodka. Next, the guests would flood into the semicircular hall, tables adorned with silver ornaments and set for 10 or 20 guests would be placed around the hall, seating four or five hundred in total. There would be a plate for each of the seven courses and a menu listing the food to come, fish, soup, fowl, salad, entree, roast, dessert, then sweets.

Servers would flit around, observing Russian court etiquette, in which a meal never lasts more than an hour. Seasoned guests were careful never to place their cutlery down before finishing a course lest their plate be whisked away. This room would buzz and glisten with life on those nights. For the young Romanov family, this has become less a space for entertaining the masses, and more one of domesticity. As Nicholas, Alexandra and their children made this their home, the semi-circular hall was often a playground, indoor slides and toy cars prompting happy squeals of enjoyment

that would reverberate around the high ceiling. And then there were Sundays, when the family would sit, the servants behind them, to watch a silent movie or a slideshow projected onto the wall through a square hole. Quieter evenings, definitely, but moments cherished by all. During the summer the double doors to the park at the front of the palace were often flung open. One could look through them for a clear view of the wide expanse of formal gardens. It's these doors that the family proceed through now, once again open, this time in

much more reserved circumstances. Weighed down with bags, dogs at their heels, together they step through the grand marble columns of the doorframe and take one more glance at the high ceilings of their family home, to which they will never return. INTRO MUSIC Hello and welcome back to After Dark. My name is Anthony. And I'm Maddie. And we are once again so lucky to be joined by historian Helen Rappaport, who is going

to take us through the final few months of the final Imperial family of Russia. Now, in the first episode, which if you haven't listened to, I would suggest that you go back and listen to that now. We left the royal family at the Alexander Palace and they were about to leave and Helen was just about to take us on that journey. And it's that journey that we're going to talk about now. So Helen, we'll get right into it because I know people will be eager to know what happens next. But we see a move again, don't we? The family are moved again and this time they're moved from the Alexander Palace.

Yes, the family were moved to a place called Tobolsk in Siberia. It's a very good choice actually because in winter it was completely locked in by snow and ice and pretty much inaccessible. So they were taken to Tobolsk to a place that was pretty much the only ground, well not ground house, but substantial house in the town called the governor's house. And they were incarcerated, well not exactly incarcerated, they were put under house arrest there, but at least the house had a sort of large area outside where they could walk and build a snow mountain actually during the winter. The children played out and pulled a sledge around. So they had some space to exercise but they didn't have all the gardens and trees and the beautiful park that they'd had at the Alexander Palace. And the house was okay. I

mean they crammed in there with the few retainers they were able to take with them. But the house was perishingly cold. And you see in the girls' letters to their friends, they talk about how desperately freezing cold the place was through that winter. And so they suffered the privations of everyone else. They were all on food rations and their life was very pared down. But it's interesting to go back to what I said earlier about their ability to be contented with very little was that Maria actually said at one point, the third daughter Maria, she said they were very contented, they were very happy at Taborysk, they were safe, they were with each other and they would have been happy to carry on living in exile there if they had been allowed to.

Yes, in episode one we spoke about their life under surveillance, under the guardianship of the soldiers who were keeping them there, and that they had certain routines and certain privileges, albeit under this constant threat and watchfulness. And here again, Helen, we see the family fall back on their religious faith. But also you mentioned there that the girls were still writing to their friends. I assume that those letters would have been opened and read by the people guarding them. But there is some level of freedom within this prison, isn't there? I mean, yes, certainly. All the time they were at Tobolsk, they were still able to write and send letters, receive letters, very occasional parcels of food and gifts from friends elsewhere in Russia. But the minute

the Bolsheviks seized power in October 1917, the whole regime got much more strict because different guards were sent out and they were much more intimidating. The family were really kind of closed in on themselves and there was less and less freedom as time went on there. So Helen, just give me a little bit of background there because we have this initial revolution and the Tsar, as we heard in episode one, abdicates. He abdicates on behalf of his son as well. That power structure is no longer in place. But in October 1917, there is what is now known as the

October Revolution and the Bolsheviks do take control. So how many different factions are there? What's going on in Russia and why do the Bolsheviks prevail over other people? The Bolsheviks effect, I don't really like to call October a revolution. It wasn't. It was a coup. The provisional government had fallen apart. a lot to do with the distractions of trying to keep Russia in the war. It was an absolute nightmare trying to keep Russia in the war. By the time October, there was so much disorganisation, disagreement, inefficiency within the provisional government that it was dying a natural death.

When it came to the actual takeover by the Bolsheviks, they literally walked into the Winter Palace. Forget about the film Battleship Potemkin. That's a nonsense. They didn't storm the palace. The Bolsheviks strolled in and proceeded, you know, a lot of the revolutionaries then proceeded to go down to the wine cellars and get very drunk. The Bolsheviks were canny, they were quick, they seized power. But it was very tenuous power for quite a long time. And the problem for the Bolsheviks having seized power

is what on earth were they gonna do with the Romanovs? They didn't want to allow them out of Russia because the big fear for Lenin's government, of course, was if they allowed any of the Romanov family out of Russia, they could become a rallying point for a counterrevolution. And in fact, that's what's happened because there was already counterrevolution and civil war brewing in Russia, even with them in captivity, because the forces known as the Whites were uniting with other fractions and splinter groups, fighting the Bolsheviks, particularly in

Siberia. So what happened out at Tobolsk was things got increasingly dangerous, even keeping the Romanovs out at Tobolsk, because revolutionaries were vying to take control of the family. They had become political pawns. And the big turning point came in the new year of 1918. The Bolsheviks pulled Russia out of the war. They made the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Germans, pulled Russia out of the war. And Nicholas and Alexandra were both absolutely devastated by that because Nicholas felt his decision to abdicate had been totally betrayed and he was right. He should not have abdicated because he abdicated for the sake of Russia, hoping it would unite Russia in the war effort and it didn't. And now the Bolsheviks had made this awful political compromise and the worst of it was people behind the scenes were saying, oh well the Kaiser will get them out,

you know the Kaiser will see this out safety. And Nicholas and Alexandra both had said categorically to people who were eyewitnesses at Tobolos, they would rather die than be saved by the Germans. So they sealed their own fate really then because they would not leave Russia now, even if they were given the opportunity to do so. You said earlier Helen that the Romanovs became a focal point for people who may have been against the Bolsheviks and you said that they were wondering what to do with them well the answer comes really in that they moved them that becomes one of the things they move them yet again and this constant instability at this point now really must be shaping the experiences of the family more and more i have a two part two point question for this really the first being what was. Two point question for this really, the first being what was this move all about? Where did they go and what was it like for them?

But more importantly, you have done an awful lot of research specifically on this next part of their lives, haven't you? And I just love to know from your perspective as a historian, what was it about this part of this big moment in time that drew you to this specific place? this big moment in time that drew you to this specific place? It's very interesting. When it was first suggested to me that I write about the Romanos being a Russian specialist, I kind of wince and said, oh no, I'm not interested in all the bling and palaces and stuff. It was suggested I should look at the very end of their story. Because I have quite a visual imagination, when I write my books, I do concentrate on narrative and imagery and quite a cinematic view of a story. When I looked at the end of the Romanoff story, I realized when I looked at what material was available, that the last two weeks

of their lives were an incredibly tense countdown to their murders. And that's why I decided to write my first book about them and called it Ekaterinburg, which was about their time, the last two weeks in the party of House of Ekaterinburg. Because the minute the Bolshevik government realized things were getting too hairy in Tobolsk, they decided they're going to have to move them to an even more entrenched position of control. And this is when they decided to move them to Akashenberg, which is a place at a big junction of the railways in Siberia. It was also a heavily industrialized area, absolutely swarming with Red Guards, with committed hardline Bolsheviks. So they moved the family to a place called the Apartheid

House. It had been requisitioned by the Bolsheviks, a very short notice. And they moved the family there and the guard was provided by volunteers, eager Bolshevik volunteers from the local factories and elsewhere, some soldiers as well, but mainly Bolshevik soldiers, but mainly volunteers who thought it was an honor to guard Nicholas the Bloody, you know, the horrible blood-stained czar. And what is so ominous about the family's arrival at Ekaterinburg was, first of all, the minute they walked through the door, the commandant told them, you are now entering a prison. No more special privileges, no more, you know, none of the things they'd been able to enjoy at Tobolsk and Friar to that that at Alexander Palace. This was a prison regime, no visitors,

no mail in or out, no parcels, no nothing, total, total isolation from the outside world. And to make it worse, the most frightening and symbolic thing about that imprisonment was that the Bolsheviks erected a double high palisade, a wooden palisade around the house, which meant that the outside one was guarded, in between the two was guarded, and then inside the second palisade was guarded. It was an absolute fortress prison. I'm looking at a photo of it now, actually, front of me and it's a photo that is taken from outside of the house at a few paces and you can see that woollen wooden balustrade all the way around and you can see just a hint of the house behind you can see the roof and some of the sort of architectural details there maybe some top windows.

But they can see outside the windows, they painted the windows with whitewash so the family could not even see out of them. And through the heat of the summer during July when it was stifling in the house, they begged them to allow just one, because the windows were sealed, to allow a little top window open here and there to get some fresh air in. So it was an incredibly oppressive situation to be in. They could hear what was going on outside. They could probably hear the distant gunfire from fighting because white and counter-revolutionary forces were approaching Yekaterinburg along the Trans-Siberian Railroad. They could hear the coming and going of military equipment, of rattling artillery, you name it. It must have been very frightening, but they couldn't see and they couldn't speak to anyone or write to anyone

to find out what was going on in the outside world. Let's focus for a second on the relationship in that space then, in that incredibly paired back prison space that the family now find themselves in between the Roanob's themselves and the guards. As you mentioned, the guards are mostly volunteers from the local factories. These are people who have lived in, I suppose, relative poverty. They're now part of this huge movement. Russia, as they know it in their lifetimes, has completely changed. movement, Russia as they know it in their lifetimes has completely changed. And we spoke in episode one about the mysticism around the royal family, that they were elevated, that they were deemed unearthly in some way and separate from everyone else. And of course that has been completely broken down and eradicated now. So what must it have felt like for those volunteer guards to stand

in the presence of these people? Did they see them just as people to be hated and reviled? Or do you think there was some element of that mysticism, that imagined difference that still endured in that space? Did they see them as separate from themselves? One of the things that was said by several of the young, and a lot of them were very young men, late teens, early twenties, young guards, is they were taken aback about how ordinary and relatable the family were. The girls were lovely. They chatted to them, they showed them their photograph albums, they asked them about their families. Even Yurovsky, the man, the commandant who

organized the murders of the family in the house said, well Nicholas was actually quite a decent chap really. If he hadn't been czar I wouldn't have wanted to kill him. This is the ghastliness of it all. They were an ordinary decent loving family. In any situation, those guys probably would not have wanted or even thought about murdering them. And how any of them could have killed the children is beyond belief, really, because they were lovely children. They engaged, well, the older two less so, but Maria and Anastasia and Alex did engage with the soldiers and chat to them insofar as they were able. You know, it's the thing you've heard of, of Stockholm syndrome.

When people are kept captive in close proximity with their captors, they often develop relationships and the girls did become quite, you know, friendly with the soldiers and chatted to them. So there wasn't this awful hostility from on the part of all their guards. Some of them were very anti and aggressive, but some were quite sympathetic to the Romanovs. So what's very clear there is you mentioned the word murder, Helen. So we know that this and probably people know anyway, this isn't going to end well.

So how do we get to the point where we are moving the Romanovs quite consistently to the point where death seems to be, their murder seems to be the only way to dispose of them in any kind of meaningful way? How do we get to that point? Well, first of all, can I say it's very importantly we use the word murder. How do we get to that point? Well, first of all, can I say it's very important that we use the word murder? I get really annoyed by references to the execution of the Romanovs. They were not executed.

They were not put on trial. They were not formally condemned. We have to face the fact this was a brutal and terrifying murder. So, that's the most important thing to bear in mind. In terms of what to do with them, it rapidly became clear to Lenin's government, they only held onto the family

for as long as they thought they might be useful to them in some kind of bargaining power with the Germans, but they'd done the deal with the Germans and, you know, with Brest-Litovsk. And there was a big meeting in the Central Committee in Moscow in late June of 1918, where Lenin and his cohorts basically decided, because of the situation with the the violent civil war and the approaching anti-Bolshevik forces.

They were heading for Ekaterinburg. They knew Ekaterinburg was going to fall. Now, what were they going to do? Were they going to sit and wait for the whites to rescue them or try and get them out? No. So, it was basically agreed that when the time came, Lenin effectively rubber-stamped permission for the local Ekaterinbo Bolsheviks to do away with the family because they were no longer of any use to them, but they did not want them to fall into counter-revolutionary hands. This was really important because they could have been used as a rallying point to fight back against the Bolsheviks. So it was basically decided that when the counter-revolution was at the gates of the Gajrnberg, they would kill the family. Wealthsimple's Big Winter Bundle is our best match offer yet.

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Additional terms apply. Learn more at Wealthsimple.com slash match. Where can I get help hiring people with disabilities? There are hundreds of thousands of Canadians with disabilities who are ready to work, and many local organizations are available to help you find qualified candidates and make your workplace more accessible and inclusive. Visit Canada.ca slash right here to connect with one near you today. A message from the Government of Canada. Hi, I'm Matt Lewis, host of Echoes of History, the podcast that plunges you into the ranks of the Knights Templar across ancient Egypt

and behind the barricades of history's great revolutions to explore the worlds recreated in Assassin's Creed. In our new series Chasing Shadows, we're in feudal Japan alongside Samurai warlords and shinobi spies. Whether you're gearing up for Assassin's Creed Shadows or captivated by Japan's rich history, this podcast brought to you by Ubisoft and HistoryHit is a must listen. Chasing Shadows is out now on the Echoes of History podcast. So Helen, this decision is made to murder the family. As you say, it's not an execution. It is a decision to murder them. Can you tell us what happens on that night, blow by blow, because it is, it's remarkable when we think about the chaos of Russia at this moment and all these complex

political machinations going on and these big shifts taking place. And then we have this house with this ordinary relatable family inside as they appear now to people. And they're about to meet their end. So how does that night begin? What takes place? Well, there were just, I have to say, prior to that, there were discussions rather almost, sometimes reading about them, it's almost like black comedy. It's so hideous, you know, Yurovsky and his cohorts went out to the forest to recce for a location to dump the bodies. And then about two nights before, when they knew they were going to kill them, Yurowski had to decide how. And they were having these absurd discussions

about going into their rooms in the dead of night and dropping hand grenades on them or stabbing them and all these ridiculous discussions. And then eventually, while Yurowski decided it had to be handguns. So the night before they decided to kill them, he issued the handguns. Now, the only trouble is that some of the men

he issued the handguns to, they were old issue army Nagants, Russian army Nagants. They had one or two Colts and the odd better functioning gun. But as such, some of the men given guns to shoot with were not practice killers by any means. They had no practice with those particular guns, they had had no experience in how you kill several people in a crowded basement room in the dark or semi darkness. So the whole thing was a

monumentally hideous, shambolic, gruesome mess. They did not kill the family efficiently. And one of the most interesting things was I met up, I specially sought out, it took a lot of difficulty to find him, but I sought out a ballistics forensics expert who was an expert witness on court cases. So he'd done a lot of work with the use of guns and, you know, ballistics. And he talked me through how you kill people with guns and what happens when you crowd people into a room with killers who aren't very experienced. And it was very interesting because he explained to me how easy it is once this

chaos and smoke and screaming and people running around, how easy it is to miss and botch the killings, which is why he said efficient assassins should have killed them in about 20 seconds. Instead, it took 20 minutes to finish the family off because the killers missed, they had to bayonet the girls. I mean, the only people who had a quick death really were Nicholas and Alexandra because the minute the guy gave the order,

Yurowski gave the order to shoot, all the killers wanted to claim that they shot the Tsar so they all killed Nicholas, you know, they all fired at Nicholas. So it was a hideous, hideous mess, the whole thing. I've sort of lost for words. I mean, it's so, as you say, Helen, gruesome and tragic and horrifying. Did the family themselves know that this was happening? Because we know that they were in their bedrooms in the house, that they were told in the night to get dressed, and they were then sent to the basement.

Do you think at that point they knew what was happening? Did they simply think they were being moved again? Well, this is a really big moot point, you know, the $64,000 question as they say. I think fundamentally Nicholas knew his head was on the block and sooner or later retribution was coming down the line to him. And I suspect Alexander too thought that she and her husband would be killed, or even if they took Nicholas away to kill him, she would want to share his fate. No one ever thought they would kill the children. And when that night they sent them down, remember they had been moved before, summarily told, you know, you're going out to Tobolsk and, you know, that they

had been in a captive situation for a year now, over a year. So when they were taken down to the basement room, they were told they had to go there for their safety. There was gunfire and fighting. This is the Czechs army, remnants of the Czechs coming back through with the white Russians, were approaching Akatsenberg and they took them down there for their safety and said, we're going to bring trucks and we're going to move you somewhere else. So initially, they were, you know, they complied very meekly, very quietly, did as they were told, went down. I don't think they had any information that their moment had come. Nicholas had always been told that he would

be put on a train and taken back to Moscow for a big show trial because that's what Trotsky wanted and was planning. So he would never have expected being summarily killed like that. So I don't think in that sense they knew the moment had come until it actually came. But one of the elder girls in particular, Olga, was very melancholic and had been quite ill, thin, anorexic, full of gloom and despair and apprehension that something was going to happen to her parents. She feared for her beloved father, yes. But I don't think she really vocalised it. I think if any of them feared, I don't think they vocalised it to each other. Certainly Nicholas and Alexandra would not have wanted to frighten their children. But I think in his heart, Nicholas knew it was the end for him sooner or later. So they were taken down to this room and in comes Yurovsky with a piece of paper and says,

you're going to be shot. Boom, boom. The people's revolution have decided. And bang, then the killing started. It is, as you say, Helen, and you paint such a clear picture of what it might have been like down there at that time and the confusion. I mean, I remember hearing that during my undergrad days, but I'd forgotten in the interim. And just for that chaos that ensued for those 20 minutes, so easy to forget how long that must have felt to the family, especially the family

weren't necessarily killed immediately. But as we know, killed they all were. And their loyal servants, particularly the devoted family doctor, Dr. Boykin, and the three servants, Troup, the footman, Kharitonov the cook, and Anna Demidova, the chambermaid, because they had voluntarily gone with the family to share their fate, as had other members of the entourage who had been with them in in Tobois and before that Alexander Pallas but of course each time we were moved the entourage was shrunk down. But those people shared their fate and their martyrdom as such. One of the things, the details that for me encapsulates this moment where the brutality

of the revolution and the now lost grandeur of the life the Romanovs have enjoyed comes together is in the fact that a lot of the family had gems and jewels sewn into their clothing, I think I'm right in saying. That was their insurance policy. Yes. Now it's often said that these jewels prolonged their deaths by protecting their bodies. Is there any truth to that? The bullets bounced off the jewels in their corsets. The bullets did not bounce off them. First of all, they didn't wear corsets. They were like loose fitting camisoles where all through the winter in Tabor, the girls and their mother had sat sewing the jewels and

necklaces and sundry pearls, whatever it was, they had brought out of the Alexander Palace with them because they knew if ever they were allowed to go into exile, that was the only currency they had. So they disguised jewels behind buttons in hats, they hid them in their skirts, they sewed things into their camisoles, they even made a camisole for Alex A to wear. He had jewels concealed in his hat. They sewed things into their camisoles. They even made a camisole for Alex A to wear. He had jewels concealed in his hat. They did not bounce off them. The reason that the children were not killed quickly was that the killers were incompetent. They couldn't shoot straight and the room was full of smoke and dust and dirt and people

screaming. That's why they had to finish them off with bayonets. Let's take us to the removal of the bodies then, Helen. What happens there? So they murdered the family. The room is running with blood. They have the seven members of the family and three retainers and their doctor, all those corpses to move. They shoved them,

crammed them in a little rickety fiat lorry and took them nine miles out into the Kopchaki forest to this place. They thought they were going to dump the bodies. They thought it was a mine shaft and they didn't, blinking well, bother to check properly. It was just a mine working, quite a shallow mine working. They threw the bodies in there and then they go back to Katschenberg and Yurovsky, the commandant, realizes all the local peasants are going to come and find the bodies in five minutes and they'll be holy relics. So the next night he goes back and they dig out the bodies from this shallow area and move them about half a mile down the road to where they actually did bury most of the family in, again, quite a shallow grave under a crude road through

the forest and covered it with old railway sleepers. That's the site that was found by Gili Ryabov, what in the late 70s actually, but they had to keep quiet about it. But when they took the bodies there to bury them, they thought they were going to be able to destroy the bodies with sulfuric acid or burning. I mean, again, total incompetence and lack of planning. So what Yurovsky said was,

we'll take aside two of the children, which were Maria and Alexei, and try and burn their bodies. And that's why when the site was excavated, finally, after the fall of communism, the early 90s, there were two corpses missing. Because the bodies of Alexei and Maria were moved a few yards away and they tried to incinerate them, not very successfully. And those were the bodies that were found in 2007. Well, that, as you say, brings us up to 2007, where we began at the start of episode one. So I think it's probably a very good place to finish. But before we go, Helen, I'd like

to know what it was like being, I know you weren't necessarily in the forest, but what it was like being on the ground there in Russia when that discovery was being made. Was this something that was seen as culturally important? Were people aware that this was history in the making or was it widespread when you were there? Well, all I knew when I was actually there doing the research, and of course I deliberately went to Katarimburg for the July Days. That's where they celebrate, or commemorate rather, the anniversary of the Romanov murders in Katarimburg every year with an enormous all-night vigil, massive ceremonial church service, so huge that you can't get everyone in the church and they're all

pouring out of the doors and down the grassy banks all around. I was there for the all-night vigil and I did hear a rumor that they had been digging in the forest but that's all I knew at the time. But Katernberg, since the fall of communism, had become this incredible place of pilgrimage and commemoration where the Brahmanovs were remembered and commemorated every July the 16th stroke 17th that night. And it's an extraordinary experience to go there and stand with the pilgrims. And in 2018, I had hoped to go, but wasn't able to for the 100th anniversary. But I watched the live video of the ceremony that night. I think there was something like 200,000 people were there.

It was astonishing. And so that has become this very emotive place of pilgrimage, of coming together to remember and celebrate and revere the Romanovs because they are very much part of the fabric of Russian Orthodoxy now. Well I think that is the perfect place to leave this two-part episode on the last days, the final days of The Romanovs with Helen Rappaport. As we've been speaking to you across both of these episodes,

Helen, of course, as we've said, is the author of several books on this period. If you have enjoyed listening to this two part, then go and check out our other final days episodes, you can find the final days of Anne Boleyn in there. Leave us a five star review wherever you get your podcasts. It helps other people to discover us. And until next time, happy listening. Get a 2% match when you transfer over an eligible RRSP. For a $50,000 transfer, that's a $1,000 cash bonus. Enough to buy a fancy parka. A ticket to somewhere you don't need a fancy parka.

Or just be responsible and top up your retirement fund. Plus, move any other eligible account and we'll give you a 1% match. Minimum $15,000 transfer. Register by March 15th. Additional terms apply. Learn more at Wealthsimple.com slash match. It's 1998 and petty thief Daniel Blanchard is about to carry out the heist of a lifetime,

stealing a crown jewel, the last remaining CC star. But what happens when ambition becomes obsession? Because what Daniel doesn't know is that no star stays lucky forever. I'm Saren Jones, and this is a most audacious heist. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. you