INTRODUCTION

      Now we shall briefly describe how we have begun our work on the practical scientific investigations of the facts known to us from father’s words. In April 1994 I’ve started my thorough inquiries into Father’s life. Before that date I did not remember Father’s words and his wish. What prompted me to recollect that I am already 40, and that I should try to carry out Father’s wish? It happened like this. On April 3, 1994 I was sitting at work in the department of external economic relations of the SPA “Signal”. It was noon. On the left of my desk there was a window. The day was sunny. I was looking at the clouds in the window and suddenly I saw a face like those on icons. It was a woman’s face. A woman with a kerchief or veil on her head, in black-and-white colours, she was looking at me as if to remind me: “Have you forgotten your father’s words, and that you are already 40?” I thought that it was a vision of the Holy Mother of God who came to remind me about my father. First I thought that I was hearing things, but she repeated the words of my father. I looked around and gave myself a thorough check over. Everything was OK. Later I went to the church and told the priest about it. He set my mind at rest and said that I was normal. The Russian Orthodox Church calls such phenomena a “vision’. I remembered that once father told me that he had seen a “vision’ before the Second World War

      After due consideration I decided to take action. I appealed to the St.-Petersburg Mayor’s office to the Mayor’s assistant Stebakov, Alexander Broslavovich who agreed to receive me and listen to what I had to say. On April 5, 1995 my sister Olga and I came to the Smolny to see Mr. Stebakov. It was a long talk, lasting more than 3 hours. Towards the end of our talk Alexandr Broslavovich called Moscow, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation. He talked with Mr. Solovyev Vladimir Nikolayevich who, as a member of the Government commission, had carried out an inquiry into the murder of Nikolas II’s family which had occured on the night of 16—17 July 1918 in the basement of the Ipatiev house in Ekaterinburg, and asked him to listen to us, “…since the Filatovs know more than all of us”. Later it happened exactly like this. On July 12, 1994, after our meeting with the prosecutor-criminalist of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federarion, Mr. Solovyev, Vladimir Nikolayevich in the St.-Petersburg Prosecutor’s Office, organized by the Mayor’s assistant Stebakov, Alexandr Bronislavovich and the prosecutor Mironenko, we understood how the officials handle such problems.

      In the course of our meeting we told Solovyev, V.N., a representative of the Government commission, and Nikitin, an expert in human skull reconstruction, about our father’s life, the history of his rescue and about the fact that on the day of the family’s execution 40 more people had been murdered. Mr. S. Nikitin took the photos of father and Alexei and, pointing at Alexei’s photo, asked: “Do you think that they resemble each other?” We answered that we are not specialists and cannot answer this question. Then we were told that our eyes do not bulge like those of Alexander III and therefore we are not related. Of all the documents only the photo of Mikhail Pavlovich Gladkikh gained Mr. Solovyev’s attention: “Leave it to me. I’ll read it myself. Your father might have said anything, everybody had known then. There were not 40 people but 38.” We could not leave the documents without an official registration.

      After this meeting we began to think over our next steps. Strictly speaking, our visit had been aimed at assisting the investigation with available information, since we knew already that two skeletons were missing on the burial site near Ekaterinburg. But nobody wanted our help.

      Life is such that sometimes one has no idea how previous acquaintance can possibly affect one’s future fate. However, this is what happened to me. After numerous useless meetings I remembered that father had told me, a child, that “one should see clearly”, that is, to have a clear idea of everything around, comparing it with the past, with the precedents that had happened with the people in the same or almost the same situations. This is correct, but what about my case? It does not often happen that one’s own parent confides in his child, the more so with such a past. What’s to be done? I decided to ask the advice of Natalia Petrovna Bekhtereva, Academician, and member of five Academies of the world, who had her own experience as a victim of repressions in 1937 and whom I’ve known from the time of my work at the customs. I made an appointment and in due time I was in the Institute of Experimental Medicine.

      I told her in details the history of my father, his life, and his trying experience. Of course, questions arose. First question: “How old was he?” – “14 years old”. She thought for a moment and said: “You know, in 1918 anything could happen. They could lose him on the way or he could escape. It was 1918 and not 1937. Later on Natalia Petrovna helped our family more than once. She suggested that all tests should be made abroad because our officials could distort everything. She believed that our country lacks reference points for all strata of society to be orientated towards.

      When her book “Human brain” was published, Natalia Petrovna presented us with it with an inscription: “To Oleg Vasilyevich and his charming family. Yours truly, 21. VII. 94.” Signed – N.P. Bekhtereva. We had tea. She got acquainted with everybody.

      Later we met repeatedly with her asking her advice on how to organize the work with the scientists.

      As a scientist, Natalia Petrovna advised me to carry out all examinations abroad. Our examiners can falsify everything. Later we followed her advice being spiritually supported by Father Gennady.

      All this has helped me organize my thoughts and I subjected all information obtained from father to a strict scientific and spiritual analysis. Now I knew what I must do and in what direction I must go. Being acquainted with our family, Father Gennady the dean of the Sofia’s Cathedral introduced us to Evgeniya Basmanova, an icon-painter. She graduated from the Theological Academy in St.-Petersburg and the Academy of Arts. When we came to her and told her about our father, she took it seriously and began to assist us. In particular, she taught my wife how to paint icons and helped me to read and comprehend the Bible. Later, on a spring day of 1995 we took her to Novgorod Veliky to visit Bishop Lev. It took 4 hours to get there by train. The day was cloudy, with puddles around. We went to the Bishopric to see Bishop Lev who after our talk about my father gave us his blessing to go on with our work. Then we went sightseeing, and visited some cathedrals and the Kremlin. After my trip to Novgorod Veliky I’ve understood a new the history of Russia, and the history of father’s life. Before our meeting with the scientists, with the help of Bekhtereva, N.P., I published a kind of report on my work in the newspaper “Obshchaya gazeta”, acquainting readers with the history of my father’s life. The article by Elena Kokurina of 9—15 September 1994 was titled “The Royal Blood Must be Examined”. This article also described the position of the Prosecutor General’s Office, namely, the prosecutor-criminalist Solovyev, V.N. whose opinion still has not changed. Later there were many articles in various newspapers both in Russia and abroad, but the official position has not changed. Other versions are not taken into account. At the time I worked at SPA “Signal”, the Department of External Economic Relations, therefore I was acquainted with a lot of people. Among them was an interesting man who was familiar with many organizations along the line of the adoption of devices developed at the plants where medical instruments are made. It was Novikov, Anatoly Ivanovich, whom I happened to work with. I appreciate the support he rendered me at the time. When I told him the history of my father, Anatoly Ivanovich became interested in the story and offered his help, which I accepted. He introduced me to the people who helped us in the problem of the scientific investigations, namely, with representatives of the faculty of forensic medicine of the Military Medical Academy.

      On September 9, 1994 my sister Olga Vasilyevna and I met with Professor Popov Vjacheslav Leonidovich and Candidate of Medicine Kovalev Andrei Valentinovich (The Candidate of Medicine, forensic medical expert