The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar

On the nights of July 5 and 6, the Romanovs eagerly await the arrival of the White Army. They never come. Leonka recalls that the Romanovs never received another letter; they never found out why the White Army failed to arrive. On July 11, the Bolshevik guards reseal Ipatiev House’s windows. Leonka describes the despair which began to creep into the household, as “we all realized we were imprisoned, locked in a kind of grand cell from which there might well be no escape” (139). 

It is July 14, 1918, two days before the Romanovs’ assassination. Tsar Nikolai writes another letter to the White Army to report Ipatiev House’s increasingly oppressive atmosphere. Komendant Yurovsky allows Father Storozhev (from the Church of the Ascension) into the house to lead a religious ceremony for the Romanovs—but bans the family from speaking. Leonka watches as Nikolai tries to give his letter to Father Storozhev, but he never gets the chance. The responsibility for delivering the letter falls to Leonka.

On July 15, Leonka plans to deliver the tsar’s letter to Father Storozhev. As he goes to leave, he sees two maids being interrogated by Komendant Yurovsky in the doorway.