Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
In 1979, two amateur historians, one a geologist named Alexander Avdonin, and the other a writer and filmmaker Geli Ryabov began looking for the resting place of the Romanovs. According to information they obtained from Yurovsky’s son, a primary document with photographs called the Yurovsky Note, the bodies were buried at the location where the truck that was transporting the bodies had broken down that fateful night, near Grade Crossing 184 on the Koptyaki Road. Pots of acid had been smashed into the pit as we know, and then railroad ties were placed over the pit before it was covered in earth.
In May of 1979, Avdonin and Ryabov began digging at the site. They found the rotted wood of the railroad ties. While their digging did upset the context for future archaeological work, without them, the Imperial family and those that died with them might never have been found. The two dug further and discovered 44 heavily degraded bone and tooth fragments, including several skulls, which the pair kept and later reburied.
In 1979, two amateur historians, one a geologist named Alexander Avdonin, and the other a writer and filmmaker Geli Ryabov began looking for the resting place of the Romanovs. According to information they obtained from Yurovsky’s son, a primary document with photographs called the Yurovsky Note, the bodies were buried at the location where the truck that was transporting the bodies had broken down that fateful night, near Grade Crossing 184 on the Koptyaki Road. Pots of acid had been smashed into the pit as we know, and then railroad ties were placed over the pit before it was covered in earth.
In May of 1979, Avdonin and Ryabov began digging at the site. They found the rotted wood of the railroad ties. While their digging did upset the context for future archaeological work, without them, the Imperial family and those that died with them might never have been found. The two dug further and discovered 44 heavily degraded bone and tooth fragments, including several skulls, which the pair kept and later reburied.
