Date of birth: 27 March 1865
Date of death: 17th July 1918 (aged 53)
Location of death: Yekaterinburg, Russia
Cause of death: Murder, by the Bolsheviks
Titles: Physician
Father: Sergey Botkin
Mother: Anastasia Kryloff
Spouse: Olga Botkina (divorced 1910)
Children: Gleb Botkin, Tatiana Botkina, Dimitri Botkin, Yuri Botkin
Personality traits: Intelligent, dedicated, dutiful, religious, noble, sensitive, sweet, repulsed by violence, conscientious,
During the revolution: He was the Court Physician during the reign of Tsar Nicholas II, and often treated Alexei's haemophilia. He was not just the family's doctor – he was their close friend. His own marriage fell apart because of his dedication to the Imperial family, but it's clear that his family and friends meant the world to this man. He followed the Romanovs into exile, knowing it would be certain death but not daring to dash the already frail hopes of his closest friends.
On his last night alive he left an unfinished letter:
I am making a last attempt at writing a real letter -- at least from here -- although that qualification, I believe, is utterly superfluous. I do not think that I was fated at any time to write to anyone from anywhere. My voluntary confinement here is restricted less by time than by my earthly existence. In essence I am dead -- dead for my children -- dead for my work ... I am dead but not yet buried, or buried alive -- whichever, the consequences are nearly identical ...
The day before yesterday, as I was calmly reading ... I saw a reduced vision of my son Yuri's face, but dead, in a horizontal position, his eyes closed. Yesterday, at the same reading, I suddenly heard a word that sounded like Papulya. I nearly burst into sobs. Again -- this is not a hallucination because the word was pronounced, the voice was similar, and I did not doubt for an instant that my daughter, who was supposed to be in Tobolsk, was talking to me ... I will probably never hear that voice so dear or feel that touch so dear with which my little children so spoiled me ...
If faith without works is dead, then deeds can live without faith; and if some of us have deeds and faith together, that is only by the special grace of God. I became one of these lucky ones through a heavy burden-the loss of my first born, six-month old Serzhi... This vindicates my last decision ... when I unhesitatingly orphaned my own children in order to carry out my physician's duty to the end, as Abraham did not hesitate at God's demand to sacrifice his only son.
There was a sudden knock at the door, and the tired man stopped writing. He looked up; the door opened, showing the stern, cold expression of the Chief Commandant – Yakov Yurovsky.
It was time to go.
In the 1990s remains were found. The remains that are believed to be Botkin's show bullet wounds on his pelvis, vertebrae and forehead.
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The Suspicious Deaths of the Romanovs
Phi Hư CấuThis work is an investigation into the brutal murders of the Russian royal family, the Romanovs. Officially, the Tsar, Tsarina, and their five children were brutally murdered, executed in the basement of their prison in the city of Yekaterinburg. Un...
