Regarding the True Author of “Yurovsky Notes”

Abstract

The article analyzes historical sources which deal with the murder of the royal family, in particular, “Yurovsky Notes”. Scholars have different views on the historical value of these memories. Yakov Yurovsky memories, which were written in different periods, are mutually contradictory in many aspects. In addition, they describe events which according to the logic of their development could not have occurred in reality or could have occurred, but with a different story line than the one described. Results of contemporary research cast doubt on the authenticity of this document and the authorship of Y. M. Yurovsky, as well as question the intellectual authorship of “Yurovsky Notes”. There is a hypothesis that the true author of the memories is not Yakov Yurovsky, but Academician M. N. Pokrovsky or some other third person or persons. The memories were drafted by their “adapting” to the materials of Sokolov investigation already known by the time. To test this hypothesis it is necessary to conduct an authorship examination, performed by using modern mathematical methods of attribution, the procedure of which will be described in Part 2 of this article. Refs 30. Tables 7.