Dr. Yevgeny Sergeivich Botkin, also known as Dr. Eugene Botkin, ( 27 March 1865 – 17 July 1918 ), was the court physician for Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra and, while in exile with the family, sometimes treated the hemophilia-related complications of the Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia.

Botkin went into exile with the Romanovs following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and was murdered with the family at Ekaterinburg on 17 July 1918. Like them, he was canonized as a martyr by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in 1981.

Early life and career

Botkin was the son of Sergei Botkin, who had been a court physician under Tsars Alexander II and Alexander III. Botkin himself studied medicine at the University of St. Petersburg and at the Universities of Berlin and Heidelberg. He was later appointed chief physician at St. Georgievsky Hospital in St. Petersburg. He served with distinction aboard the St. Georgievsky Hospital Train during the Russo-Japanese War.

He was appointed court physician in 1908. Botkin married and had four children, Dimitri, Yuri, Gleb, and Tatiana. His marriage broke up under the strain caused by Botkin's dedication to the Romanovs and his long hours at court. His wife, Olga, started an affair with the children's German tutor and asked for, and was granted, a divorce.

Botkin was later devastated when his oldest sons, Dimitri and Yuri, were killed in action during World War I. Botkin became increasingly religious and "developed an increasing abhorrence for the flesh," according to his son Gleb.

"From a very tender age, his beautiful and noble nature was complete," his brother Peter recalled later. "He was never like other children. Always sensitive, of a delicate, inner sweetness of extraordinary soul, he had a horror of any kind of struggle or fight. We other boys would fight with a fury. He would not take part in our combats, but when our pugilism took on a dangerous character he would stop the combatants at risk of injuring himself. He was very studious and conscientious in his studies. For a profession he chose medicine: to help, to succor, to soothe, to heal without end."

Exile and death

Botkin felt it was duty to accompany the Romanovs into exile, both because of his responsibility to his patients, the Romanov family, but also to the country. Botkin was considered a friend by Tsar Nicholas II and the doctor also often spoke with Tsarina Alexandra in her native German and acted as a translator for her when she received a Russian delegation.

White Russian Army investigators found this unfinished letter, written in his quarters on the night of 16 July 1918:

The letter was interrupted when Commander Yakov Yurovsky, the head of the command at the Ipatiev House, knocked on his door and ordered him that the Romanov party was to get dressed and come downstairs. Yurovksy told him there was firing in the town and the party was to be evacuated.

Instead, the family and their servants were murdered a short time later.

Legacy

Botkin's two surviving children, Gleb and Tatiana, both became convinced that Anna Anderson was the surviving Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia and were advocates of her cause all their lives.

See also

• Romanov sainthood

Notes

1. King, Greg, and Wilson, Penny, The Fate of the Romanovs, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., p. 61
2. King and Wilson, p. 61
3. King and Wilson, p. 62
4. Christopher et al., p. 194