Did the Romanovs suspect their murders were already being planned? The Bolshevik leaders who plotted the killings were staying at The American Hotel across the street from Kharitonov House where the rest of the retinue of tutors, ladies in waiting, friends were staying. Things had changed in the past several days: New guards (the killers) had moved in to the Ipatiev Mansion.
Nicholas had stopped his lifelong daily habit of entering notes in his journal. Did he feel hopeless? Maids came in to clean the rooms. Eggs were delivered - eggs long requested for Alexei but secretly destined to be provisions for the death squad. A priest was allowed but the Romanovs, for the first time, did not sing and they were not permitted to take communion. They did not know: Sulphuric acid had been bought to disintegrate them.
