The unique underground correspondence of the last Russian Emperor’s family with the family of Count Tolstoy has been sold at the Drouot auction in Paris.
      
      The bidding lots included letters of the Empress and the tsar’s daughters, written in the notorious Ipatyev House right before the execution of the whole Romanovs family. All this time the letters have been kept in a private collection and have never been published.
      
      The last letter of the Empress to Zinaida Tolstaya was sold for 8 thousand euro.
      
      Colonel Pyotr Tolstoy had organized the correspondence with Empress through the nuns of the Ivanovsky Convent: the letters had been sent by the Empress’ private doctor Derevyanko, who would put them on the bottom of the food basket. Pyotr Tolstoy had been secretly preparing the escape of the Romanovs, yet had turned to be late with it.
      
      Sources: oreanda.ru,
      newsru.com