commissar

Commissar

Commissar is the English transliteration of an official title used in Russia from the time of Peter the Great.The title was used during the Provisional Government for regional heads of administration, but it is mostly associated with a number of Cheka and military functions in Bolshevik and Soviet...

, notable as having been among those responsible for the assassinations of the deposed Tsar

Tsar

Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...

 Nicholas II, his immediate family, and their retinue.

Ermakov was born and raised in and around the Verkh-Isetskiy workhouse in Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,350,136 , making it Russia's...

, graduating from the local Parish school, working thereafter as a metal craftsman. Between 1909 and 1912, Ermakov is listed as having been living in Vologodskaya Province. By the outbreak of the First World War, Ermakov had returned to Yekaterinburg, and, by 1917, and with revolutionary sentiment in the air, he became a member of the combat guard of the Verkh-Isetskiy plant - participating in the protection of clandestine meetings, the expropriation of private property, and the murder of loyalist provocateurs.

By the spring-time of 1918, the former Royal Family had been transported to Yekaterinburg as a result of anti-revolutionary forces forcing the outskirts of Tobolsk

Tobolsk

Tobolsk is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh Rivers. It is a historic capital of Siberia. Population: -History:...

 - where the family had originally been sent following the Tsar's abdication. By the summer-time of 1918, with anti-revolutionary whites now edging closer to the outskirts of Yekaterinburg the local Urals soviet were instructed by Yakov Sverdlov

Yakov Sverdlov

Yakov Mikhaylovich Sverdlov ; known under pseudonyms "Andrei", "Mikhalych", "Max", "Smirnov", "Permyakov" — 16 March 1919) was a Bolshevik party leader and an official of the Russian Soviet Republic.-Early life:...

, with the assent of Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...

, by means of a telegram, to execute their captives. Feeling that those guards who had previously been guarding the family had by now become too familiar, it was decided to replace them with zealous Bolsheviks - among whose number was Pyotr Ermakov - in order that the job be completed without fail. According to historians Greg King

Greg King

Greg King may refer to:*Greg King *Greg King , UW Varsity Coxswain*Greg King , Australian footballer*Greg King , English rugby union player, currently playing for Worcester Warriors...

 and Penny Wilson

Penny Wilson

Penny Wilson is an American author known for her books about the Romanovs, Imperial Russia's last royal family .-Biography:Penny Wilson was born in 1967, and grew up in New York....

, Ermakov played a leading role in the executions, and is considered to have been the right hand of chief executioner Yakov Yurovsky

Yakov Yurovsky

Yakov Mikhaylovich Yurovsky was an Old Bolshevik best known as the chief executioner of Russia's last Tsar, Nicholas II and his family in 1918, during the Russian Civil War.- Early life :...

. Ermakov was very intoxicated on the night of the murders. According to the account by King and Wilson, Ermarkov was the most bloodthirsty of the executioners. According to various reports, he was among the many men who shot at the former Tsar

Tsar

Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...

, who was already dead by the time firing began. His next target was Empress Alexandra, who was unable to finish the sign of the cross before she was shot dead. After momentarily stopping the firing due to the large amounts of rifle

Rifle

A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...

 smoke

Smoke

Smoke is a collection of airborne solid and liquid particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass. It is commonly an unwanted by-product of fires , but may also be used for pest...

, the executioners were ordered to finish off the Tsar's Children and remaining servant Anna Demidova

Anna Demidova

Anna Stepanovna Demidova was a maid in the service of Tsarina Alexandra of Russia. She acquired posthumous fame because she was murdered alongside her employer in 1918....

. Ermarkov is reported to have delivered the killing blow to Grand Duchess Olga

Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia

Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia ; , November 16 after 1900 – July 17, 1918) was the eldest daughter of the last autocratic ruler of the Russian Empire, Emperor Nicholas II, and of Empress Alexandra of Russia....

 and severely wounded Grand Duchesses Maria and Anastasia

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the last sovereign of Imperial Russia, and his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna....

.

According to an account by Peter Voikov, then commissar of supplies for the Ural Soviet, during the execution Ermakov yelled out that the maid, Demidova, and the youngest daughter, Anastasia, were still alive. One of the Cheka Latvians drove a bayonet through Anastasia's face. Yurovsky described how Ermakov tried to kill the Grand Duchesses with his bayonet. Later, he tells how Ermakov's men tried to plunder the jewels found in the clothing.

Ermakov later participated in the Russian Civil War

Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...

, thereafter finding work in the organs of law in Omsk

Omsk

-History:The wooden fort of Omsk was erected in 1716 to protect the expanding Russian frontier along the Ishim and the Irtysh rivers against the Kyrgyz nomads of the Steppes...

, Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,350,136 , making it Russia's...

, and Chelyabinsk

Chelyabinsk

Chelyabinsk is a city and the administrative center of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located in the northwestern side of the oblast, south of Yekaterinburg, just to the east of the Ural Mountains, on the Miass River. Population: -History:...

. By 1927, Ermakov was employed as inspector for the prisons of the Urals region. By 1934, Ermakov was drawing his pension.

In 1935, Ermakov gave an interview to the American journalist Richard Halliburton

Richard Halliburton

Richard Halliburton was an American traveler, adventurer, and author. Best known today for having swum the length of the Panama Canal and paying the lowest toll in its history—thirty-six cents—Halliburton was headline news for most of his brief career...

, describing the burning and destruction of the bodies of the Imperial family and their servants.