The Governor`s Mansion, also known as Kuklin House. is at the foot of the hill where the Tobolsk Kremlin is located. After a big fire of 1788 they begin to erect buildings in the Nizhny Posad according to a certain plan. The rich citizens began to build their houses there. So, at the very end of 18 century in that district there was built a spacious house of a top guild merchant Ivan Kuklin.
After his bankruptcy in 1817 the house was taken by the Treasury. Later, it was turned into the residence of Tobolsk governor. In the period between 1833 and 1851 the house was visited by many Decembrists who submitted to the governor the documents for the habitation in Tobolsk after the term of their exile was ended. In 1837 the heir to the throne Alexander Nikolayevich, the future Emperor Alexander II, stayed in the house.
It was just there that the family of Nicholas II was accommodated. As is known, following the abdication of Nicholas II on March 2, 1917, the power in the country was transferred to the Provisional Government and Nicholas II and his family were sent to Tobolsk. On August 6, 1917 the imperial family, as well as their servants and inner circle (totally 45 people) arrived in Tobolsk on the steamboats «Rus» and «Kormilets» (Provider), respectively. On their arrival it turned out that the Governor`s Mansion wasn’t ready for the accommodation of the imperial family. For a week the Romanovs had to live in the cabins of the steamboat, walk in the environs of the town and communicate with the natives.
On August 13, 1917 the tsar and his family moved to the Governor`s Mansion where they occupied 8 of 18 rooms. The guards occupied the nearby Kornilov`s House. The imperial family quietly enough lived in Tobolsk until April 1918. The guards appointed by the Provisional Government treated Nicholas II with great respect. The Romanovs walked in the court or sunbathed on the roof of the greenhouse. In winter they shoveled away snow or cut firewood. The children did their lessons, learned French, and staged performances. The former Emperor Nicholas II worked in his study. The Romanovs were allowed to visit the nearby Annunciation church.
After the power was seized by the Bolsheviks in October 1917 the situation became much worse. In March 1918 in Tobolsk there began the formation of the Soviet bodies of power. And in April 1918 in the town there arrived three groups of Red Army men which competed for the right to guard the last Russian emperor. On the 6th of April in Tobolsk the commissar Yakovlev arrived. He had on him the mandate signed by Lenin himself and Sverdlov, which prescribed to move the imperial family in Yekaterinburg.
The czarevitch Alexei was very ill at that time, so it was decided that only Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna and their daughter Maria would go with Yakovlev to Yekaterinburg. At first they were brought on the steamboat «Rus» to Tuymen and from there moved by rail to Yekaterinburg. The other Romanovs came to Yekaterinburg on May 20. All of them were accommodated in the Ipatyev`s House. And on June 17, 1918 the imperial family were executed.
Presently in the Governor`s Mansion there is an exposition devoted to the Tobolsk exile of Nicholas II of Russia. At the exposition one can see some of his belongings. At the mansion there was also restored the interior of the study of the last emperor of Russia.
