Joining the Bolsheviks

In January 1915 he was drafted into the Imperial army, but due to congenital diseases was only fit for wartime militia units and not for regular service. Early in 1916 Grigory moved to Tavatui near Yekaterinburg and started working at the construction site of the dynamite plant (Таватуйский динамитный завод). Very soon after moving he was drawn to local Bolsheviks and met Mikhail Kabanov who helped him become a devoted follower of Lenin. By the end of 1916 he was organizing a strike at the dynamite plant. In March 1917 Nikulin became a member of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). The number of his party membership was 128185.

As a result of financing problems with French joint-stock company, plant activists decided to stop all work with the construction of this facility early in 1918. Nikulin was sent to Yekaterinburg along with all the party members of the factory. He met Goloschekin, a member of the Ural Regional Committee of the RSDLP and joined the Ural Cheka on his recommendation. Starting his service in Cheka, Nikulin soon became acquainted with Yakov Yurovsky who noticed Nikulin's modesty, ability to get along with different people, honesty and absolute sobriety. The two became friends and formed a special relationship that lasted for years where Yurovsky simply called him "son". Nikulin was appointed Assistant to the Commandant of the House of Special Purpose on the recommendation of Yurovsky. The Commandant was Yurovsky himself.

Killing of Prince Dolgorukov

Prince Vasily Alexandrovich Dolgorukov was a close friend of Nicholas II as well as his adviser, Marshal of the Imperial Court (1914–1917) and Commander of the Imperial Guard cavalry regiment. Deeply devoted to the Tsar he voluntarily accompanied the Imperial family to imprisonment in Tobolsk. After arriving in Yekaterinburg at the end of May he was separated from the family and arrested. Dolgorukov was executed 10 July 1918 in cold blood by Nikulin, a week before the killing of Tsar Nicholas II and his family. Dolgorukov was taken to a field beyond the city's Ivanovskoe Cemetery with Count Tatishchev and the two were shot in the head and thrown into a pit. Nikulin recalled the incident in his radio interview 1964: "Я вывез его в поле и проклял всё пока тащил чемоданы назад" (I took him out to the field and cursed everything while I was dragging his suitcases back). Dolgorukov was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1981.

Nikulin was also involved in death of Hermogenes, Bishop of Tobolsk and Siberia, who was drowned in the Tura River by the Bolsheviks.

Killing of Nicholas II and family

Grigory Nikulin is known for his participating in the killing of Tsar Nicholas II and his family. Nikulin was living in the House of Special Purpose Ipatiev House since his appointment as Assistant to the Commandant. He was also in charge of the house in absence of Yurovsky who lived in the "American Hotel". The Ural Regional Soviet agreed in a meeting on June 29 that the Romanov family should be executed. After getting the final approval from the Central Executive Committee in Moscow Yurovsky organized a meeting in American Hotel. Participation in the killing was voluntary and people who agreed to participate came to Yurovsky's room. It was agreed that to prevent unnecessary suffering that the condemned were to be shot in the heart.

On 17 July, right after midnight Yurovsky woke up the Tsar, his family, doctor and servants, 11 persons altogether and guided them to an empty room in the lower floor of the house. On demand of Tsaritsa Alexandra, Nikulin brought two chairs. One for her and one for Prince Alexei. Yurovsky announced the verdict: "Nikolai Alexandrovich, in view of the fact that your relatives are continuing their attack on Soviet Russia, the Ural Executive Committee has decided to execute you." Shooting started. It is controversial who actually shot the Tsar – Yurovsky, Medvedev, Ermakov, or all of them. Nikulin shot one bullet to Prince Alexei and left the room. Apparently Alexei didn't die from this shot. Yurovsky shot Alexei in the head killing him. Long after this event, in private conversation with the son of Mikhail Medvedev, Nikulin said that he couldn't bear having the sick boy looking at him and stopped shooting.

Afterwards Nikulin oversaw the carrying of the corpses to a truck waiting outside. He had all the jewels and valuables that had been sewn into the clothes of the royal family removed. On 20 July, just a few days before the arrival of the White Army, Nikulin left Yekaterinburg. He personally carried 6,000 carats of the Tsar's diamonds to the State Bank in Moscow.

Nikulin initially left a good impression on the Imperial family during visits to the Ipatiev House with Yurovsky. He wasn't like the others. He was well-mannered and polite. From the diary of Alexandra Feodorovna: "June 21st, Thursday. "..young assistant, who seems very nice person, compared to other ones that are vulgar and unpleasant.. Young man (Nikulin) enumerated jewelry items and did it thoroughly". From the diary of Nicholas II: "June 23th, Saturday. Yurovsky and his assistant (Nikulin) started to understand what sort of people was around, stealing from us and guarded us from them". However, after Yurovsky became commandant of the Ipatiev House on 4 July and continuously tightened restrictions imposed on the Romanov family, Nicholas wrote in his diary on 11 July, "We like this man less and less."^[1]