Background
Botkin was the son of Sergey Botkin, who had been a court physician under Tsars Alexander II and Alexander III.
Botkin was the son of Sergey Botkin, who had been a court physician under Tsars Alexander II and Alexander III.
Botkin himself studied medicine at the University of Saint St. Petersburg and at the Universities of Berlin and Heidelberg.
Botkin went into exile with the Romanovs following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and was murdered with the family at Ekaterinburg on 17 July 1918. He was later appointed chief physician at Saint Georgievsky Hospital in Saint St. Petersburg. He served with distinction aboard the Saint Georgievsky Hospital Train during the Russo-Japanese War.
He was appointed court physician in 1908.
Botkin married and had four children, Dimitri, Yuri, Gleb, and Tatiana. "He was never like other children.
Always sensitive, of a delicate, inner sweetness of extraordinary soul, he had a horror of any kind of struggle or fight. We other boys would fight with a fury.
He would not take part in our combats, but when our pugilism took on a dangerous character he would stop the combatants at risk of injuring himself.
He was very studious and conscientious in his studies. Foreign a profession he chose medicine: to help, to succor, to soothe, to heal without education" Botkin felt it was his duty to accompany the Romanovs into exile, not only because of his responsibility to his patients, the Romanov family, but also to his country. White Russian Army investigators found this unfinished letter, written in his quarters on the night of 16 July 1918: The letter was interrupted when Commander Yakov Yurovsky, the head of the command at the Ipatiev House, knocked on Botkin"s door.
He ordered the entire Romanov party to dress and come downstairs, on the premise that there was gunfire in the town, and they were to be evacuated.
In fact, the entire family and their servants (including Botkin) were murdered a short time later. Doctor Botkin features as a character in the play, Ekaterinburg about the time in captivity of the Romanovs and their retainers inside the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg.