On January 9, 1919, the Presidium of the Cheka in a meeting chaired by Martin Latsis, Yakov Peters, Ivan Ksenofontov and secretary O. Ya. Murnek, issued a resolution “The verdict of the Cheka to persons of the former imperial pack - to approve, informing the Central Executive Committee about it”.  The grand dukes were to be shot by the order of the Presidium of the VChk in the Peter and Paul Fortress in Petrograd in January 1919 as hostages in response to the murders of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg in Germany.