[4] In this position, Ermakov had in his direct subordination a special detachment of the Red Guards consisting of 19 men, the head of which was Vaganov.

Though a number of Bolsheviks remained in the city when the Czechoslovaks finally arrived, almost all of those involved in the killing of the Imperial Family had already fled.

A notable exception was Vaganov, who was unable to escape in time and found himself trapped in the city when it was taken by the White Czechs under Colonel Voytsekhovsky on 25 July.

[4][3] Likely anticipating brutal retribution at the hands of the White Guards, Vaganov tried to hide in a cellar, where he was found, not by the Whites, but by the workers of Verkh-Isetsk, who tore him to pieces on the spot in retribution for his earlier role in the suppression of the Verkh-Isetsk uprising and punitive raids and expropriations.

[2][9][3] Historian Helen Rappaport writes: "Stepan Vaganov fell victim to summary peasant justice: he was set upon and murdered, not for his part in the Romanov killings, but for his participation in local acts of brutal repression by the Cheka".

[9] Vaganov's death, as well as his role in the regicide, was fully investigated by Nikolai Sokolov's commission established after the Whites came to power in Yekaterinburg.

[1] Nonetheless, Sokolov and the White investigators regretted his untimely demise and the fact he could not be taken alive, as they knew very well he could have been a great wealth of information if captured and interrogated.

[10] The character of Gleb was invented for the musical to replace the supernatural Rasputin, who is ahistorically depicted as being behind the family's murder in the original 1997 animated film.