who killed nicholas ii of russia

The czar and his family were gunned down and stabbed by members of the Red Guard early on the morning of July 17, 1918, but persistent rumors have maintained that two of the children, the Grand Duchess Anastasia and her brother Alexei, survived, perhaps because the diamonds sewn into their clothes blocked attempts to kill them.

DNA buries Romanov myth: Anastasia and brother died with family

"DNA buries Romanov myth: Anastasia and brother died with family2 children, long thought to have escaped, were slain along with kin in 1918, researchers say March 11, 2009 | By Thomas H. Maugh II, TRIBUNE NEWSPAPERS: Los Angeles Times The most enduring and romantic legend of the Russian Revolution -- that two children of Czar Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra, survived the slaughter that killed the rest of their family -- may finally be put to rest with the positive identification of bone fragments from a lonely Russian grave.

Those hopes were bolstered with the 1991 disclosure that nine bodies of Romanov family members and servants had been found in a Yekaterinburg grave but that a son and daughter still were missing. Now, newly analyzed DNA evidence from a second, nearby grave discovered in 2007 proves that the bones are from the final two children.

A report on the analysis was published online Tuesday in the journal PLo S One. ""I think it is very compelling evidence that this family has been reunited finally,"" said geneticist Terry Melton of Mitotyping Technologies in State College, Pa., an expert in forensic DNA.

Melton, who was not involved in the new research, played a major role in disproving the claims of the late Anna Anderson that she was Anastasia, a claim that received a great deal of attention.

Melton says she still receives several calls each year from people claiming to be direct descendants of the Romanovs. ""There is absolutely no doubt that these are the remains of the Romanov family,"" said Peter Sarandinaki, founder of the Scientific Expedition to Account for the Romanov Children Foundation, which has been seeking the remains of the family.

""The scientific results are, without a doubt, conclusive,"" said Sarandinaki, the great-grandson of the White Army general who tried to rescue the Romanovs before their deaths.

Nicholas abdicated the throne in March 1917, ending the 304-year Romanov rule, and the family was banished to Siberia. The following year, the family, their doctor and three servants were executed by the Ural Red Guard on the orders of Vladimir Lenin and their bodies disposed of.

z Nicholas II, 1914 ©Nicholas II was the last tsar of Russia. He was deposed during the Russian Revolution and executed by the Bolsheviks. Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov was born near St Petersburg on 18 May 1868, the eldest son of Tsar Alexander III.

Nicholas II (1868-1918)

Nicholas II (1868-1918)a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y

When he succeeded his father in 1894, he had very little experience of government. In the same year, Nicholas married Princess Alexandra of Hesse-Darmstadt (a duchy in Germany). They had four daughters and a son, Alexis, who suffered from the disease haemophilia. Alexandra was the dominant personality in their relationship and encouraged the weaker Nicholas's autocratic tendencies.

He mistrusted most of his ministers and yet was incapable of carrying out the task of ruling the vast Russian empire alone. Determined that Russia should not be left out in the scramble for colonial possessions, Nicholas encouraged Russian expansion in Manchuria.

This provoked war with Japan in 1904. The resulting Russian defeat led to strikes and riots. In January 1905, on 'Bloody Sunday', the army in St Petersburg shot at a crowd demanding radical reforms. Opposition to the tsar grew and Nicholas was forced to grant a constitution and establish a parliament, the Duma.

Nicholas's concessions were only limited. Changes were made in the voting laws to prevent the election of radicals and the secret police continued to crush opposition. However, the Duma did give many more people, especially the middle classes, a voice in government.

The outbreak of World War One in 1914 temporarily strengthened the monarchy, with Russia allied to France and Britain against Austria-Hungary and Germany. In mid-1915 Nicholas made the disastrous decision to take direct command of the Russian armies. From then on, every military failure was directly associated with him.

With Nicholas often away, Alexandra took a more active role in government. Russia was suffering heavy losses in the war, there was high inflation and severe food shortages at home, which compounded the grinding poverty most Russians already endured.

German-born Alexandra soon became the focus of discontent, as did her confidante, the mystic, Rasputin, who had been at court since 1905 and had gained great influence through his apparent ability to treat the haemophilia of Alexis, the heir to the throne. In December 1916, Rasputin was murdered by a group of disaffected nobles. Then in February 1917, widespread popular demonstrations began in the capital Petrograd (as St Petersburg was renamed in 1914).

Nicholas lost the support of the army and had no alternative but to abdicate. A shaky provisional government was established. The tsar and his family were held in various locations, eventually being imprisoned in Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains. In October 1917, the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government. Following a harsh peace treaty with Germany in March 1918, Russia descended into civil war.

On 17 July 1918, as anti-Bolsheviks approached Yekaterinburg, Nicholas and his family were executed. This was almost certainly on the orders of the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin.a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

nt Interesting Facts about Tsar Nicholas IIThe 1997 animated movie Anastasia is about Nicholas II daughter. However, the real life Anastasia did not escape and was assassinated by the Bolsheviks along with her family. A religious mystic by the name of Rasputin had great influence over both Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra.

Biography

Advertisement History >> Biographies >> World War IBiography Tsar Nicholas IIOccupation: Russian Tsar Born: May 18, 1868 in Saint Petersburg, Russia Died: July 17, 1918 in Yekaterinburg, Russia Best known for: The last Russian Tsar who was executed after the Russian Revolution Alexandra and Nicholas II by Unknown Biography: Where did Nicholas II grow up?

Nicholas II was born the son of the Russian Tsar Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna. His full given name was Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov. Since he was the eldest son of the Tsar, Nicholas was heir to the throne of Russia. He was close to his parents and had five younger brothers and sisters.

Growing up, Nicholas was taught by private tutors. He enjoyed studying foreign languages and history. Nicholas traveled quite a bit and then joined the army when he was nineteen. Unfortunately, his father didn't get him involved in Russian politics.

This lack of on the job training would become an issue when his father died young and an unprepared Nicholas became Tsar of Russia. Becoming Tsar In 1894, Nicholas' father died from kidney disease. Nicholas was now the all powerful Tsar of Russia. Since the Tsar needed to be married and produce heirs to the throne, Nicholas quickly married the daughter of a German Archduke named Princess Alexandra.

He was officially crowned Tsar of Russia on May 26, 1896. When Nicholas first took the crown he continued with many of his father's conservative policies. This included financial reforms, an alliance with France, and the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railroad in 1902.

Nicholas also proposed the Hague Peace Conference of 1899 in order to help promote peace in Europe. Advertisement War with Japan Nicholas was determined to expand his empire in Asia. However, his efforts provoked Japan who attacked Russia in 1904.

The Russian army was defeated and humiliated by the Japanese and Nicholas was forced into peace negotiations. Bloody Sunday In the early 1900s, the peasants and lower class workers in Russia lived lives of poverty. They had little food, worked long hours, and had dangerous working conditions. In 1905, under the leadership of a priest named George Gapon, thousands of workers organized a march to the Tsar's palace.

They believed that the government was at fault, but that the Tsar was still on their side. As the marchers peacefully advanced, soldiers from the army stood guard and tried to block a bridge approaching the palace.

The soldiers fired into the crowd killing many of the marchers. This day is now known as Bloody Sunday. The actions of the Tsar's soldiers came as a surprise to the people. They now felt they could no longer trust the Tsar and that he wasn't on their side.

1905 Revolution and the Duma Shortly after Bloody Sunday, many of the people of Russia began to revolt against the Tsar's government. Nicholas was forced to create a new government with an elected legislature, called the Duma, which would help him rule. Nicholas commanding his soldiers during the war Photo by Karl Bulla World War I In 1914, Russia entered World War I on the side of the Allied Powers (Russia, Britain and France).

They fought against the Central Powers (Germany, Ottoman Empire, and Austro-Hungary). Millions of peasants and workers were forced to join the army. They were forced to fight even though they had little training, no shoes, and little food. Some were even told to fight without weapons.

The army was soundly defeated by Germany at the Battle of Tannenburg. Nicholas II took over the command of the army, but things only got worse. Millions of peasant men died due to the incompetence of the Russian leaders. Russian Revolution In 1917, the Russian Revolution occurred. First, was the February Revolution. After this revolt, Nicholas was forced to give up his crown and abdicate the throne. He was the last of the Russian Tsars. Later that year, the Bolsheviks, under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, took total control in the October Revolution. Death Nicholas and his family, including his wife and children, were being held prisoner in Yekaterinburg, Russia. On July 17, 1918 they were all executed by the Bolsheviks. Advertiseme

Nicholas' wife, Alexandra, was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. He was first cousin to King George V of England and second cousin to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.

Learn More about World War I: Overview: World War I Timeline Causes of World War IAllied Powers Central Powers The U. S. in World War ITrench Warfare Battles and Events: Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand Sinking of the Lusitania Battle of Tannenberg First Battle of the Marne Battle of the Somme Russian Revolution Leaders: David Lloyd George Kaiser Wilhelm IIRed Baron Tsar Nicholas IIVladimir Lenin Woodrow Wilson Other: Aviation in WWIChristmas Truce Wilson's Fourteen Points WWI Changes in Modern Warfare Post-WWI and Treaties Glossary and Terms Works Cited History >> Biographies >> World War I

On Thursday, 26 August 2010, a Russian court ordered prosecutors to reopen an investigation into the murder of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, although the Bolsheviks believed to have shot them in 1918 had died long before.

Execution of the Romanov family

"From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedianavigation search Clockwise from top: The Romanov family, Ivan Kharitonov, Alexei Trupp, Anna Demidova, Eugene Botkin The Russian Imperial Romanov family ( Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Tsarina Alexandra and their five children Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei) and all those who chose to accompany them into imprisonment—notably Eugene Botkin, Anna Demidova, Alexei Trupp and Ivan Kharitonov —were shot, bayoneted and clubbed to death [1] in Yekaterinburg on the night of 16-17 July 1918.

[2] The Tsar and his family were killed by Bolshevik troops led by Yakov Yurovsky under the orders of the Ural Regional Soviet and according to instructions by Lenin, Yakov Sverdlov and Felix Dzerzhinsky.

Their bodies were then stripped, [3] mutilated, [1] burned and disposed of in a field called Porosenkov Log in the Koptyaki forest. [4]Following the February Revolution, the Romanov family and their loyal servants were imprisoned in the Alexander Palace before being moved to Tobolsk and then Ekaterinburg, where they were killed, allegedly at the express command of Vladimir Lenin.

[5] Despite being informed that ""the entire family suffered the same fate as its head"", [6] the Bolsheviks only announced Nicholas's death, [7] [8] with the official press release that ""Nicholas Romanov's wife and son have been sent to a secure place.""

[6] For over eight years, [9] the Soviet leadership maintained a systematic web of disinformation as to the fate of the family, [10] from claiming in September 1919 that they were murdered by left-wing revolutionaries [11] to denying outright in April 1922 that they were dead.

[10] They acknowledged the murders in 1926 following the publication of an investigation by a White émigré, but maintained that the bodies were destroyed and that Lenin's Cabinet was not responsible.

[12] The emergence of Romanov impostors drew media attention away from Soviet Russia, [10] and discussion regarding the fate of the family was suppressed by Joseph Stalin from 1938. [13]The burial site was discovered in 1979 by an amateur sleuth, [14] but the existence of the remains was not made public until 1989, during the glasnost period.

[15] The identity of the remains was confirmed by forensic and DNA investigation. They were reburied in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg in 1998, [16] 80 years after they were killed, in a funeral that was not attended by key members of the Russian Orthodox Church, who disputed the authenticity of the remains. [17] A second, smaller grave containing the remains of two Romanov children missing from the larger grave was discovered by amateur archaeologists in 2007.

[14] However, their remains are kept in a state repository pending further DNA tests. [18] In 2008, after considerable and protracted legal wrangling, the Russian Prosecutor General 's office rehabilitated the Romanov family as ""victims of political repressions"". [19] A criminal case was opened by the post-Soviet government in 1993, but nobody was prosecuted on the basis that the perpetrators were dead.

[18]Some historians attribute the order to the government in Moscow, specifically Yakov Sverdlov and Vladimir Lenin, who wished to prevent the rescue of the Imperial Family by the approaching Czechoslovak Legion (fighting with the White Army against the Bolsheviks) during the ongoing Russian Civil War.

[20] [21] This is supported by a passage in Leon Trotsky 's diary. [22] An investigation led by Vladimir Solovyov concluded in 2011 that, despite the opening of state archives in the post-Soviet years, there is yet no written document found that indicates that either Lenin or Sverdlov instigated the orders; however, they did endorse the executions after they occurred.

[23] [24] [25] [26] Lenin had close control over the Romanovs although he ensured his name was not associated with their fate in any official documents.

[27] President Boris Yeltsin described the killings as one of the most shameful pages in Russian history.

[28] [29]Contents [ hide ]1 Background1.1 The House of Special Purpose1.2 Planning for the execution2 Execution2.1 Disposal2.2 Sokolov's investigation3 Executioners4 Aftermath5 See also6 References7 Further reading8 External links Background [ edit]Location of the main events in the last days of the Romanov family, who were held at Tobolsk before being transported to Ekaterinburg, where they were killed. On 22 March 1917, Nicholas, no longer a monarch and addressed with contempt by the sentries as ""Nicholas Romanov"", was reunited with his family at the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo.

He was placed under house arrest with his family by the Provisional Government, surrounded by guards and confined to their quarters. [30] In August 1917, Alexander Kerensky 's provisional government evacuated the Romanovs to Tobolsk, allegedly to protect them from the rising tide of revolution. There they lived in the former governor's mansion in considerable comfort. After the Bolsheviks came to power in October 1917, the conditions of their imprisonment grew stricter, and talk of putting Nicholas on trial grew more frequent.

Nicholas was forbidden to wear epaulettes, and the sentries scrawled lewd drawings on the fence to offend his daughters.

On 1 March 1918, the family was placed on soldier's rations, which meant parting with 10 devoted servants and giving up butter and coffee. [31] As the Bolsheviks gathered strength, the government in April moved Nicholas, Alexandra, and their daughter Maria to Yekaterinburg under the direction of Vasily Yakovlev. Alexei, who had severe haemophilia, was too ill to accompany his parents and remained with his sisters Olga, Tatiana, and Anastasia, not leaving Tobolsk until May 1918.

The family was imprisoned with a few remaining retainers in Yekaterinburg's Ipatiev House, which was designated The House of Special Purpose ( Russian: Дом Особого Назначения ). Nicholas II, Tatiana and Anastasia Hendrikova working on a kitchen garden at Alexander Palace in May 1917. The family was allowed no such indulgences at the Ipatiev House. [32]All those under arrest will be held as hostages, and the slightest attempt at counter-revolutionary action in the town will result in the summary execution of the hostages.— Announcement in the local newspaper by Bolshevik War Commissar Filipp Goloshchyokin, in overall charge of the family's incarceration in Ekaterinburg.

[33]The House of Special Purpose [ edit]The imperial family was kept in strict isolation at the Ipatiev House.

[34] They were strictly forbidden to speak any language other than Russian. [35] They were not permitted access to their luggage, which was stored in an outhouse in the interior courtyard. [34] Their brownie cameras and photographic equipment were confiscated. [32] The servants were ordered to address the Romanovs only by their names and patronymics. [36] The family was subjected to regular searches of their belongings, confiscation of their money for ""safekeeping by the Ural Regional Soviet's treasurer"", [37] and attempts to remove Alexandra's and her daughters' gold bracelets from their wrists.

[38] The house was surrounded by a 4 metre (14 ft) high double palisade that obscured the streets from the house. [39] The initial fence enclosed the garden along Voznesensky Lane. On 5 June a second palisade was erected, higher and longer than the first, which completely enclosed the property.

[40] One of the reasons for the construction of the latter was the discovery that onlookers outside could see Nicholas' legs over the palisade when he used the double swing in the garden. [41]Ipatiev House, with the palisade erected just before Nicholas, Alexandra and Maria arrived on 30 April 1918.

On the top left of the house is a attic dormer window where a Maxim gun was positioned. Directly below it was the tsar and tsarina's bedroom.

[42]The windows in all the family's rooms were sealed shut and covered with newspapers (later painted with whitewash on 15 May). [43] The family's only source of ventilation was a fortochka in the grand duchesses' bedroom, but peeking out of it was strictly forbidden; in May a sentry fired a shot at Anastasia when she peeked out. [44] After repeated requests, one of the two windows in the tsar and tsarina's corner bedroom was unsealed on 23 June 1918.

[45] However, the guards were ordered to increase their surveillance accordingly and the prisoners were warned not to look out the window or attempt to signal anyone outside, on pain of being shot.

[46] From this window, they could only see the spire of the Voznesensky Cathedral located across the road from the house. [46] An iron grille was installed on 11 July after Alexandra ignored repeated warnings from Yurovsky not to stand too close to the open window.

[47] The guard commandant and his senior aides had complete access at any time to all rooms occupied by the family. [48] The prisoners were required to ring a bell every time they wished to leave their rooms to use the bathroom and lavatory on the landing.

[49] However, strict rationing of the water supply was enforced on the prisoners after the guards complained that it regularly ran out. [50] Recreation was only allowed twice daily in the garden for half an hour morning and afternoon. However, the prisoners were under strict instructions not to engage in conversation with any of the guards.

[51] Rations were mostly tea and black bread for breakfast and cutlets or soup with meat for lunch; the prisoners were informed that ""they were no longer permitted to live like tsars"".

[52] In mid-June, nuns from the Novo-Tikhvinsky Monastery also brought the family food on a daily basis, most of which was siphoned off on arrival by the captors. [52] The family was not allowed visitors or to receive and send letters. [32]Princess Helen of Serbia visited the house in June but was refused entry at gunpoint by the guards, [53] while Dr Vladimir Derevenko 's regular visits to treat Alexei were curtailed when Yurovsky became commandant. No excursions to mass at the nearby church were permitted. [35] In early June, the family no longer received their daily newspapers. [32]The Romanov entourage. From left to right: Catherine Schneider, Count Ilya Tatishchev, Pierre Gilliard, Countess Anastasia Hendrikova and Prince Vasily Dolgorukov.

They were barred from joining the Romanov family at the Ipatiev House. All but Gilliard were later murdered by the Bolsheviks. [54]To maintain a sense of normality, the Bolsheviks assured the Romanovs on 13 July 1918 that two of their loyal servants, Klementy Nagorny (Alexei's sailor nanny) [55] and Ivan Sednev ( OTMA 's footman; Leonid Sednev's uncle), [56] ""had been sent out of this government"" (i.e.

out of the jurisdiction of Ekaterinburg and Perm province). However, both men were already dead, after the Bolsheviks removed them from the Ipatiev House in May, they were shot by the Cheka with a group of other hostages on 6 July in reprisal for the death of a local Bolshevik hero who was killed by the Whites.

[57] On 14 July, a priest and deacon conducted a liturgy for the Romanovs. [58] The following morning, four housemaids were hired to wash the floors of the Popov House and Ipatiev House; they were the last civilians to see the family alive. On both occasions they were under strict instructions not to engage in conversation of any kind to the family. [59] Yurovsky always kept watch during the liturgy and while the housemaids were cleaning the bedrooms with the family. [60] The 16 men of the internal guard slept in the basement, hallway and commandant's office during shifts.

The external guard led by Pavel Medvedev numbered 56 and were accommodated in the Popov House opposite. [48] The guards were allowed to bring in women for sex and drinking sessions in the Popov House and basement rooms of the Ipatiev House.

[60] There were four machine gun emplacements: one in the bell tower of the Voznesensky Cathedral aimed toward the house; a second in the basement window of the Ipatiev House facing the street; a third monitored the balcony overlooking the garden at the back of the house; [46] and a fourth in the attic overlooking the intersection, directly above the tsar and tsarina's bedroom.

[42] There were ten guard posts in and around the Ipatiev House, and the exterior was patrolled twice hourly day and night. [44] In early May, the guards deprived the prisoners of the piano in the dining room and moved it to the commandant's office located next door to the Romanovs' bedrooms.

Here they took pleasure in humiliating them in the evenings by singing Russian revolutionary songs while drinking and smoking. [34] They also listened to the Romanovs' gramophone records on the confiscated phonograph. [34] The lavatory on the landing was also used by the guards who scribbled political slogans and crude graffiti on the walls.

[34] The number of Ipatiev House guards totaled 300 when the imperial family was killed. [61]The Church of All Saints in 2016 (top left), where the Ipatiev House used to be. Voznesensky Cathedral is in the foreground, where a machine gun was mounted in the belfry aimed at the tsar and tsarina's bedroom on the southeastern corner of the house.

[62]When Yurovsky replaced Aleksandr Avdeev as commandant on 4 July, [63] he moved the old internal guard members to the Popov House.

The senior aides were retained but were designated to guard the hallway area and no longer had access to the Romanov's rooms, a privilege granted only to Yurovsky's men. Replacements were chosen by the local Cheka from the volunteer battalions of the Verkh-Isetsk factory at Yurovsky's request.

He wanted dedicated Bolsheviks who could be relied on to do whatever was asked of them. They were hired on the understanding that they would be prepared, if necessary, to kill the tsar, about which they were sworn to secrecy.

Nothing at that stage was said about killing the family or servants. To prevent a repetition of the fraternization that had occurred under Avdeev, Yurovsky chose mainly foreigners. Nicholas noted in his diary on 8 July that ""new Latvians are standing guard"", describing them as Letts - a term commonly used in Russia to define someone of European, non-Russian origin.

The leader of the new guards was led by Adolf Lepa, a Lithuanian. [64]The Romanovs were being held by the Red Army in Yekaterinburg, since Bolsheviks initially wanted to put them on trial.

As the civil war continued and the White Army (a loose alliance of anti-Communist forces) was threatening to capture the city, the fear was that the Romanovs would fall into White hands.

This was unacceptable to the Bolsheviks for two reasons: first, the tsar or any of his family members could provide a beacon to rally support to the White cause; second, the tsar, or any of his family members if the tsar were dead, would be considered the legitimate ruler of Russia by the other European nations. This would have meant the ability to negotiate for greater foreign intervention on behalf of the Whites.

Soon after the family was executed, the city fell to the White Army. In mid-July 1918, forces of the Czechoslovak Legion were closing on Yekaterinburg, to protect the Trans-Siberian Railway, of which they had control.

According to historian David Bullock, the Bolsheviks falsely believed that the Czechoslovaks were on a mission to rescue the family, panicked and executed their wards.

The Legions arrived less than a week later and on 25 July captured the city. [65]During the imperial family's imprisonment in late June, Pyotr Voykov and Alexander Beloborodov, president of the Ural Regional Soviet, [66] directed the smuggling of letters written in French to the Ipatiev House claiming to be a monarchist officer seeking to rescue them, composed at the behest of the Cheka.

[67] These fabricated letters, along with the Romanov responses to them (written either on blank spaces or on the envelope), [68] provided the Central Executive Committee (CEC) in Moscow with further justification to 'liquidate' the imperial family. [69] Yurovsky later observed that by responding to the faked letters, Nicholas ""had fallen into a hasty plan by us to trap him"".

[67] On 13 July, across the road from the Ipatiev House, a demonstration of Red Army soldiers, Socialist Revolutionaries and anarchists was staged on Voznesensky Square, demanding the dismissal of the Ekaterinburg Soviet and the transfer of control of the city to them. This rebellion was violently suppressed by a detachment of Red Guards led by Peter Ermakov, which opened fire on the protesters, all within earshot of the tsar and tsarina's bedroom window.

The authorities exploited the incident as a monarchist-led rebellion that threatened the security of the captives at the Ipatiev House. [70]We like this man less and less.— Diary entry of Tsar Nicholas II, referring to the constant tightening of restrictions on his family by Yurovsky.

[47]Planning for the execution [ edit]The Ural Regional Soviet agreed in a meeting on 29 June that the Romanov family should be executed. Filipp Goloshchyokin arrived in Moscow on 3 July with a message insisting on the Tsar's execution.

[71] Only seven of the 23 members of the Central Executive Committee were in attendance, three of whom were Lenin, Sverdlov and Felix Dzerzhinsky.

[66] It was agreed that the presidium of the Ural Regional Soviet should organize the practical details for the family's execution and decide the precise day on which it would take place when the military situation dictated it, contacting Moscow for final approval.

[72]The killing of the Tsar's wife and children was also discussed but had to be kept a state secret to avoid any political repercussions; German ambassador Wilhelm von Mirbach made repeated enquiries to the Bolsheviks concerning the family's well-being. [73] Another diplomat, British consul Thomas Preston, who lived near the Ipatiev House, was often pressured by Pierre Gilliard, Sydney Gibbes and Prince Vasily Dolgorukov to help the Romanovs, [53] the latter smuggling notes from his prison cell before he too was murdered by Grigory Nikulin, Yurovsky's assistant. [74] However, Preston's requests to be granted access to the family were consistently rejected. [75] As Trotsky would later explain, ""The Tsar's family was a victim of the principle that form the very axis of monarchy: dynastic inheritance"", for which their deaths were a necessity.

[76] Goloshchyokin reported back to Ekaterinburg on 12 July with a summary of his discussion about the Romanovs with Moscow, [66] along with instructions that nothing relating to their deaths should be directly communicated to Lenin. [77]On 14 July, Yurovsky was finalizing the disposal site and how to destroy as much evidence as possible at the same time.

[78] He was frequently in consultation with Peter Ermakov, who was in charge of the disposal squad and claimed to know the outlying countryside, to which Yurovsky placed his trust in him. [79] Yurovsky wanted to gather the family and servants in a closely confined space from which they could not escape. The basement room chosen for this purpose had a barred window which was nailed shut to muffle the sound of shooting and in case of any screaming.

[80] Shooting and stabbing them at night while they slept or killing them in the forest and then dumping them into the Iset pond with lumps of metal weighted to their bodies were ruled out.

[81] Yurovsky's plan was to perform an efficient execution of all 11 prisoners simultaneously, though he also took into account that he would have to prevent those involved from raping the women or searching the bodies for jewels.

[81] Having previously seized some jewellery, he suspected more were hidden in their clothes; [37] the bodies were stripped naked in order to obtain the rest (this, along with the mutilations were aimed at preventing investigators from identifying them).

[3]On 16 July, Yurovsky was informed by the Ural Soviets that Red Army contingents were retreating in all directions and the executions could not be delayed any longer. A coded telegram seeking final approval was sent by Goloshchyokin and Georgy Safarov at around 6:00pm to Lenin in Moscow.

[82] There is no documentary record of an answer from Moscow, although Yurovsky insisted that an order from the CEC to go ahead had been passed on to him by Goloshchyokin at around 7:00pm.

[83] This was consistent with a former Kremlin guard, Aleksey Akimov, who in the late 1960s claimed that Sverdlov personally instructed him to take a telegram to the telegraph office confirming the CEC's approval of the 'trial' (code for execution), but with strict instructions that both the written form and ticker tape should be brought back by him immediately after it had been sent.

[83] At 8:00pm, Yurovsky sent his chauffeur to acquire a truck for transporting the bodies, bringing with it rolls of canvas to wrap them in. The intention was to park it as close to the basement entrance as possible, with its engine running to mask the noise of gunshots. [84] Yurovsky and Pavel Medvedev collected 14 handguns to use that night, comprising two Browning pistols, two American Colts, two 7.65 Mausers, one Smith & Wesson and seven Belgian-made Nagants.

The Nagant operated on old black gunpowder which produced a good deal of smoke and fumes; smokeless powder was only just being phased in.

[85]In the commandant's office, Yurovsky assigned victims to each killer before distributing the handguns. He took a Mauser and Colt while Ermakov armed himself with three Nagants, one Mauser and a bayonet; he was the only one assigned to kill two prisoners, Alexandra and Botkin. He instructed his men to ""shoot straight at the heart to avoid an excessive quantity of blood and get it over quickly.""

[86] At least two of the Letts, an Austro-Hungarian prisoner of war named Andras Verhas and Adolf Lepa, himself in charge of the Lett contingent, refused to shoot the women. Yurovsky sent them to the Popov House for failing ""at that important moment in their revolutionary duty"". [87] Neither Yurovsky nor any of the killers went into the logistics of how to efficiently destroy eleven bodies.

[77] He was under pressure of ensuring that no remains would later be found by monarchists who would exploit them to rally anti-communist support. [88]Execution [ edit]From left to right: Grand Duchesses Maria, Olga, Anastasia and Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia in captivity at Tsarskoe Selo in the spring of 1917.

One of the last known photographs of Tsar Nicholas II's daughters. While the Romanovs were having dinner on 16 July, Yurovsky entered the sitting room and informed them that the kitchen boy Leonid Sednev was leaving to meet his uncle Ivan Sednev, who had returned to the city asking to see him; Ivan had already been shot by the Cheka.

[89] The family was very upset as Leonid was Alexei's only playmate and he was the fifth member of the imperial entourage to be taken from them, but they were assured by Yurovsky that he would be back soon.

Alexandra did not trust him, writing in her final diary entry just hours before her death, ""whether its [ sic] true & we shall see the boy back again!""

Leonid was in fact kept in the Popov House that night. [84] Yurovsky saw no reason to kill him and wanted him removed before the execution took place. [82]Around midnight 17 July 1918, Yakov Yurovsky, the commandant of The House of Special Purpose, ordered the Romanovs' physician, Dr. Eugene Botkin, to awaken the sleeping family and ask them to put on their clothes, under the pretext that the family would be moved to a safe location due to impending chaos in Yekaterinburg.

[90] The Romanovs were then ordered into a 6 m × 5 m (20 ft × 16 ft) semi-basement room. Nicholas asked if Yurovsky could bring two chairs, on which Tsarevich Alexei and Alexandra sat. [91] Yurovsky's assistant Grigory Nikulin remarked to him that the ""heir wanted to die in a chair. [92] Very well then, let him have one."" [80] The prisoners were told to wait in the cellar room while the truck that would transport them was being brought to the House.

A few minutes later, an execution squad of secret police was brought in and Yurovsky read aloud the order given to him by the Ural Executive Committee: 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.

[93]Nicholas, facing his family, turned and said ""What? What?"" [94] Yurovsky quickly repeated the order and the weapons were raised. The Empress and Grand Duchess Olga, according to a guard's reminiscence, had tried to bless themselves, but failed amid the shooting.

Yurovsky reportedly raised his Colt gun at Nicholas's torso and fired; Nicholas was the target of all of the assembled shooters, and he quickly fell dead, pierced by many bullets. The intoxicated Peter Ermakov, the military commissar for Verkh-Isetsk, shot and killed Alexandra with a bullet wound to the head.

He then shot at Maria, who ran for the double doors, hitting her in the thigh. [95] The remaining executioners shot chaotically and over each other's shoulders until the room was so filled with smoke and dust that no one could see anything at all in the darkness nor hear any commands amid the noise.

Alexey Kabanov, who ran out onto the street to check the noise levels, heard dogs barking from the Romanovs' quarters and the sound of gunshots loud and clear despite the noise from the Fiat's engine.

Kabanov then hurried downstairs and told the men to stop firing and kill the family and their dogs with their gun butts and bayonets. [96] Within minutes, Yurovsky was forced to stop the shooting because of the caustic smoke of burned gunpowder, dust from the plaster ceiling caused by the reverberation of bullets, and the deafening gunshots.

When they stopped, the doors were then opened to scatter the smoke. [94] While waiting for the smoke to abate, the killers could hear moans and whimpers inside the room. [97] As it cleared, it became evident that although several of the family's retainers had been killed, all of the Imperial children were not only alive but none of them had even been injured in the botched proceedings.

[94] [98]The basement where the Romanov family was killed. The wall had been torn apart in search of bullets and other evidence by investigators in 1919.

The double doors leading to a storeroom was locked during the execution. [81]The noise of the guns had been heard by households all around, and had awakened many people. The executioners were ordered to proceed with their bayonets, a technique which proved ineffective and meant that the children had to be dispatched by still more gunshots, this time aimed more precisely at their heads.

The Tsarevich was the first of the children to be executed. Yurovsky watched in disbelief as Nikulin spent an entire magazine from his Browning gun on Alexei, who was still seated transfixed in his chair; he also had jewels sewn into his undergarment and forage cap. [99] Ermakov shot and stabbed him, and when he failed, Yurovsky shoved him aside and killed the boy with a gunshot to the head.

[95] The last to die were Tatiana, Anastasia, and Maria, who were carrying a few pounds (over 1.3 kilograms) of diamonds sewn into their clothing, which had given them a degree of protection from the firing.

[100] However, they were speared with bayonets as well. Olga sustained a gunshot wound to the head. Maria and Anastasia were said to have crouched up against a wall covering their heads in terror until they were shot down. Yurovsky himself killed Tatiana and Alexei. Tatiana died from a single bullet through the back of her head. [101] Alexei received two bullets to the head, right behind the ear. [102] Anna Demidova, Alexandra's maid, survived the initial onslaught but was quickly stabbed to death against the back wall while trying to defend herself with a small pillow which she had carried that was filled with precious gems and jewels.

[103] While the bodies were being placed on stretchers, one of the girls cried out and covered her face with her arm. [104] Ermakov grabbed Alexander Strekotin's rifle and bayoneted her in the chest, [104] but when it failed to penetrate he pulled out his revolver and shot her in the head.

[105] [106]While Yurovsky was checking the victims for pulses, Ermakov went back and forth in the room, flailing the bodies with his bayonet. The execution lasted about 20 minutes, Yurovsky later admitting to Nikulin's ""poor mastery of his weapon and inevitable nerves"".

[107] Future investigations calculated that a possible 70 bullets were fired, roughly seven bullets per shooter, of which 57 were found in the basement and at all three subsequent gravesites. [96] Some of Pavel Medvedev's stretcher bearers began frisking the bodies for valuables. Yurovsky saw this and demanded that they surrender any looted items or be shot.

The attempted looting, coupled with Ermakov's incompetence and drunken state, convinced Yurovsky to oversee the disposal of the bodies himself.

[106] Only Alexei's spaniel, Joy, survived to be rescued by a British officer of the Allied Intervention Force, [108] living out his final days in Windsor, Berkshire. [109]Alexandre Beloborodov sent a coded telegram to Lenin's secretary, Nikolai Gorbunov. It was found by White investigator Nikolai Sokolov and reads: [110]Inform Sverdlov the whole family have shared the same fate as the head.

Officially the family will die at the evacuation. [111]Aleksandr Lisitsyn of the Cheka, an essential witness on behalf of Moscow, was designated to promptly dispatch to Sverdlov soon after the executions of Nicholas and Alexandra's politically valuable diaries and letters, which would be published in Russia as soon as possible.

[112] Beloborodov and Nikulin oversaw the ransacking of the Romanov quarters, seizing all the family's personal items, the most valuable piled up in Yurovsky's office whilst things considered inconsequential and of no value were stuffed into the stoves and burned. Everything was packed into the Romanovs' own trunks for dispatch to Moscow under escort by commissars.

[113] On 19 July, the Bolsheviks nationalized all confiscated Romanov properties, [114] the same day Sverdlov announced the tsar's execution to the Council of People's Commissars. [115]Disposal [ edit]The bodies of the Romanovs and their servants were loaded onto a Fiat truck equipped with a 60 HP engine, [106] with a cargo area 6 × 10 feet in size.

[104] Heavily laden, the vehicle struggled for nine miles on boggy road to reach the Koptyaki forest. Yurovsky was furious when he discovered that the drunken Ermakov had brought only one shovel for the burial.

[116] About half a mile further on, near crossing no. 185 on the line serving the Verkh-Isetsk works, 25 men working for Ermakov were waiting with horses and light carts. These men were all intoxicated and they were outraged that the prisoners were not brought to them alive.

They expected to be part of the lynch mob [117] and were hoping to abuse the women before killing them. [118] Yurovsky maintained control of the situation with great difficulty, eventually getting Ermakov's men to shift some of the bodies from the truck onto the carts.

[117] A few of Ermakov's men pawed the female bodies for diamonds hidden in their undergarments, two of whom lifted up Alexandra's skirt and fingered her genitals.

[118] [117] Yurovsky ordered them at gunpoint to back off, dismissing the two who had groped the tsarina 's corpse and any others he had caught looting. [118] One of the men sniggered that he could ""die in peace"", [117] having touched the ""royal cunt "".

[118]In the hasty disposal of the bodies, several belongings like these topazes were overlooked by Yurovsky's men and eventually recovered by Sokolov in 1919.

[11]The truck was bogged down in an area of marshy ground near the Gorno-Uralsk railway line, during which all the bodies were unloaded onto carts and taken to the disposal site. [117] The sun was up by the time the carts came within sight of the disused mine, which was a large clearing at a place called the 'Four Brothers'.

[119] Yurovsky's men first gobbled on hardboiled eggs supplied by the local nuns (food that was meant for the imperial family), while the remainder of Ermakov's men were ordered back to the city as Yurovsky did not trust them and was displeased with their drunkenness.

[3]Yurovsky and five other men laid out the bodies on the grass and undressed them, the clothes piled up and burned while Yurovsky took inventory of their jewellery.

Only Maria's undergarments contained no jewels, which to Yurovsky was proof that the family had ceased to trust her ever since she became too friendly with one of the guards back in May. [3] [120] Once the bodies were ""completely naked"" they were dumped into a mineshaft and sprinkled with sulphuric acid to disfigure them beyond recognition.

Only then did Yurovsky discover that the pit was less than 3 metres (9 feet) deep and the muddy water below did not fully submerge the corpses as he had expected. He unsuccessfully tried to collapse the mine with hand grenades, after which his men covered it with loose earth and branches.

[121] Yurovsky left three men to guard the site while he returned to Ekaterinburg with a bag filled with 18lb of looted diamonds, to report back to Beloborodov and Goloshchyokin.

It was decided that the pit was too shallow. [122]Sergey Chutskaev of the local Soviet told Yurovsky of some deeper copper mines west of Ekaterinburg, the area remote and swampy and a grave there less likely to be discovered. [77] He inspected the site on the evening of 17 July and reported back to the Cheka at the Amerikanskaya Hotel. He ordered additional trucks to be sent out to Koptyaki whilst assigning Pyotr Voykov to obtain barrels of petrol, kerosene and sulphuric acid, and plenty of dry firewood.

Yurovsky also seized several horse-drawn carts to be used in the removal of the bodies to the new site. [123] Yurovsky and Goloshchyokin, along with several Cheka agents, returned to the mineshaft at about 4:00am on the morning of 18 July. The sodden corpses were hauled out one by one using ropes tied to their limbs and laid under a tarpaulin. [122] Yurovsky, worried that he may not have enough time to take the bodies to the deeper mine, ordered his men to dig another burial pit then and there, but the ground was too hard.

He returned to the Amerikanskaya Hotel to confer with the Cheka. He seized a truck which he had loaded with blocks of concrete for attaching to the bodies before submerging them in the new mineshaft.

A second truck carried a detachment of Cheka agents to help move the bodies. Yurovsky returned to the forest at 10:00pm on 18 July. The bodies were again loaded onto the Fiat truck, which by then had been extricated from the mud. [124]Railroad ties on the Koptyaki Road in 1919.

Investigator Nikolai Sokolov took this photograph as evidence of where the Fiat truck had got stuck at 4:30am on 19 July, unaware that it was in fact the second burial site.

[125]During transportation to the deeper copper mines on the early morning of 19 July, the Fiat truck carrying the bodies got stuck again in mud near Porosenkov Log (Pig's Meadow). With the men exhausted and most refusing to obey orders, Yurovsky decided to bury them under the road where the truck had stalled.

[126] They dug a grave that was 6 × 8 ft in size and barely 60 centimetres (2 ft) deep. [127] Alexei Trupp's body was tossed in first, followed by the Tsar's and then the rest. Sulphuric acid was again used to dissolve the bodies, their faces smashed with rifle butts and covered with quicklime. Railroad ties were placed over the grave to disguise it, with the Fiat truck being driven back and forth over the ties to press them into the earth.

The burial was completed at 6:00am on 19 July. [127]Yurovsky separated the Tsarevich Alexei and one of his sisters to be buried about 15 metres (50 ft) away, in an attempt to confuse anyone who might discover the mass grave with only nine bodies.

Since the female body was badly disfigured, Yurovsky mistook her for Anna Demidova; in his report he wrote that he actually wanted to destroy Alexandra's corpse. [128] Alexei and his sister were burned, their remaining charred bones thoroughly smashed with spades and then tossed into a smaller pit.

[127] Only 44 partial bone fragments from both corpses remained, which were not found until August 2007.

[129]Sokolov's investigation [ edit]After Ekaterinburg fell to the anti-communist White Army on 25 July, Admiral Alexander Kolchak established the Sokolov Commission at the end of that month to investigate the murders. Nikolai Sokolov, a legal investigator of the Omsk Regional Court, interviewed several members of the Romanov entourage in February 1919, notably Pierre Gilliard, Alexandra Tegleva and Sydney Gibbes. [130]The Sokolov investigation inspecting the mineshaft in Spring 1919Sokolov discovered a large number of the Romanovs' belongings and valuables that were overlooked by Yurovsky and his men, in and around the mineshaft where the bodies were initially disposed of.

Among them were dismembered and burned bone fragments, congealed fat, [131] Dr Botkin's upper dentures and glasses, corset stays, insignias and belt buckles, shoes, keys, pearls and diamonds, [10] a few spent bullets and part of a severed female finger.

[100] Only the corpse of Anastasia's King Charles Spaniel, Jimmy, was found in the pit. [132] The shallow pit revealed no traces of clothing, which was consistent with Yurovsky's account that all the victims' clothes were burned before the bodies were thrown down the mineshaft.

[133] Sokolov ultimately failed to find the concealed burial site on the Koptyaki Road, photographing the spot as evidence of where the Fiat truck had got stuck on the morning of 19 July. [125] The impending return of Bolshevik forces in July 1919 forced him to evacuate, bringing with him the box containing the relics he recovered. [134] Sokolov accumulated numerous photographic and eyewitness accounts filling eight volumes. [135] He died in France in 1924 of a heart attack before he could complete his investigation.

[136] The box remains kept in the Russian Orthodox Church of Saint Job in Uccle, Brussels. [137]Recovered Romanov belongings on display at the Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville, New York.

On the right is a blouse that belonged to one of the grand duchesses [138]His preliminary report was published in a book that same year in French and then Russian, and was the only accepted historical explanation about the murders for 65 years until 1989.

[12] He wrongly concluded that the prisoners died instantly from the shooting with the exception of Alexei and Anastasia, who were shot and bayoneted to death, [139] and that the bodies were destroyed in a massive bonfire. [140] Publication and worldwide acceptance of the investigation prompted the Soviets to issue a government-approved textbook that largely plagiarized Sokolov's work in 1926, admitting that the empress and her children had been murdered with the Tsar.

[12] In 1938, Josef Stalin issued a clampdown on all discussion of the Romanov murders. [13] Sokolov's report was also banned.

[125] The Ipatiev House was deemed to be not of ""sufficient historical significance"" by Leonid Brezhnev 's Politburo and was demolished in September 1977 by KGB chairman Yuri Andropov, [5] less than a year before the sixtieth anniversary of the murders.

Yeltsin wrote in his memoirs that ""sooner or later we will be ashamed of this piece of barbarism"". The destruction of the house did not stop pilgrims or monarchists from visiting the site. [13]Local amateur sleuth Alexander Avdonin and filmmaker Geli Ryabov located the shallow grave on 30-31 May 1979 after years of covert evidence-gathering and a study of the primary evidence.

[13] [125] Three skulls were removed from the grave, but after failing to find any scientist and laboratory to help examine them, and worried about the consequences of finding the grave, Avdonin and Ryabov reburied them in the summer of 1980. [141] The presidency of Mikhail Gorbachev brought with it the era of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (reform), which prompted Ryabov to reveal the Romanov's gravesite to The Moscow News on 10 April 1989, [142] much to Avdonin's horror.

[143] The remains were disinterred in 1991 by Soviet officials in a hasty 'official exhumation' that wrecked the site, destroying precious evidence.

Since there were no clothes on the bodies and the damage inflicted was extensive, controversy persisted as to whether the skeletal remains identified and interred in St Petersburg as Anastasia's were really hers or in fact Maria's. [15] There was considerable dissent within the Russian Orthodox Church about whether or not the bones actually discovered in the forest were those of the Romanovs at all.

The Holy Synod opposed the government's decision in February 1998 to bury the remains in the Peter and Paul Fortress, preferring a ""symbolic"" grave until their authenticity had been resolved. [144] As a result, when they were interred in July 1998, they were referred to by the priest conducting the service as ""Christian victims of the Revolution"" rather than the imperial family.

[145]On 29 July 2007, another amateur group of local enthusiasts found the small pit containing the remains of Alexei and his sister, located in two small bonfire sites not far from the main grave on the Koptyaki Road.

[146] [15] Although criminal investigators and geneticists identified them as Alexei and Maria, they remain stored in the state archives pending a decision from the church, [147] which demanded a more ""thorough and detailed"" examination.

[129]Executioners [ edit]Peter Ermakov survived the civil war unscathed. However, unlike the other killers, he received no awards or advancements, for which he grew bitter. For the rest of his life, [148] he fought relentlessly for primacy by inflating his role in the murders as well as the revolution.

[149] Local Communist Party members annually pay tribute to his gravestone on the anniversary of the murders, though on a few occasions it was also vandalized.

[150]Ivan Plotnikov, history professor at the Maksim Gorky Ural State University, has established that the executioners were: Yakov Yurovsky, Grigory P. Nikulin, Mikhail A. Medvedev (Kudrin), Peter Ermakov, Stepan Vaganov, Alexey G. Kabanov (former soldier in the tsar's Life Guards and Chekist assigned to the attic machine gun), [151] Pavel Medvedev, V. N. Netrebin, and Y. M. Tselms. Filipp Goloshchyokin, a close associate of Yakov Sverdlov, being a military commissar of the Uralispolkom in Yekaterinburg, however did not actually participate, and two or three guards refused to take part.

[152] Pyotr Voykov was given the specific task of arranging for the disposal of their remains, obtaining 570 litres (150 gal) of gasoline and 180 kilograms (400 lbs) of sulphuric acid, the latter from the Yekaterinburg pharmacy.

He was a witness but later claimed to have taken part in the murders, looting belongings from a dead grand duchess. [104] After the killings, he was to declare that ""The world will never know what we did with them."" Voykov served as Soviet ambassador to Poland in 1924, where he was assassinated by a Russian monarchist in July 1927. [108]The men who were directly complicit in the murder of the imperial family largely survived in the immediate months after the murders.

[108] Stepan Vaganov, Ermakov's close associate, [153] was attacked and killed by peasants in late 1918 for his participation in local acts of brutal repression by the Cheka.

Pavel Medvedev, head of the Ipatiev House guard and one of the key figures in the murders, [60] was captured by the White Army in Perm in February 1919.

He denied taking part in the murders during his interrogation, dying in prison of typhus. [108] Alexandre Beloborodov and his deputy Boris Didkovsky were both killed in 1938 during the Great Purge. Filipp Goloshchyokin was shot in October 1941 in an NKVD prison and consigned to an unmarked grave.

[149]Three days after the murders, Yurovsky personally reported to Lenin on the events of that night and was rewarded with an appointment to the Moscow City Cheka. He held a succession of key economic and party posts, dying in the Kremlin Hospital in 1938 aged 60.

Prior to his death, he donated the guns he used in the murders to the Museum of the Revolution in Moscow, [68] and left behind three valuable, though contradictory, accounts of the event.

Yurovsky never expressed remorse over the murders. [5] Instead he reminisced, in a final letter to his children shortly before his death, on his revolutionary career and how ""the storm of October"" had ""turned its brightest side"" towards him, making him ""the happiest of mortals"". [154] He and his assistant Nikulin, who died in 1964, are buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. [155] His son, Alexander Yurvosky, voluntarily handed over his father's memoirs to amateur investigators Avdonin and Ryabov in 1978.

[156]Lenin saw the House of Romanov as ""monarchist filth, a 300-year disgrace"", [76] and referred to Nicholas II in conversation and in his writings as ""the most evil enemy of the Russian people, a bloody executioner, an Asiatic gendarme"" and ""a crowned robber."" [157] The written record taking the chain of command and the ultimate responsibility for the fate of the Romanovs back to Lenin was, from the beginning, either never made or carefully concealed.

[76] Lenin operated with extreme caution, his favoured method being to issue instructions in coded telegrams, insisting that the original and even the telegraph ribbon on which it was sent be destroyed. Uncovered documents in Archive No. 2 (Lenin), Archive No. 86 (Sverdlov) as well as the archives of the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Executive Committee reveal that a host of party 'errand boys' were regularly designated to relay his instructions, either by confidential notes or anonymous directives made in the collective name of the Council of People's Commissars.

[27] In all such decisions Lenin regularly insisted that no written evidence be preserved. The 55 volumes of Lenin's Collected Works as well as the memoirs of those who directly took part in the murders were scrupulously censored, emphasising the roles of Sverdlov and Goloshchyokin.

Lenin was, however, aware of Vasily Yakovlev's decision to take Nicholas, Alexandra and Maria further on to Omsk instead of Ekaterinburg in April 1918, having become worried about the extremely threatening behaviour of the Ural Soviets in Tobolsk and along the Trans-Siberian Railway.

The Biographical Chronicle of Lenin's political life confirms that first Lenin (between 18:00 and 19:00) and then Lenin and Sverdlov together (between 21:30 and 23:50) had direct telegraph contact with the Ural Soviets about Yakovlev's change of route.

Despite Yakovlev's request to take the family further away to the more remote Simsky Gorny District in Ufa province (where they could hide in the mountains), warning that ""the baggage"" would be destroyed if given to the Ural Soviets, Lenin and Sverdlov were adamant that they be brought to Ekaterinburg.

[158] Lenin also welcomed news of the Grand Duchess Elizabeth 's death, who was murdered in Alapayevsk along with five other Romanovs on 18 July 1918, remarking that ""virtue with the crown on it is a greater enemy to the world revolution than a hundred tyrant tsars"". [159] [160]Soviet historiography portrayed Nicholas as a weak and incompetent leader whose decisions led to military defeats and the deaths of millions of his subjects, [29] while Lenin's reputation was protected at all costs, thus ensuring that no discredit was brought on him; responsibility for the 'liquidation' of the Romanov family was directed at the Ural Soviets and Ekaterinburg Cheka.

[27]Aftermath [ edit]The Church of All Saints, built on the spot of Ipatyev House The final resting places of the Romanov family and their servants in St. Catherine's Chapel in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

Only the remains of one of the daughters and Alexei have yet to be buried. Their names are indicated on the wall, but without a burial date.

Early the next morning, when rumours spread in Yekaterinburg about the disposal site, Yurovsky removed the bodies and hid them elsewhere ( 56.942222°N 60.473333°E ).

When the vehicle carrying the bodies broke down on the way to the next chosen site, Yurovsky made new arrangements, and buried most of the acid-covered bodies in a pit sealed and concealed with rubble, covered over with railroad ties and then earth ( 56.9113628°N 60.4954326°E) on Koptyaki Road, a cart track (subsequently abandoned) 19 kilometres (12 mi) north of Yekaterinburg.

On the afternoon of 19 July, Filipp Goloshchyokin announced at the Opera House on Glavny Prospekt that ""Nicholas the bloody"" had been shot and his family taken to another place.

[161] Sverdlov granted permission for the local paper in Ekaterinburg to publish the ""Execution of Nicholas, the Bloody Crowned Murderer – Shot without Bourgeois Formalities but in Accordance with our new democratic principles"", [162] along with the coda that ""the wife and son of Nicholas Romanov have been sent to a safe place"". [163] An official announcement appeared in the national press, two days later. It reported that the monarch had been executed on the order of Uralispolkom under pressure posed by the approach of the Czechoslovaks.

[164]Over the course of 84 days after the Ekaterinburg murders, 27 more friends and relatives (14 Romanovs and 13 members of the imperial entourage and household) [165] were murdered by the Bolsheviks: at Alapayevsk on 18 July, [166]Perm on 4 September, [54] and the Peter and Paul Fortress on 24 January 1919.

[165] Unlike the imperial family, the bodies at Alapayevsk and Perm were recovered by the White Army in October 1918 and May 1919 respectively.

[167] [54] However, only the final resting places of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna and her faithful companion Sister Varvara Yakovleva are known today, buried alongside each other in the Church of Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem.

Although official Soviet accounts place the responsibility for the decision with the Uralispolkom, an entry in Leon Trotsky 's diary reportedly suggested that the order had been given by Lenin himself. Trotsky wrote: My next visit to Moscow took place after the fall of Yekaterinburg. Talking to Sverdlov I asked in passing, ""Oh yes and where is the Tsar?"" ""It's all over,"" he answered. ""He has been shot."" ""And where is his family?"" ""And the family with him.""

""All of them?"" I asked, apparently with a touch of surprise. ""All of them,"" replied Yakov Sverdlov. ""What about it?"" He was waiting to see my reaction. I made no reply. ""And who made the decision?""

I asked. ""We decided it here. Ilyich [Lenin] believed that we shouldn't leave the Whites a live banner to rally around, especially under the present difficult circumstances."" [22]However, as of 2011, there has been no conclusive evidence that either Lenin or Sverdlov gave the order. [23] V. N. Solovyov, the leader of the Investigative Committee of Russia 's 1993 investigation on the shooting of the Romanov family, [24] has concluded that there is no reliable document that indicates that either Lenin or Sverdlov were responsible.

[25] [26] He declared: According to the presumption of innocence, no one can be held criminally liable without guilt being proven. In the criminal case, an unprecedented search for archival sources taking all available materials into account was conducted by authoritative experts, such as Sergey Mironenko, the director of the largest archive in the country, the State Archive of the Russian Federation.

The study involved the main experts on the subject – historians and archivists. And I can confidently say that today there is no reliable document that would prove the initiative of Lenin and Sverdlov.— V. N. Solovyov [25]In 1993, the report of Yakov Yurovsky from 1922 was published. According to the report, units of the Czechoslovak Legion were approaching Yekaterinburg. On 17 July 1918, Yakov and other Bolshevik jailers, fearing that the Legion would free Nicholas after conquering the town, murdered him and his family. The next day, Yakov departed for Moscow with a report to Sverdlov. As soon as the Czechoslovaks seized Ekaterinburg, his apartment was pillaged. [168]Skull of Skeleton №4 (Nikolai Romanov)Over the years, a number of people claimed to be survivors of the ill-fated family. In May 1979, the remains of most of the family and their retainers were found by amateur enthusiasts, who kept the discovery secret until the collapse of Communism. [169] In July 1991, the bodies of five family members (the Tsar, Tsarina, and three of their daughters) were exhumed. [170] After forensic examination [171] and DNA identification, [172] the bodies were laid to rest with state honors in the St. Catherine Chapel of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg, where most other Russian monarchs since Peter the Great lie. [17] Boris Yeltsin and his wife attended the funeral along with Romanov relations, including Prince Michael of Kent. The remaining two bodies of Tsesarevich Alexei and one of his sisters were discovered in 2007. [129] [173]On 15 August 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church announced the canonization of the family for their ""humbleness, patience and meekness"". [174] However, reflecting the intense debate preceding the issue, the bishops did not proclaim the Romanovs as martyrs, but passion bearers instead (see Romanov sainthood ). [174]Over years 2000 to 2003 the Church of All Saints, Yekaterinburg was built on the site of Ipatiev House. On 1 October 2008, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation ruled that Nicholas II and his family were victims of political repression and rehabilitated them. [175] [176]

On Thursday, 26 August 2010, a Russian court ordered prosecutors to reopen an investigation into the murder of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, although the Bolsheviks believed to have shot them in 1918 had died long before.

The Russian Prosecutor General 's main investigative unit said it had formally closed a criminal investigation into the killing of Nicholas because too much time had elapsed since the crime and because those responsible had died. However, Moscow’s Basmanny Court ordered the re-opening of the case, saying that a Supreme Court ruling blaming the state for the killings made the deaths of the actual gunmen irrelevant, according to a lawyer for the Tsar’s relatives and local news agencies.

[177]See also [ edit]Ipatiev House Ganina Yama Regicide References [ edit]^ a b William H. Honan (12 August 1992), A Playwright Applies His Craft To Czar Nicholas II's Last Days, New York Times, retrieved 25 February 2017^ Massie, Robert K. (2012).

The Romanovs: The Final Chapter. Random House. pp. 3–24.^ a b c d Rappaport, p. 198^ Clifford J Levy (25 November 2007), Sleuths say they've found the last Romanovs, The New York Times, retrieved 30 September 2016^ a b c Pringle, p. 261^ a b Wendy Slater, p.153^ From the archive, 22 July 1918: Ex-tsar Nicholas II executed, The Guardian, 22 July 2015, retrieved 29 September 2016^ Joshua Hammer (November 2010), Resurrecting the Czar, Smithsonian, retrieved 29 September 2016^ Massie, p. 16^ a b c d Rappaport, p 218^ a b Photographic scans of Sokolov's investigation, published in 1924, 18 December 2015, retrieved 9 March 2017^ a b c Massie, p. 19^ a b c d Rappaport, p. 219^ a b Michael D Coble (26 September 2011), The identification of the Romanovs: Can we (finally) put the controversies to rest?, Investigative Genetics, retrieved 30 September 2016^ a b c Rappaport, p. 220^ The mystery of the Romanovs' untimely demise - Page 4, Russia Beyond the Headlines, retrieved 15 January 2017^ a b ""Romanovs laid to rest"".

BBC News. 17 July 1998.^ a b Alec Luhn (23 September 2015), Russia reopens criminal case on 1918 Romanov royal family murders, The Guardian, retrieved 30 September 2016^ Rappaport, Four Sisters (2014), p. 381^ Robert Gellately. Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe Knopf, 2007 ISBN 1-4000-4005-1 p. 65.^ Figes, Orlando (1997). A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891–1924. Penguin Books. p. 638. ISBN 0-19-822862-7.^ a b King, G. (1999). The Last Empress, Replica Books, p. 358. ISBN 0735101043.^ a b The Daily Telegraph (17 January 2011).

""No proof Lenin ordered last Tsar's murder"".^ a b ""Расследование убийства Николая II и его семьи, продолжавшееся 18 лет, объявлено завершенным"" (in Russian). НТВ-новости. Archived from the original on 11 February 2013. Retrieved 29 December 2012.^ a b c "" "" Уголовное дело цесаревича Алексея"".

На вопросы обозревателя ""Известий"" Татьяны Батенёвой ответил следователь по особо важным делам Следственного комитета Российской Федерации Владимир Соловьёв"". 17 January 2011.^ a b Интервью следователя Соловьёв, Владимир Николаевич (следователь) – В. Н. Соловьёва и Аннинский, Лев Александрович – Л. А. Аннинского (2008).

Расстрельный дом (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2015-05-01.^ a b c Rappaport, p. 142^ The Associated Press (18 July 1998), Address by Yeltsin: 'We Are All Guilty', The New York Times, retrieved 3 April 2017^ a b Martin Vennard (27 June 2012), Tsar Nicholas - exhibits from an execution, BBC News, retrieved 3 April 2017^ Tames, p. 56^ Tames, p. 62^ a b c d Rappaport, p. 22^ Rappaport, Four Sisters (2014) p. 371^ a b c d e Rappaport, p. 20^ a b Rappaport, p. 23^ Rappaport, p. 102^ a b Rappaport, p. 31^ Rappaport, Four Sisters (2014), p. 372^ Massie, p. 283^ King G. and Wilson P., p. 127^ Rappaport, p. 27^ a b Radzinsky, p. 383^ Massie, p. 278^ a b Rappaport, p. 16^ Massie, p. 289^ a b c Rappaport, p. 17^ a b Rappaport, p. 118-119^ a b Rappaport, p. 17-18^ Rappaport, p. 29^ Rappaport, p. 21^ Rappaport, p. 25^ a b Rappaport, p. 24^ a b Rappaport, p. 34^ a b c Rappaport, Four Sisters (2014), p. 377^ Rappaport, Four Sisters (2014), p. xv^ Rappaport, Four Sisters (2014), p. xiv^ Rappaport, p. 157^ Rappaport, p. 159^ Rappaport, p. 160^ a b c Rappaport, p. 171^ Rappaport, p. 97^ John Browne, Hidden Account of the Romanovs, p. 471^ Rappaport, p. 140^ Rappaport, p. 86-87^ Bullock, David (2012) The Czech Legion 1914–20, Osprey Publishing ISBN 1780964587^ a b c Rappaport, p. 130^ a b Rappaport, p. 125^ a b Slater, p. 53^ Rappaport, p. 120^ Rappaport, p. 144^ Rappaport, p. 132^ Rappaport, p. 134^ Rappaport, p. 34-35^ Rappaport, p. 117^ Rappaport, Four Sisters (2014), p. 378^ a b c Rappaport, p. 141^ a b c Rappaport, p. 201^ Rappaport, p. 167^ Rappaport, p. 168^ a b Rappaport, p. 186^ a b c Rappaport, p. 176^ a b Rappaport, p. 178^ a b Rappaport, p. 178-179^ a b Rappaport, p. 180^ Rappaport, p. 181^ Montefiore, p. 644^ Rappaport, p. 182^ Rappaport, p. 175-176^ Rappaport, p. 179-180^ Massie (2012).

The Romanovs: The Final Chapter. pp. 3–24.^ Massie (2012). The Romanovs: The Final Chapter. p. 4.^ Slater, p. 5^ William Clarke (2003).

The Lost Fortune of the Tsars. St. Martin's Press. p. 66.^ a b c 100 великих казней, M., Вече, 1999, p. 439 ISBN 5-7838-0424-X^ a b Montefiore, p. 645^ a b Rappaport, p. 193^ Rappaport, p. 189-190^ Greg King; Penny Wilson (6 July 2014). The Fate of the Romanovs. Lulu.com. p. 357. ISBN 978-1-312-33381-9.^ Rappaport, p. 191^ a b Massie, p. 8^ King G. and Wilson P., The Fate of the Romonovs, p. 303^ Massie, p. 6^ Radzinsky (1992), pp.

380–393^ a b c d Rappaport, p. 194^ Jeffrey A Frank (19 July 1992), RELIVING A MASSACRE, The Washington Post, retrieved 2 October 2016^ a b c Slater, p. 8^ Rappaport, p. 192^ a b c d Rappaport, p. 214^ Kate Baklitskaya, Go East (21 January 2014), Royal dog fled from Siberia into British exile, living in shadow of Windsor Castle, The Siberian Times, retrieved 13 March 2017^ Excerpt of Sokolov's investigation, retrieved 9 March 2017^ Из архива сэра Чарльза Элиота, 18 December 2015, retrieved 9 March 2017^ Rappaport, p. 195^ Rappaport, p. 200^ Rappaport, p. 157^ Rappaport, p. 208^ Rappaport, p. 196^ a b c d e Rappaport, p. 197^ a b c d Slater, p. 9^ Slater, p. 10^ Montefiore, p. 639^ Rappaport, p. 199^ a b Rappaport, p. 203^ Rappaport, p. 202^ Rappaport, p. 204^ a b c d Massie, p. 26^ Slater, p. 13-14^ a b c Rappaport, p. 205^ Massie, p. 27^ a b c Luke Harding (25 August 2007).

""Bones found by Russian builder finally solve riddle of the missing Romanovs"". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 March 2017.^ Rappaport, Four Sisters (2014), p. 379^ Massie, p. 124^ Massie, p. 10^ Massie, p. 39^ Massie, p. 123^ Rappaport, p. 212^ Alla Astanina (18 April 2015), Nikolai Sokolov: The man who revealed the story of the Romanov killings, Russia Beyond the Headlines, retrieved 10 March 2017^ Remnick, Reporting: Writings from the New Yorker, p. 222^ Eve M. Kahn (3 April 2014), Treasures and Trivia of the Romanov Era, New York Times, retrieved 30 March 2017^ Sokolov, p. 12^ Slater, p. 45^ Massie, p. 30^ Massie, p. 30^ Massie, p. 31^ The Last Tsar, Russian Archives Online, retrieved 15 April 2017^ Rappaport, p. 221^ Russia dig finds 'tsar's family', BBC News, 24 August 2007, retrieved 13 March 2017^ Anna Malpas, 100 years on, debate rolls on over Russia's last tsar, Yahoo News, retrieved 13 March 2017^ Radzinsky, p. 397^ a b Rappaport, p. 215""^ Paul Gilbert (18 July 2014), Communists Lay Flowers at the Grave of the Murderer of Russia's Imperial Family, Royal Russia News, retrieved 1 October 2016^ Radzinsky, p. 383^ Plotnikov, Ivan (2003).

О команде убийц царской семьи и ее национальном составе Журнальный зал, No. 9 (in Russian)^ Rappaport, p. 127^ Rappaport, p. 216^ Radzinsky, p 430.^ Massie, p. 28^ Rappaport, p. 137^ Rappaport, p. 139^ The French Revolution and the Russian Anti-Democratic Tradition: A Case of False Consciousness (1997). Dmitry Shlapentokh. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 1-56000-244-1. p. 266^ The Speckled Domes (1925).

Gerard Shelley. p. 220^ Rappaport, p. 206^ Rappaport, p. 208^ Rappaport, p. 207^ Steinberg, Mark D.; Khrustalëv, Vladimir M.; Tucker, Elizabeth (1995). The Fall of the Romanovs. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-07067-5.^ a b King & Wilson, Epilogue section^ Massie, p. 251^ Rappaport, p. 213^ ""Murder of the Imperial Family – Yurovsky Note 1922 English"". Alexander Palace. Retrieved 21 November 2015.^ Massie, pp. 32–35^ Massie, pp. 40 ff.^ Покаяние. Материалы правительственной комиссии по изучению вопросов, связанных с исследованием и перезахоронением останков Российского Императора Николая II и членов его семьи (Repentance. Proceedings of the government commission to study issues related to the study and reburial of the remains of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II and his family) ISBN 5-87468-039-X^ Gill, P; Ivanov, PL; Kimpton, C; Piercy, R; Benson, N; Tully, G; Evett, I; Hagelberg, E; Sullivan, K (1994). ""Identification of the remains of the Romanov family by DNA analysis"". Nature Genetics. 6 (2): 130–5. doi: 10.1038/ng0294-130. PMID 8162066.^ Coble, Michael D.; et al. (2009). ""Mystery solved: the identification of the two missing Romanov children using DNA analysis"". PLOS ONE. 4 (3): e4838. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0004838. PMC 2652717. PMID 19277206.^ a b ""Nicholas II And Family Canonized For 'Passion ' "". New York Times. 15 August 2000. Retrieved 10 December 2008.^ BBCNews (1 October 2008). Russia's last tsar rehabilitated. Retrieved on 1 October 2008^ Blomfield, Adrian (1 October 2008). Russia exonerates Tsar Nicholas II The Telegraph.^ ""Russia: Inquiry Into Czar's Killing Is Reopened"". The New York Times. 27 August 2010. Further reading [ edit]Cross, Anthony (2014). In the Lands of the Romanovs: An Annotated Bibliography of First-hand English-language Accounts of the Russian Empire (1613-1917). Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers. 2014. doi: 10.11647/OBP.0042Massie, Robert K. (2012). The Romanovs: The Final Chapter. Random House. Mc Neal, Shay. The Secret Plot to Save the Tsar: New Truths Behind the Romanov Mystery. Harper Collins, 2003. ISBN 0-06-051755-7, ISBN 978-0-06-051755-7Radzinsky, Edvard. The last Tsar: the life and death of Nicholas II (Random House, 2011)Rappaport, Helen. Four Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Romanov Grand Duchesses. Pan Macmillan, 2014. ISBN 978-1-4472-5935-0Rappaport, Helen. The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg. St. Martin's Griffin, 2010. ISBN 978-0312603472Slater, Wendy. The Many Deaths of Tsar Nicholas II: Relics, Remains and the Romanovs (Routledge, 2007)Tames, R (1972) Last of the Tsars, Pan Books, ISBN 0330029029Montefiore, Simon Sebag. The Romanovs: 1613-1918, Alfred A. Knopf, 2016. ISBN 978-0307266521Pringle, Robert W. Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence. Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. ISBN 978-1-4422-5318-6 (e-book)External links [ edit]Wikimedia Commons has media related to Execution of the Romanov family. In search of the Romanovs (Time.com)Execution Of The Romanov Family on You Tube as seen in the movie The Romanovs: An Imperial Family Alexander Palace Time Machine Categories: Execution of the Romanov family Mass murder in Russia Assassinations in Russia 1918 in Russia Russian Revolution Nicholas II of Russia Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia Yekaterinburg July 1918 events Unsolved murders in Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire "

The Romanov dynasty began in 1613 when Mikhail Feodorovich was elected sovereign of all of Russia. It came to a brutal end 300 years later with the murder of Nicholas II by the Bolsheviks. Many of the Romanov rulers, like Peter and Catherine the Great, were known for the reforms they introduced in Russia.

"- Historical Context -The last Romanov Rasputin : The devil monk February revolution Romanov arrest Captivity in Tobolsk October revolution Ekaterinburg...17: A fatal figure for Romanov... The last Romanov

Centuries before Boris Yeltsin introduced a moratorium on executions, a Romanov ruler banned the death penalty outright. Other Romanovs introduced changes, which in some ways improved the lives of the common Russian. Yet, when Nicholas II came to the thron e in 1894, he did so with the strong conviction that his right to rule was God-given.

Moreover, he ruled a country in which the disparity between the lifestyles of the highly wealthy imperial family and that of Russia's miserably poor peasantry couldn't have been stronger. Pierre Gilliard (16/05/1879 - 30/05/1962)At the beginning of the 20th century, Swiss tutors are fashionable in Russia! That's why a 25 years old Swiss young people, Pierre Gilliard, is hired as French professor for Duke Serge de Leuchtenberg, the son of a Czar's cousin.

The next year, Gilliard met the imperial Romanov family during an invitation and the Czar and his wife seek him later to teach their two elder daughters, Olga and Tatiana. After some years, Pierre Gilliard also takes care of younger daughters, Maria and Anastasia and at the end, the Tsarevich Alexei since 1912. Due to his responsibility, Pierre Gilliard follows regularly the Russian Imperial family during his journeys in Livadia, Peterhof, Spala or aboard the Yacht ""Standart"".

If he lived first in St Petersburg and went to Tsarskoïe-Selo only for his lessons, Pierre Gilliard, named official tutor of the Tsarevich Alexei, settles down in the Alexander Palace. It's during this time he learns about the hemophilia of the Tsarevich which will remain secret until 1914.

During the Russian revolution, Pierre Gilliard voluntarily shares, as well as other close relations remained faithful to Romanov, their captivity, first in Tsarskoïé Selo, then in Tobolsk where they are moved later. Arrived at Yekaterinburg with Romanov family, Gilliard will not be admitted by Bolsheviks to follow them in Ipatiev House.

This, will save his life ! After the murder of the Romanov, Pierre Gilliard assists Sokolov judge during his inquiry and, loaded with files of the inquiry and several suitcases of human remains and elements found in the four brother's pits mines, he succeded, after a very long and hard journey, to leave Russia and come back to Switzerland.

Here, Pierre Gilliard marries in 1922 Alexandra Alexandrovna Tagleva, the former lady-in-waiting of the Grand Duchesses who had also shared Romanov captivity, and come back to university in order to finish his studies stopped in 1904 by its departure for Russia.

Having noticed in the newspapers all rumors surrounding the death of the Imperial family, Pierre Gilliard, in order to restore the truth, begin to write some newspaper articles for L'Illustration. This articles will be the starting point of his book "" Le destin tragique de Nicolas II et de sa famille "" published by Payot in 1921.

In this book, he describes in details his 13 years spent with the Imperial family in a sober and neutral way. Sharing with Romanov its passion for photography, the book is illustrated with numerous photos which give us a great and touching testimony of the daily life of the Romanov family from his peak to his exile. Sharing Sokolov judge conviction, Gilliard concludes, at the end of his book, that all the Romanov family has been killed and the bodies completely destroyed.

Heard as a witness during the lawsuit of the Anna Anderson pretender, Pierre Gillard becomes a virulent detractor of the woman and will also publish with Constantin Savitch in 1929 another book "" La fausse Anastasia "".

These two books will quickly become best-sellers. After, Pierre Gilliard did some jobs in Italia and in a business school. In 1926, he teachs the modern French at the University in Lausanne and became his director and chairman until 1949.

Gilliard dead on May, 30th 1962 at Lausanne, without heir (His wife died in 1952) and after having bequeathed his personal archives to the university library.

Romanov family : From left to right and from top to bottom : Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Aleksandra, Nicholas, Anastasia and Alexei. Nicholas II had a weak personality and was not at all prepared for his future post as Czar. This man, who only aspired for a restful family life, became the head of a huge state in full mutation after his father's death.

He had not anticipated such a change in Russia and he always reacted under the pressure of events, either too late, or too clumsily. Moreover, he was conscious of the holy character of his mission and he would always defend the monarchy's prerogatives when important concessions were inevitable.

Nicholas's wife was the German-born granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England - Alix, Princess von Hesse, who became Aleksandra when she joined the Russian Orthodox Church in preparation for her wedding. They had five children: (at the times of their deaths), Grand Duchesses Olga (2 2 ), Tatiana (21), Maria (19), Anastasia (17), and the Tsarevich Alexei (1 3 ).

Nicholas's rule began on several ominous notes: As the future Czarina Aleksandra first appeared officially in Russia during Alexander III's funeral, people said, ""She arri v es behind a coffin, she will bring bad luck.""

To mark the coronation of a new Czar, it was Russian tradition to offer food and drink to the people. When Nicholas came to the throne, about 700,000 people were assembled in Khodynskoe field to celebrate it, but a stampede occured and 2000 people were crushed to death.

Nicholas and Aleksandra made the situation even worse by attending a ball the night after the tragedy, giving the impression that they had a distinct lack of concern for their subjects. The Czar's soldiers drove this impression home nine years later when they opened fire on a group of about 120,000 workers who had marched to the Winter Palace to protest working conditions.

They killed or injured hundreds of people in a group that included women and children. Nicholas, as a result, introduced a Constitution and created a Parliament, the Duma, to give the people a voice, but the measures were too shy and too late. Unrest continued in Russia; an echo of turmoil on the world scene which was about to erupt into World War I.

At first, Russians saw their participation in the battle against Germany as heroic, but as the death tolls rose, popular opinion turned against continued involvement in the conflict and against Nicholas's German-born wife Aleksandra. Rasputin : The devil monk Aleksandra had long since come under the influence of one of the century's most-colorful characters, Grigory Yekfimovich Novykh, better known as Rasputin.

The so-called ""holy man"" was born in Siberia in 1872 and arrived in St. Petersburg in 1911. He gained his hold over the Czarina by his apparently miraculous ability to heal the tsarevich, who suffered from what was believed to have been hemophilia.

(No doctor at the time ever confirmed the diagnosis and the illness was kept secret). She kept him in her private circle despite well-documented stories of his drinking and womanizing.

Grigory Yekfimovich Novykh, better known as Rasputin. Aleksandra began to trust his opinion on an ever-widening range of issues, and he even advised on the hiring and firing of government ministers while Nicholas was at war. Nicholas, in one letter from the battlefield, gave information about troop movements to his wife, and then begged her to keep them secret.

The Czar's relatives, fearing the ever-growing influence wielded by Rasputin, hatched a plot to kill him. The mad monk's death became the source of his enduring fame-the murderers poisoned and shot him to no avail.

It was only by tying him up and throwing him into a frozen river that they succeeded in ending his life.

Legend has it that when his body was recovered, his bonds were broken and his lungs were full of water, indicating that he had been alive when he had been thrown into the river. His death, at the end of 1916, came as the country was about to plunge into revolution.. February revolution Lenin and Trotsky.

Two main actors of Red October Involved in the first World War because of alliances, Russia had serious military reverses while the people suffered from the economic aftermath of the conflict. In February 1917, a spontaneous strike movement requiring an end to the fighting ruined Petrograd. First, toughly repressed by police who did not hesitate to shoot on people, the movement spread to the army, which progressively passed with demonstrators.

The Duma (the Russian Parliament) set up a temporary government to maintain order. In spite of this, insurrection spread so much that the situation ended up uncontrolled by army officers who implored Nicholas II to abdicate. He finally made his decision on March 1, 1917, first in favor of Alexei, then in favor of his brother, the Great Duke Mich a el, who in his turn abdicated in favor of the temporary government. So, this last abdication marked the end of monarchy in Russia. Romanov arrest The temporary government initially held the royal family under house arrest in their palace. Their first intention was to send them into exile in England, but the government could not stand up to the growing power of the Bolsheviks.

By the fall of 1917, the Bolsheviks had prevailed over the other major revolutionary groups and they had control of Moscow and St. Petersburg soviets. Soon after that, they established a government. Charles Sydney Gibbes (19/01/1876 - 24/03/1963)Charles Sydney Gibbes is born on 19 January 1876 at Rotherham where his father, John Gibbes, manages a local bank.

His mother, Mary Ann Elizabeth, from Surrey, is the daughter of a watchmaker named Fisher. If Gibbes family had 11 children, only 5 survived. Charles, the youngest surviving son, starts studies at Broadstairs, in the south, then at Hornsea, on the East Riding coast. His father wishing him entering the Church, Charles Sydney goes on St John's College, Cambridge where he acquires his diploma 4 years later, in 1899.

Starting after theological courses at Cambridge and Salisbury, Charles realizes here he has no real religious vocation and against his father advice, he searches his real way. Gibbes's languages being good, he decides to teach English in foreign countries. Then, it's in St Petersburg, he starts teaching for various aristocratic households and become teacher at the Imperial School of Law.

In 1908, he is asked by Imperial Family to teach English to the Grand Duchesses . In 1913, he also starts teaching English to the nine-year-old tsarevich.

In 1917, when February Revolution burst and Romanov family is kept under arrest, Gibbs, unlikely, is in Petrograd and returning to Tsarskoe Selo, he is not allowed to enter to give his lessons to Romanov children. During all months Romanov will be kept prisoners of their Palace, Gibbes couldn't find a way to see them.

It's only after Romanov departure to Siberia that Gibbes is allowed to enter the Palace and collect the few belongings he had left here.

Decided to join Romanov family in Tobolsk, he finished his business in Petrograd and took a train for the city where the Romanov are kept and arrive here in October 1917 to share their captivity. In May 1918, when Romanov family is moved from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg, Gibbes, like French teacher Pierre Gilliard an other servants is not allowed to follow them in Ipatiev house and is let free.

The group stayed in Yekaterinburg and after Romanov death, he helped, like Pierre Gilliard, Sokolov judge during his inquiry. Since this time, Gibbes works successively as secretary in the High commissioner at Omsk and as assistant in the Chinese Maritime Customs in Manchuria.

Then, Gibbes establish himself in Harbin where he meets, in 1922, a 22 years old orphan, Georges Paveliev, he adopted later. Back to England some years later, he adopts, on 25 April 1934, at the age of fifty-eight, the Orthodox faith, becomes a monk and is ordained to the Orthodox priesthood under name of Father Nicholas, in honor of the former Czar.

Then, he become gradually a leading orthodox figure in England and established himself at Oxford in Marston Street and settled here a little Chapel gathering some relics of Imperial Family like icons, clothes, or even thechandelier which hung in the bedroom shared by Grand Duchesses in Ipatiev house.

Charles Sydney Gibbes dies in London on 24 march 1963, aged 87. He is buried in the Headington Cemetery. The recollections (letters, photos) of his life have been published in a book "" T he house of special purpose"", by J. C. Trewin.

Captivity in Tobolsk On August 1, 1917, the imperial family and many of their friends left Petrograd for Tobolsk by train and arrived there on August 6. Nicholas stood in the former residence of the Governor of the province. The family was first taken care of with many considerations and solicitude.

The commander of the garrison did his best to make their captivity not too difficult. Life in Tobolsk was quiet and monotonous.

The population of the region appeared nice and sympathetic towards the former Czar. At that time in Petrograd, where the political situation was still instable, Bolsheviks carried on their work of destabilization with a divided government. Still in exile, Lenin headed the movement and so did a man named Trotsky. One of the last photo of Romanov family (without Aleksandra) at Tobolsk October revolution On the night of October 24-25, 1917, thousands of red guards infested Petrograd and overthrew the temporary government.

Bolsheviks had won the part. In Tobolsk, the Romanovs' situation had become worse since September with the arrival of a new red commissioner. This commissioner quickly converted guards to the Bolsheviks' ideas. From that moment, the royal family had to face rude attitudes and they were offended.

""The Delivery of the Romanovs to the Ural Soviet"" Picture from the artist V. Pchelin A new commissioner named Vassili Yakovlev, sent by the new Bolshevik governmet, arrived in Tobolsk on April 22 to remove the Romanovs away from the region. But Alexei, only 13 years old, had just fallen, which caused internal bleeding. He could not be moved at that time.

Four days later, Nicholas, Aleksandra, and their daughter Maria finally left Tobolsk with Yakovlev. We can think that Germany's government pressured the Bolshevik government to move the Romanovs away from Tobolsk.

Indeed, they could not leave such a symbol of anti-revolutionary movement in this part of Russia, which had remained faithful to the former Czar. The train that was supposed to carry the Romanovs to Moscow was stopped by Bolsheviks in Ekaterinburg on April 30. Peter the Great had founded Ekaterinberg in 1723 as the gateway to the colonization of Siberia. He named the city after his wife, Ekaterina.

In 1924, Ekaterinb u rg was renamed Sverdlovsk, the name of one of the Bolshevik leaders in charge of the Romanovs' execution. The city's historical name was changed back in 1991. Ekaterinburg In Ekaterinburg, the Bolsheviks had improvised a place of detention for the Romanovs; a house of special purpose.

Nicholas Ipatiev, a wealthy burgess of the city, was moved from his house just before the Romanovs' arrival and the Bolsheviks fenced it in with wood boards that rose up to the top windows. Former Czar Nicholas saw in the name of this house (called in Ekaterinburg 'Ipatievski dom') a fatal destiny sign. Indeed, in 1613, the founder of the Romanovs dynasty, Mikhail Fedorovich, was in the monastery of Ipatievski near Kostroma when he accepted the autocratic Czar crown from the Muscovite embassy. Olga, Tatiana, Anastasia, Alexei, and other close friends who had been a part of the Romanovs' captivity from the beginning joined them in Ekaterinburg on May 23.

Most of these friends were not admitted in Ipatiev house and put into jail. Others like Pierre Gilliard and Sidney Gibb e s, Alexei's teachers were let free. Bolshevicks asked them to leave the city. The Ipatiev house was kept by a squadron of bolsheviks soldiers directed by commander Avdief.

The conditions of captivity were harder than at Tobolsks and the Romanovs had to endure the guards ragging and humiliations. In July, Avdief was replaced by a new man : Yakov Yurovsky who brought with him ten other men, the future execution squadron... Ipatiev house with the wood fence in Ekaterinburg17 : A fatal figure for Romanov... May 17, 1896: During the night of Nicholas and Aleksandra's coronation, about 1400 people died and 1300 were injured after the Khodynsk tragedy. October 17, 1905 : The manifest ending absolute power of Nicholas II was signed. December 17, 1916 : Rasputin was assassinated. He had predicted that the Romanovs' fall would be linked with his own death.19 17: The Bolsheviks took power in Russia. July 17, 1918: The Romanov family was murdered by Bolsheviks. "

""It's a difficult case. ""The report's final evidence was published online last week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Bolsheviks killed Czar Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra and their five children in 1918 as Russia plunged into bitter civil war.

No survivors in Russian Czar family murders

Confusion reigned for 90 years about a possible surviving daughter of Czar Nicholas II, the last Imperial ruler of Russia. Now a public report reveals how modern investigators established that neither Anastasia nor the czar's other children found a fairy tale ending. DNA analysis linked a known grave for most of the murdered Romanov family with two human remains found in 2007.

Russian authorities confirmed the discovered bodies as the last missing children in mid-2008, after getting results from labs in Russia, the U. S. and U. K.""I was requested to do the study,"" said Evgeny Rogaev, a molecular geneticist at the University of Massachusetts lab who took the lead on the scientific investigation.

The new analysis came after the September reopening of a criminal case into the killing of Nicholas II and his immediate family by the Bolshevik in 1918, the year after he abdicated.

Bones discovered in Russian mine ARE those of Tsar Nicholas II and his wife: DNA tests confirm remains belong to executed leader meaning family could finally be laid to rest together

"Bones discovered in Russian mine ARE those of Tsar Nicholas II and his wife: DNA tests confirm remains belong to executed leader meaning family could finally be laid to rest together New DNA tests comparing the exhumed bones of Russia 's tragic last tsar to known royal bloodstains have proved beyond doubt Samples taken from descendants of Britain's Queen Victoria genetically match the lower jaw of his controversial German-born empress Alexandra Russian Orthodox Church questioned whether previous tests were sound By Will Stewart In Russia For Mailonline Published: 21:59 EDT, 11 November 2015 | Updated: 07:14 EDT, 12 November 20156.4kshares162View comments+3New analysis was made after the September reopening of a criminal case into the killing of Nicholas II and his immediate family by the Bolshevik in 1918, the year after he abdicated New DNA tests comparing the exhumed bones of Russia's tragic last tsar to known royal bloodstains have proved beyond doubt that the final Romanov emperor's remains are genuine, it has been revealed.

And new samples taken from unnamed female descendants of Britain's Queen Victoria genetically match the lower jaw of his controversial German-born empress Alexandra, who brought disgrace on the royals due to her close liaison with crazed monk Rasputin.

The tests were required by the Russian Orthodox Church, which feared that earlier DNA results on bones found buried in mineshafts in the Urals were not sound.

Fragments of the lower jaw and neck vertebra of the last tsar matched DNA from bloodstained clothing of Alexander II who was assassinated in 1881, said the Russian Investigative Committee, equivalent of the FBI. The genetic material from the tsar's bones matches a new test on blood from a shirt worn by Nicholas II, then Crown Prince, during an attempt on his life in Japan in 1891.

'In these samples there was found heteroplasmy - a rare genetic mutation which was present in the samples of Nikolai II,' said spokesman Vladimir Markin.

Alexandra's mitochondrial DNA matches 'the blood of the female descendants of the British Queen Victoria', her grandmother, he said. The bones of the last tsar, his wife, and three of their daughters were dug up in woodland near Ekaterinburg at the end of the Soviet era a quarter of a century ago.

Tsar Nicholas II and royal family leave household in Russia Loaded Progress 0:00/0:00RELATED ARTICLESPrevious 1 Next See historic discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb in COLOUR... EXCLUSIVE: Biker massacre which killed nine in shoot-out... Scientists on the verge of finding Queen Nefertiti's secret...

EXCLUSIVE: Executed with point blank shots to the head, and... Share this article6.4k shares They were buried in St Petersburg in 1998, with tsar-lookalike Prince Michael of Kent representing the Queen, but many churchmen doubted that they were the genuine remains of the Romanovs. A 2007 find of tiny remains of bones believed to be Crown Prince Alexey and his sister Maria could only be buried once the church is satisfied that all the bones are authentic.

After the royals were gunned down, their remains were cast into old mineshafts by the Bolshevik revolutionaries.+3The remains of Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia, on display in Yekaterinburg+3Tsar Nicholas Alexandrovich Romanov (Tsar Nicholas II 1868-1918) and Alix of Hesse (1872-1918), in England at approximately the time of their courtship in the 1890s Tsar Nicholas II and his daughters filmed in 1914Loaded Progress 0:00/0:00Scientists have always maintained that the earlier DNA tests - which involved matches to the Duke of Edinburgh - were genuine.

'The newly-performed tests once again proved the genuine nature of the Ekaterinburg remains,' said Markin.

Despite this, some further tests are underway to complete checks demanded by churchmen, he said. Advertisement Read more: Breaking Russia News Stories, Pictures and Videos | Daily Mail Online Share or comment on this article6.4kshares Most watched News videos Embed this Dreadful footage shows moment before dog is cruelly killed... Rickshaw driver confronted after charging £150 for...

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Athletes sip champagne on... MOST READ NEWSPrevious Next● ● ● ●Comments 157Share what you think Newest Oldest Best rated Worst rated View all The comments below have not been moderated.galahad-123, Manchester-Vancouver-, Canada, 2 years ago I thought the Tsar and family were interred in St Petersburg in 1998 after tests from the Duke of Edinburghs DNA proved positive...due to his Mothers connection to the Tsar........... RIP....546Click to rate Quarmby, St Andrews, United Kingdom, 2 years ago""German-born empress Alexandra, who brought disgrace on the royals due to her close liaison with crazed monk Rasputin.""

Never let your ignorance of the facts hold you back from parading the fact of your ignorance in public, eh Stewart?

You're writing for the right paper, though - the Mail is so used to smearing the living, why leave the dead in peace.1575Click to rate Chris Mackey, Cravon Manor, United States, 2 years ago Nicholas was a weak and bad man.13021Click to rate2 of 5 replies See all replies Just AGuy, Omaha, United States, 2 years ago Communism is on the rise in the United States these days.

Chris's opinion doesn't surprise me.715Click to rate Perspectivus, Calmar, United States, 2 years ago Nicholas was a good man. But a weak ruler.546Click to rate Schmerzkopf, Berlin, Germany, 2 years ago Wow, another article to attract 'meritards and their supporters to write cr.ap about Russia.

Seems like a permanently trendy thing to do!3333Click to rategary, southampton, 2 years ago Read up on the aristocracy of Europe and particularly this branch of the family and then see if you have any sympathy.7824Click to rate2 of 5 replies See all replies Chris Mackey, Cravon Manor, United States, 2 years ago Oddball, just because the Soviets were bad doesn't negate what Nicholas and the other Tsars did.

One bad regime doesn't make bad predecessors good.2122Click to rate RAQuattro, ann arbor, 2 years ago The children did not deserve to, Chris.

They were innocent. However, it is true that the Tsars were brutal. No doubt about that. The Soviets killed millions.

They were worse.828Click to ratedangermouse, South West England, United Kingdom, 2 years ago That's Marxism for you.1260Click to rate Alexandra White, Calgary, Canada, 2 years ago We do not appreciate the very cheap gossip that is still being spread by mediocre gossip columnists about, as per this article, ""the controversial Russian Empress Alexandra who brought disgrace on the royals due to her close liaison with crazed monk Rasputin"".

Firstly, if you read memoirs, letters or diaries of the contemporaries - Express Alexandra was a devout Orthodox believer, an exceptional mother, a faithful and loving spouse to the last Russian Tsar; they shared a rather uncommon (among royals), very close spiritual and psychological connection, and remained faithful to each other till the end.

Secondly, Rasputin the monk, as confirmed by many accounts, was the only one able to keep the heir to the Russian throne (who was ill with incurable hemophilia and nearly died a few times), alive and more or less functioning.

The doctors were unable to help, so the family kept Rasputin. What would you do if you had to fulfill the obligation to produce an heir to the throne?6126Click to rate Anita S., Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 2 years ago I don't believe that either. There's plenty of evidence that Nickolai was absolutely smitten with Alexandra (even before marrying her.

Pretty soon after meeting her he knew she was the one) and that it was mutual.280Click to ratephoebe33, Toronto, Canada, 2 years ago Change the constitution to permit female heirs. Grand Duchess Olga (eldest daughter of Nicholas and Alexandra) would have been great.129Click to rate ANYWAYUP-69, dingwall, United Kingdom, 2 years ago Perhaps the British royal family will at last offer their cousins the safety they requested.

Reckon they got it wrong in 1917 if only to save their own skins.1093Click to ratemaya7, Baja, Mexico, 2 years ago Not to save their skin but not to loose popularity with the real powers.

They even lied about it. Just horrible.1053Click to rate Peter Stride, Earth, Canada, 2 years ago Russians are a strange permanently angry and sour bunch.5865Click to rate2 of 4 replies See all replies Schmerzkopf, Berlin, Germany, 2 years ago Sorry, but we have no oil. Nor do we have any interesting war secrets for you this time. And, sorry to disappoint you, but it were the Russians who stopped the Na.zis.

But being people without honour, you'd steal even that, pretending that it were you. Pathetic...927Click to rate Jeffrob445, Northumberland, 2 years ago Have read most of the posts on any given DM article?

The UK gives them a run for their money these days.11Click to ratejuls, Montgomery, 2 years ago Tsar Nicholas and his family were to blame for the dire poverty of Russia. The ""let them eat cake"" mentality saw the collapse of Empirical Rule. Then the great and wonderful Communistic Rule.

They ""will never see cake"" that let to their downfall. Don't forget all for one and one for all gets old to the only people working to pay for it all.12625Click to rate2 of 4 replies See all replies Miss AVermont, Burlington VT USA, United States, 2 years agowhat a ignorant post-ignorant of history and devoid of any historical research!7102Click to rate Stan-Expat, Gone, 2 years ago The great and wonderful communistic rule ?

Are you serious? Stalin murdered 20 million of his own people at minimum, engineered famines in Ukraine where millions died and so on.373Click to rate View all The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mail Online.

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Kendall Jenner and Scott Disick go skydiving together...after she mocked his romance with Sofia Richie Waist-ing away! Kylie Jenner flaunts her toned stomach after giving birth just two months ago Already lost her pregnancy weight?

'This is far more amazing than I would have dreamed': Ruby Rose expresses appreciation for her life in the wake of split from Jess Origliasso'I don't wanna have a Tiffany Haddish moment': Pregnant Cardi B refuses to talk about her meeting with Beyonce and Jay-Z during TRL takeover'It's out of character': Kylie Minogue reveals the surprise way she'll mark her milestone 50th birthday... as she says she's feeling 'great' ahead of her big day Dream come true!

Katharine Mc Phee makes Broadway debut in Waitress and is all smiles at first night curtain call Beamed with pride Bella Hadid flashes cleavage in sheer bandeau top paired with black suit at Dior event in Tokyo At the center of attention again Is she fur-real?

Hilary Duff bundles up for a casual dinner date with boyfriend Matthew Koma in NYC They've been dating on and off for over a year Motor racing star Jenson Button takes the trash out as he enjoys a low-key break from 2018 Super GT $100 million star shows he's just like us Orlando Bloom exhibits his torso as he goes shirtless for Malibu beach day with beloved dog Mighty Orlando, 41, was seen soaking up the sun Kim Kardashian and sister Kourtney sport tiny bikinis in Turks and Caicos for National Sibling Day The sisters are currently on a beach getaway Arrow star Katie Cassidy reveals she turned down the chance to date Prince Harry because she didn't want to be known as his 'girl' David Cassidy's girl Solemn Jaime King returns for first time to site of frightening Beverly Hills attack and hugs restaurant worker who helped her during the ordeal Kourtney Kardashian flaunts her figure in crop top and track bottoms in LA after tropical vacation with sister Kim in the Caribbean Feline fine!

Paris Hilton rocks a cat hoodie as she takes her dog Diamond Baby to the salon in Beverly Hills Animal-loving star Earning her fashion stripes! Eva Longoria dresses up baby bump in clingy grey dress ahead of appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Expecting first child Blac Chyna designs dream home with sex room, money vault and helipad for Architectural Digest More outlandish than Christian Grey's home?

'It's respectful to do your research': Matty Samaei hits back at RHONY's Bethenny Frankel for not knowing who her Australian counterparts are Highest earning TV drama actress Ellen Pompeo reveals how she negotiated $575,000 per episode of Grey's Anatomy and how YOU can too Anna Faris says her son Jack is 'surrounded by love' after split with ex Chris Pratt on Ellen She called it quits with estranged husband Chris Pratt in August Laverne Cox, 45, FINALLY debuts photo of hunky boyfriend after meeting on Tinder NINE months ago The pair looked very cozy together Singer Aubrey O'Day shares sultry lingerie snaps amid Donald Trump Jr. divorce drama Former Danity Kane star posted VERY provocative photos Astley's back!

Westworld fans get Rick Roll'd by the HBO show's creators who'd promised season 2 spoilers 24 minute video online Simpatico! Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez wear matching white athletic tops on gym visit in Miami Also wore sunglasses That's hair-raising! Russell Crowe shares bizarre social media profile picture of his beard on Twitter following his 'Art Of Divorce' auction The ONLY arm candy to be seen with this season! Beyoncé, Kylie Jenner and achingly cool bloggers go wild for 'ultra luxe' Dutch buggy brand Stylish mom-to-be!

Kirsten Dunst covers baby bump in chic black maternity dress as she steps out for lunch date She's expecting her first child with fiance Jesse Jean-ius look!

Caitlyn Jenner shows some leg in denim shorts while dining at Nobu with gal pal Sophia Hutchins Snapped wearing a long white sweater Cindy Crawford channels Grecian chic in flowing navy dress and sandals for Beverly Hills shoe event Joined by Lisa Rinna and Maria Menounos Kendra Wilkinson enjoys glass of wine with other reality stars amid amicable split from Hank Baskett The 32-year-old reality star was all smiles'They want me to have somebody in my life': Kate Gosselin reveals her twin daughters hope she will find new love as she's set to chronicle dating life on new show'You are a selfish old woman!'

Roseanne clashes with daughter Becky over her $50K surrogacy arrangement in latest episode orf rebooted show Yolanda Hadid legally changes her name a year after finalizing divorce from David Foster She was formerly Yolanda Hadid Foster Focusing on the job!

Christina El Moussa looks fabulous in skinny jeans and gray tee filming Flip Or Flop with ex Tarek Stayed friends Ali Fedotowsky dresses her growing baby bump in springtime florals at Hallmark's Home & Family Looking blooming lovely Tyra Banks reveals she almost didn't become a VS Angel after brand sent her home - because NONE of stylists knew how to work her natural hair Yvonne Staples of the Staple Singers dies at age 80 in Chicago Her voice and business acumen powered the success group who had string of hits My, how she's changed!

Dorit Kemsley, 41, of RHOBH looks VERY different in 1994 high school yearbook photo Grew up in Connecticut'He has a girlfriend': Real Housewives star Bethenny Frankel reveals Meghan Markle's ex-husband Trevor Engelson is in a new relationship'How lucky am I': Jennifer Garner pays tribute to her sisters Melissa and Susannah on National Siblings Day Shared collage Kendall Jenner models braids and razor-thin sunglasses for Ferrari joyride in LA Wore red and white Adidas sneakers and carried a track jacket Courteney Cox leaves LA venue hand-in-hand with unidentified man who is not Johnny Mc Daid Sfter attending a private event'I'm an emotional wreck!'

Twitter users are left 'heartbroken' over Netflix movie Irreplaceable You, labeling it 'the saddest film EVER made'Amy Schumer shares stunning flashback photo from 2010... after revealing she loves carbs The image was taken in 2010Brooklyn Beckham breaks his silence on split from actress Chloe Moretz... after THAT kiss with Playboy model Lexi Wood The Handmaid's Tale star Samira Wiley reveals season 2 will be 'even more bleak' than the first Upcoming episodes drop on April 25Justin Bieber is unmissable in all red outfit as he runs errands in Los Angeles He is enjoying some downtime from his pop career'Is that for old man Negan?'

Fans of The Walking Dead suspect Jeffrey Dean Morgan's bushy beard is a Season Nine spoiler Promoting new movie Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi reveals Jersey Shore cast only earned $200 a week for first season They didn't receive a single paycheck from MTVRussell Crowe looks a little downcast as he drinks coffee and smokes a cigarette in Sydney the day after his divorce from Danielle Spencer was finalized Taylor Swift fan ARRESTED for trying to scale wall at her Beverly Hills mansion Transient Justin Christoph Lilly was arrested Katharine Mc Phee looks flawless as she arrives makeup-free for Broadway debut in Waitress Opening night of the Broadway musical Olympic champion boxer Nicola Adams is left heartbroken after her female American fiancée leaves her for a man The wedding is off Wendy Williams says Marlon Wayans was just 'stating the obvious' about Kim Zolciak's 'fillers' Daytime chat queen wades into spat Ashley Graham puts her curves on show in skimpy swimwear in candid behind-the-scenes look at her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit shoot The 'Douche': James Franco's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is defaced on same day actor is seen as sex-crazed warlord in a trailer for new film'Why are you doing this?'

Final words of Morgan Freeman's granddaughter as she was stabbed to death in the street 'by her drug-addicted boyfriend'Heidi Klum, 44, stuns in skimpy bikini as she packs on the PDA with much younger beau, 28, in Mexico Their romance blossomed last month.

Olivia Culpo wows in skimpy lingerie and VERY racy black mesh dress for Italian fashion show in Verona She was the star of the show Jenna Dewan is leaning on her family for support and 'seems relieved' after splitting with Channing Tatum Couple just announced their shock breakup Movie fans vent frustration with Emily Blunt's movie A Quiet Place, revealing that the totally silent film makes it impossible for them to eat popcorn in peace Prince of Wilts!

Charles, 69, suffers in the scorching 89F Australian heat as beads of sweat trickle down his face Struggling?

UFC star Paige Van Zant says she was gang-raped at age 14 by students from her high school and it left her on the brink of suicide Ex-DWTS contestant Tracy Morgan sports dapper gray suit as he accepts Hollywood Walk of Fame star with his family Emotional moment after his life-changing crash Hailey Baldwin says Kylie Jenner's daughter Stormi 'is one of the most beautiful babies I've ever seen' The 21-year-old model is smitten with tot t Amal Clooney on romancing George and raising twins: Lawyer reveals actor wooed her with emails in the voice of his dog when she'd given up on love at 35EXCLUSIVE: Obama aide reveals how the groupie president fawned over celebs and was steamed when high school coach called his wife 'fat-butt Michelle'Former Silicon Valley star TJ Miller is arrested at La Guardia Airport for 'calling in a fake bomb threat' from an Amtrak train More trouble for star Celebrating his inner child!

Lego artist transforms You Tuber Jake Paul's Calabasas mansion by installing thousands of the toy bricks INSIDE the walls RHONJ star Jacqueline Laurita says she and autistic son were kicked out of public library because he was 'tapping DVDs and making a bit of noise'Break out the fat-suit: Ripped Homeland star Damian Lewis will play obese, crack-smoking former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford in new movie Unlikely casting Eye-popping Rita Ora puts on a VERY busty display in tight white sweater as she heads out in New York She's been putting on a fashion parade Adriana Lima leaves the gym with sweat-drenched hair as she flaunts her flat abs in sexy sports bra Brazilian model has one of best bodies in fashion Anna Faris calls decision to get breast augmentation 'f***ing awesome' as she talks Chris Pratt Said she wanted 'to fill out a bikini'Amal Clooney's mother reveals she was advised to abort her due to a placenta condition - but she ignored the advice after having dreams of future daughter's face Kim Kardashian shows off her curves in microscopic hot pink bikini during Turks and Caicos vacation Put her famous figure on display in Caribbean Nicki Minaj's seductive pose for new song Chun Li resembles Lil' Kim's Hard Core image The 35-year-old singer shared a photo to Instagram Katie Holmes seems to be following in ex Tom Cruise's footsteps as she takes on action role The 39-year-old actress transformed into an FBI agent saving a senator Cardi B is 'prepared' for motherhood... but admits she only 'kinda, sorta' considered abortion Rapper made shocking confession Dad's night off!

Prince William is spotted at Aston Villa vs Cardiff City soccer game - leaving a heavily pregnant Duchess of Cambridge at home Paulina Porizkova shares adorable picture of herself as a little girl to mark 53rd birthday - after posting a SIZZLING snap in a tiny pink bikini Ne Ne Leakes steps out in Gucci T-shirt as pal EJ Johnson looks chic in crop top and mini skirt The reality stars started their week right, enjoying dinner out at Craig's Kylie Minogue dazzles in a floor-length pink and gold gown as she promotes new album Golden in Germany Made an appearance on the Markus Lanz show Legendary model Claudia Schiffer, 47, looks chic in leopard print scarf and skinny jeans as she steps out with her daughters in NYCJennifer Lopez's trainer Tracy Anderson, 43, reveals fit abs as she says singer 'never hates on herself' Talks about J.

Lo's confidence Jessica Simpson lifts the lid on her VERY active sex life with hubby Eric Johnson as she jokes they 'always practice' making babies Haven't slowed down Bad Girls Club reality TV star Nicky Vargas is arrested while topless for giving oral sex to her boyfriend in the parking lot of a Florida apartment complex Carrie Underwood says her face 'is healing really nicely' after getting 50 stitches Singer shared an update with fans, saying she's 'doing pretty darn good'Diane Kruger is comfortably chic in fuzzy teddy bear coat and personalized Christian Dior handbag as she steps out in New York City Taylor Swift fan robs bank and throws cash onto her Rhode Island home in hopes of impressing star The suspect was arrested last week Cindy Crawford and mini-me daughter Kaia Gerber coordinate in b&w outfits in Beverly Hills The supermodel easily defied her 52 years Pregnant Zara Tindall cuts a somber figure as she joins her mother Princess Anne for the funeral of equestrian sport commentator Mike Tucker Gretchen Rossi stuns in gold bandage dress as she joins Real Housewives stars in West Hollywood Big get together at Craig's restaurant Marie Osmond, 58, proves Hollywood friendships DO last as she poses with pal Priscilla Presley, 72 Old pals spent some time together Chris Pine and Annabelle Wallis pictured together for the first time at swanky dinner in Malibu amid romance rumors Pair looked smitten Emily Blunt nearly missed the chance to work with husband in his horror film A Quiet Place She asked Krasinski to 'cast a friend'Seth Meyers reveals wife Alexi Ashe gave birth to second son on Sunday....in the LOBBY of their NYC apartment building Cops helped cut the cord Advertisement DON'T MISSBrandi Glanville runs into former RHOBH co-stars Lisa Rinna and Erika Jayne at Craig's restaurant in West Hollywood She left with a man EXCLUSIVE: Amazing secret A-list life of Leonardo Di Caprio's Scottish stepdad who is spittting image of 'the most interesting man in the world'Emma Slater and Sasha Farber of Dancing With The Stars enjoy their honeymoon in Mexico Pair held hands as they frolicked on beach Ricky Martin regrets not coming out in 'horrible' Barbara Walters interview from 2000 Ceteran journalist cornered the pop star Proof Meghan visits a psychic like Princess Diana did?

Makeup artist publicly thanks royal bride-to-be for recommending a 'truly gifted intuitive'Emily Ratajkowski lets her chest do the talking as she leaves Today show in New York City The 26-year-old model showed off her incredible body Emmy Rossum shows off her tanned legs in a darling white shirtdress on shopping trip with husband in Los Angeles The pair spent some quality time together Candice Swanepoel puts naked baby bump on display as she announces she's six months along The 29-year-old model stripped off Michael B Jordan of Black Panther tells Men's Health he wants to build 'Intergenerational wealth' Create legacy for family Amy Schumer admits she eats carbs 'almost every single night' after romantic honeymoon to Milan with chef hubby Chris Fischer Talking to Colbert David Beckham has his hair washed by daughter Harper in sweet video as she also turns stylist to mum Victoria Enjoyed some quality time with daughter Gwen Stefani announces Las Vegas residency and thinks about marrying Blake Shelton 'all the time' Show starts in Sin City on June 27Pictured: Brad Pitt and MIT genius Neri Oxman pose together in previously-unseen snap as SIX MONTH relationship is revealed Posted on social media Human Ken Doll introduces Jessica Alves: 'Gender fluid' Rodrigo dons skimpy red lingerie and a black wig as he dresses up as a woman Princess Diana's bridesmaid India Hicks reveals she's STILL got her flower crown from the wedding day in 1981 and says it 'brings back fantastic memories''Money, money and lots more money': Bill Cosby's lawyer calls sexual assault accuser Andrea Constand a 'con artist' who framed the comedian Sofia Vergara's ex-fiance Nick Loeb compares his embryo battle with Modern Family star to slavery Pair locked in a bitter lawsuit since 2015Socialite Tamara Beckwith, 47, shows off age-defying figure in VERY small bikini as she sizzles on Miami Beach with husband Giorgio Veroni Emily Ratajkowski says she is glad 'all sizes' are now accepted... even though she's only 119lbs Model and actress posed in skimpy bikini Rachel Mc Adams 'gives birth to a baby boy' with boyfriend after keeping pregnancy private First child for the 39-year-old actress Ashley Graham gets her T-shirt wet and leaves little to the imagination in sizzling new Sports Illustrated video Model looked amazing Mel B divorce tell-all!

America's Got Talent judge 'signs deal to pen explosive and moving' book about her marriage to ex-husband Stephen Belafonte WWE star Paige, 25, CONFIRMS retirement after suffering horror 'stinger' neck injury in NYC bout just as she was putting sex tape scandal behind her Porn star Nikki Benz sues adult film studio Brazzers, director Tony T and co-star Ramon Nomar for $5M over 'sexual assault during unscripted scene'Novak Djokovic shares a kiss with wife Jelena as Serbian tennis ace takes a break from training in Marbella, Spain Married for four years Cardi B reveals she got illegal $800 butt injections from a basement in Queens, NY, and it LEAKED for five days afterward Shocking confession Revenge actress Emily Van Camp displays her endless legs in elegant shift as she promotes new show The Resident in London Thigh-skimming outfit Queen Letizia looks her elegant best as she and King Felipe perform their first engagement as a couple following her 'tense' exchange with her mother-in-law Aziz Ansari emerges after sex harassment claims, sitting courtside at the Knicks with Chris Rock and new Masters champion Patrick Reed, before hugging Le Bron Harry and Meghan's engagement photographer reveals the couple were 'so deliciously in love' - and insists no effort was needed to capture it Actress Blanca Blanco, 37, displays her sculpted abs in cropped yellow T-shirt as she steps out in Malibu She looked as sweet as honey Revealed: The anti-ageing secret that keeps Queen Elizabeth looking youthful as she turns 92 (and it's all down to those holidays at Balmoral Castle)Brooklyn Beckham's new girlfriend Lexi Wood compares herself to sex toys in raunchy unearthed interview... following his shock split from Chloe Moretz Barack Obama WON'T be going to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding next month and nor will Donald Trump as neither of them is invited Gigi Hadid hides her figure wearing sweatshirt and jeans as she heads to a photo shoot in New York The 22-year-old stunner sported a heavy sweater'I had some wine': Jennifer Garner gets drunk and explores the contents of her backpack for bizarre Instagram video Getting the drinks in Ripped!

Sammi 'Sweetheart' Giancola posts loved-up pics with hunky new boyfriend to Instagram Flaunted her new man on social media Brad Pitt takes up woodwork to heal broken heart: Actor immersed himself in furniture design following split from Angelina Jolie Katy Perry ends any notion of feud between her and pop stars Madonna and Lady Gaga Pop star, 33, opened up on American Idol Scott Disick, 34, takes girlfriend Sofia Richie, 19, for a romantic meal... as bikini-clad ex Kourtney Kardashian sizzles on holiday Date night Irish actor Stuart Townsend lists his sprawling Spanish-style Malibu mansion, overlooking the ocean, for $5.25 million Charlize Theron's ex Vanderpump Rules' James Kennedy hurls insults at Kristen Doute as 'hooking up' rumor gains strength Jax had a meltdown and was thrown out of Sur EXCLUSIVE: 'Some people go the full hog and look crazy!'

RHONY's Bethenny Frankel opens up about getting more plastic surgery Emily Ratajkowski poses TOPLESS in her latest provocative selfie after stepping out in New York City Returned to the east coast from Los Angeles Miniature Donald Trump grandson Luke - complete with junior quiff - says 'hi y'all' to his grandparents on the other side of family in photo shared by Lara Instagram star Skye Wheatley showcases her gym honed physique and bronzed frame in red bikini as she lounges in a bean bag in Bali Royal bride practice!

Meghan Markle takes the lead at cutting the celebration cake on her school graduation day aged just 11 Unearthed 1993 video Eva Longoria looks ready to pop on TV's Ellen but still has weeks to go before birth of first child Draped baby bump in a figure-hugging red dress Inside hospital where Duchess Kate will give birth: Mom reveals VERY luxurious facilities inside $8,360-a-night maternity ward (including a wine list)Camila Cabello rocks black lace costume to kick off first solo tour Never Be The Same in Vancouver Former Fifth Harmony singer wowed fans Heidi Pratt cradles her baby son Gunner as she enjoys a hike in Santa Monica... after revealing she's got her pre-baby body back Cooing over her baby DJ Khaled brings his 17-month-old son Asahd to his FIRST-EVER basketball game in their native Miami Raooer cheered on the Heat with fiancee Nicole Radiant in red!

Queen Maxima makes a statement in scarlet as she visits the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam King Juan Carlos is all smiles as he leaves hospital following knee operation - after royal family's awkward encounter was caught on camera Charlize Theron dons an all-black outfit for grocery shopping in Los Angeles with daughter August She is a single mom-of-two Model misery: Victoria's Secret hottie Barbara Palvin reveals she is 'constantly at war with her body trying to adhere to fashion industry's criteria'Kim Zolciak calls Marlon Wayans 'pretty disgusting' for comparing her face to White Chicks character He transformed into a white woman Chloe Moretz emerges for the first time since ex Brooklyn Beckham was spotted kissing model Lexi Wood... and her friendship ring is OFFElsa Hosk steps away from her modelling duties to enjoy thrilling basketball game with pals in NYC Sitting front row with her pals Milla Jovovich and her Resident Evil filmmaker husband Paul W. S. Anderson list their 1960s, three-bedroom Beverly Hills pavilion for $4.5 million Fans left stunned by Chris Hemsworth's youthful mother and father after Hollywood hunk posts picture of his very good-looking family Cardi B jokes about her pregnancy reveal as she makes Tonight Show history as first ever co-host alomgside Jimmy Fallon Growing baby bump Rose Mc Gowan steps out in an orange jacket after preliminary hearing for drug possession is rescheduled All smiles in NYCSelma Blair shows off her boho style in billowing yellow gown with chic sandals for LA juice run The Cruel Intentions star was a vision Thandie Newton rages at British Airways after flight is delayed for six hours then CANCELED - just months after she starred in video for airline'Yesterday I officially became divorced': Russell Crowe finalizes split from Danielle Spencer ... five years after their marriage broke down Helen Mirren, 72, steps out in printed pants and stilettos as she heads for lunch with Taylor Hackford, 73, in LA The actress cut a trendy figure Usain Bolt's girlfriend Kasi looks like a Victoria's Secret model for Carnival in Jamaica Wore a skimpy white and metallic swimsuit with white wings strapped on Debby Ryan shows off her toned tummy in tiny crop top at Cover Versions premiere Former Disney star showed she's all grown up Gabrielle Union stuns in a figure-hugging red dress as she joins Kelly Bensimon at Night of Opportunity Gala in New York On the red carpet Khloe Kardashian shows cleavage in sports bra as she posts on Snapchat while waiting to give birth Pregnant star is expecting first child Angelina Jolie heaps praise on Queen Elizabeth: Actress calls monarch 'really lovely lady' for her dedication to forest conservation in Africa Game Of Thrones star Sophie Turner's SECRET Instagram account revealed... which has already racked up 22,000 followers Prince William praises 'extraordinary example' of author who rebuilt his life after a stranger talked him out of jumping off a bridge Remarkable story'Out of this world!'

Shanina Shaik stuns fans with her flawless complexion as she sizzles in beachside selfie Model took to Instagram Tyra Banks struts her stuff in plunging top and pencil skirt following Daily Show appearance in NYC Busy promoting her new book Perfect Is Boring Tallulah Willis puts her phenomenal legs on parade in minuscule shorts on low-key day out Stepping out in Los Angeles Big pals!

Selma Blair and Parker Posey hug each other as they dazzle on the red carpet at Lost In Space premiere in LA Sweetest Thing stars Julie Bowen from Modern Family treats her three sons to a fun-filled trip to Disneyland after split She recently split from her husband of 13 years Christie Brinkley, 64, is a beauty in pinstripes and leather at America Inside Out premiere in NYC The Uptown Girl was clad in an all-black Getting of fresh air: Jennie Garth is seen without wedding ring for the first time since Dave Abrams filed for divorce Her husband filed for divorce on Friday Ex-Cosby Show actress stages topless protest at Bill Cosby's retrial as she charges at actor with word 'rapist' and names of alleged victims written on body Kourtney Kardashian one-ups sister Kim with sexy bikini snap as she calls herself Sporty Spice Mom-of-three looked stunning in Caribbean Dakota Fanning and beau Henry Frye bundle up while strolling arm-in-arm through New York Dakota went for a stroll though Manhattan Prince Charles lays a wreath at Darwin war memorial in Australia to honor fallen soldiers during final day of his tour Down Under He wore service medals Outgoing Vogue Editor-In-Chief Anna Wintour sparkles in shiny colorful dress and trademark shades at awards show in NYC Fashion icon D&G darlings!

Lady Amelia Windsor sparkles in sequins as she joins Lady Kitty Spencer for a party celebrating the designer in New York Extra co-host Mark Wright exhibits his chiseled abs as he wipes away sweat during soccer game in Los Angeles Feeling the heat Young love!

Chandler Powell, 21, dotes on girlfriend Bindi Irwin, 19, as they step out in Queensland...after fans urge the pair to get married Laura Ingraham returns to Fox News after David Hogg attack with rambling monologue about the 'left's plot to silence conservatives'Jessica Biel and Jamie Chung play with adorable puppies at American Express event in New York Delighted as they frolicked with puppies Falcons QB Matt Ryan and his wife announce they are proud parents of TWIN boys after keeping news secret because they were born two months premature Mariska Hargitay and husband Peter Hermann attend special NYC screening of I Am Evidence She produced the HBO documentary All smiles!

Kendra Wilkinson takes 8-year-old son Hank to Lost In Space premiere after filing for divorce She has recently filed for divorce Gory scenes!

Gina Rodriguez drenched in 'blood' as she films stabbing scene for new Netflix rom-com Someone Great Cameras rolling Amber Heard quietly donates millions to Children's Hospital Los Angeles after making pledge in 2016 to give Johnny Depp divorce settlement to charity Antonio Banderas, 57, refused to retire after heart attack because he didn't want to live like he's 'already dead' Actor, 57, was rushed to hospital last year Justin Bieber stops to check on man who collapsed in the street in Los Angeles He was on his was to his car after leaving Barry's Bootcamp Desilu trademark created by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz at center of trademark infringement lawsuit Has become the focus of a legal dispute Jenna Dewan looks pensive as she hits Los Angeles day spa without her wedding ring following shock Channing Tatum split Enjoying some 'me time'So now he's a family guy!

Conor Mc Gregor shares snap with girlfriend and son after attacking bus of MMA rivals, as troubled star remains in NYCWedding belles!

Paris Hilton confirms Nicole Richie will be invited to her upcoming wedding as she says 'all my girls will be invited' Should be emotional Mark Hamill continues galactic adventures with wife Marilou York at Lost In Space premiere Attended the Netflix Lost In Space season one premiere in Los Angeles Hailey Baldwin and Ashley Graham are effortlessly stylish with matching hairdos at the Infinity Awards in NYC The models were on the same style page Masters champion Patrick Reed visits the Stock Exchange and Empire State building before heading to Madison Square Garden to watch the Knicks Five cases of sex abuse allegations against writer and director James Toback are dropped because they are outside the statute of limitations Melania Trump looks radiant in figure-hugging red as she welcomes a group of middle school kids to the White House for discussion about their daily 'struggles'Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig hold hands as they show their support at Night of Opportunity Gala in New York The Bond star He's the daddy!

Rod Stewart, 73, poses with his four sons aged 37 to seven in sweet family snap shared by photographer wife Penny Lancaster Festival fun!

Daphne Joy is feeling the Coachella vibe in curve-highlighting strapless bikini The model made the announcement on Instagram Pink lady! Naomi Watts is pretty in pink as she wears stylish gown with black floral detailing to Tribeca Ball The actress hit the town in New York Kim Kardashian shares stunning bikini snap taken by sister Kourtney during Turks and Caicos vacation She has a habit of showing off her curves Model behavior!

Kaia Gerber channels mom Cindy Crawford in black motorcycle jacket at dinner with dad and brother She's fresh off the jet Proud mama! Heidi Montag proudly reveals that she is back to her post-baby body after welcoming son in October She gave birth last year Re-living the glory days!

Today's Dylan Dreyer and husband Brian dress up in VERY flamboyant outfits for 80s prom-themed party The meteorologist Ready to drop!

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In Yekaterinburg, Russia, Czar Nicholas II and his family are executed by the Bolsheviks, bringing an end to the three-century-old Romanov dynasty. Crowned in 1896, Nicholas was neither trained nor inclined to rule, which did not help the autocracy he sought to preserve among a people desperate for change.

Romanov family executed

World War I1918Romanov family executed Share this:facebook twitter google+Print Cite

The disastrous outcome of the Russo-Japanese War led to the Russian Revolution of 1905, which ended only after Nicholas approved a representative assembly–the Duma –and promised constitutional reforms.

The czar soon retracted these concessions and repeatedly dissolved the Duma when it opposed him, contributing to the growing public support for the Bolsheviks and other revolutionary groups. In 1914, Nicholas led his country into another costly war–World War I–that Russia was ill-prepared to win. Discontent grew as food became scarce, soldiers became war weary and devastating defeats at the hands of Germany demonstrated the ineffectiveness of Russia under Nicholas. In March 1917, revolution broke out on the streets of Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) and Nicholas was forced to abdicate his throne later that month.

That November, the radical socialist Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, seized power in Russia from the provisional government, sued for peace with the Central Powers and set about establishing the world’s first communist state.

Civil war broke out in Russia in June 1918, and in July the anti-Bolshevik “White” Russian forces advanced on Yekaterinburg, where Nicholas and his family were located, during a campaign against the Bolshevik forces. Local authorities were ordered to prevent a rescue of the Romanovs, and after a secret meeting of the Yekaterinburg Soviet, a death sentence was passed on the imperial family.

Late on the night of July 16, Nicholas, Alexandra, their five children and four servants were ordered to dress quickly and go down to the cellar of the house in which they were being held. There, the family and servants were arranged in two rows for a photograph they were told was being taken to quell rumors that they had escaped.

Suddenly, a dozen armed men burst into the room and gunned down the imperial family in a hail of gunfire.

Those who were still breathing when the smoked cleared were stabbed to death. The remains of Nicholas, Alexandra and three of their children were excavated in a forest near Yekaterinburg in 1991 and positively identified two years later using DNA fingerprinting. The Crown Prince Alexei and one Romanov daughter were not accounted for, fueling the persistent legend that Anastasia, the youngest Romanov daughter, had survived the execution of her family.

Of the several “Anastasias” that surfaced in Europe in the decade after the Russian Revolution, Anna Anderson, who died in the United States in 1984, was the most convincing. In 1994, however, scientists used DNA to prove that Anna Anderson was not the czar’s daughter but a Polish woman named Franziska Schanzkowska.

Two years before the emperor and his family were shot dead by the Bolsheviks on the orders of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin, he is showing apparently teaching his youngest daughter Grand Duchess Anastasia how to smoke. Newly-discovered pictures show Nicholas II with his 15-year-old daughter Anastasia in Mogilyov, apparently teaching her to smoke

Private moments of the last Russian Tsar and his family captured on camera before they were executed by the Bolsheviks

"Private moments of the last Russian Tsar and his family captured on camera before they were executed by the Bolsheviks Nicholas II and family seen in the months and years up to their 1918 deaths The family photographs were found in a remote museum in the Urals The Romanovs were thought to have been killed on the orders of Lenin By Will Stewart for Mail Online Published: 05:03 EDT, 9 May 2013 | Updated: 05:41 EDT, 9 May 2013165View comments A remarkable set of family pictures showing the doomed Russian royal family's private moments has been has been found in the vaults of a remote Urals museum.

The photographs show the royals in the months and years before Nicholas II was forced to abdicate as the toll of the First World War and the storm clouds of revolution overwhelmed the House of Romanov which had ruled as autocrats for more than 300 years.

In this 1914 picture, four years before their execution, Nicholas's heir Alexei is seen with sisters Olga, left, and Tatiana, right Grand Duchess Olga is seen looking through a family album - a neat twist to the newly-discovered photographs of the Romanovs The princess is seen puffing at the cigarette with every encouragement from the Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias.

'At the time there was not the same stigma attached to smoking,' reports the Siberian Times, wh ich revealed the pictures found in a museum in Zlatoust. 'I n fact a year earlier Anastasia had written to her father: ""I am sitting here with your old cigarette that you once gave me, and it is very tasty"".

'RELATED ARTICLESPrevious 1 Next As Her Majesty falters, enter Camilla the Queen in waiting:... Mystery over WWII airman who went missing in desert: Family... Share this article Another photograph taken by the tsar the same year - 1916 - shows Tsarevich Alexei, heir to an autocratic throne that would be abolished only months later, posing on a tree in winter with his beloved pet spaniel Joy.

The boy is also shown playing on a beach with his father. These young royals Anastasia and Alexei would soon be key figures in the mystery of what became of the Romanov family.

For decades there were claims, widely believed in the West, that one or both had survived the 1918 shooting.

The pictures, including this one of Tsarevitch Alexei are thought to date from the time of the First World War The grand duchesses Olga and Tatiana are seen posing in the outdoors in this private family photo taken in 1916Tatiana is seen again surrounded by flowers as she reads The execution in Yekaterinburg wiped out Russia's last royal ruler, his former empress Alexandra, and their other three children, Olga, Tatiana and Maria.

DEATH OF A DYNASTYNicholas II abdicated his throne in 1917 as revolution swept Russia. He and his family were placed under house arrest in Tsarskoe Selo, then evacuated to Tobolsk in the Urals in August that year.

The Bolsheviks came to power in October 1917 and by March 1918 the family were forced to live on soldier's rations. The next month, the Red Army moved the Romanovs to Yekaterinburg. There were plans to put Nicholas on trial, but these were scuppered when the city became the target of the rival anti-communist White Army.

The Bolsheviks decided to shoot the entire family on July 17 so they could not be rescued by the White Army. They woke them, told them to get dressed and pretended they were being moved from Yekaterinburg away from the oncoming battle.

They were shot in a basement and their bodies buried in a pit near the city. Their remains were reburied in 1998 by the Russian government, who gave them a state funeral.

In the event, the scientific analysis of bones found in a forest in the late Soviet era and subsequently has shown that all were indeed killed in 1918 when the Reds were concerned that White forces could reach and free the abdicated tsar and his family. The remains of Anastasia and her brother who perished aged 17 and 13 respectively were, however, buried separately from the rest of the family after their slaying.

'The images of Alexei show a surprisingly strong boy given that his haemophilia saw him portrayed as sickly. 'Indeed it was his serious illness that led his mother to rely on debauched holy man Grigory Rasputin, a relationship that did much to undermine royal credibility as the country became embroiled in an ugly war and revolutionary fervour,' said the Siberian Times.

In one of the earlier pictures - snapped by the tsar and his children - the four carefree Romanov princesses are seen in 1914 aboard the royal yacht Standart on the Black Sea. The same year at Peterhof, the tsar is shown relaxing on rocks in a picture almost certainly taken by one of his children using a camera he had imported from Britain or the US.

And in another picture, the Tsar, Alexei and the boy's tutor are seen walking an elephant near their palace in Tsarskoye Selo. A zoo on the estate would be closed after the 1917 revolution, but on this day the ruler wrote in his diary: 'Took the elephant to our pond with Alexei today and had fun watching him bath. 'Tsarina Alexandra is seen on a hospital visit to injured servicemen Grand Duchess Tatiana is seen with an unidentified soldier in another photo from the collection With war breaking out in 1914, the unfortunate heir is shown in a military game with his tutor's two smaller children.

Some of the pictures - including the one of Anastasia smoking - were taken near Mogilyov from where Nicholas II commanded Russian forces during the war.

The tsar wanted his family around him. Other pictures show the older princesses visiting wounded soldiers in military hospitals.

The images have been released 400 years after the Romanov dynasty came to power in Russia. 'The Emperor was very fond of photography and passed his passion for it to his wife Alexandra and children,' said Milena Bratukhina, an historian at Zlatoust Museum where the album was hidden in Soviet times. Another picture shows Nicholas II and Alexei on a boat in Finland The pictures, including this of Nicholas II, left, are held at the Zlatoust City Museum It remains unclear how the several hundred pictures came to be in this remote city.

One theory is that the album was taken from the royals by a revolutionary called Dmitry Chudinov, nicknamed Kassian, who was an escort when the exiled royals were brought westward from Tobolsk in Siberia to Yekaterinburg on their final journey before they were shot.

He was from Zlatoust and it is known that he appropriated some royal possessions. The album could have been among them.

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Brykasema, South Yorkshire GB., 4 years ago Communism/socialism does not work - waguitarman, Nottingham, 09/05/2013 17:00 Yeah Nottingham knows all about destroying socialism. When relied upon to back its brothers in 1984/85. How many coal mines are their left in Nottingham?

Capitalism really works doesn't it? That's why nationalisation (a socialist idea) was used to save the capitalist banks. Neither system is perfect but as a mature caring democratic society (society, which doesn't exist according to thatcher) we must strive to use the best of both.

The strong must help the weak and everyone must chip in and do their bit.3615Click to rateusednurse, Borders, Scotland, 4 years ago John, Lugansk, Ukraine : Thanks. I studied the Revolution in school (many moons ago!) but didn't know the linguistic derivation of Bolshevik and Menshovik. Occasionally DM comments can be informative.115Click to rate Matt, Uk, 4 years ago Politics aside, it's hard to be too upset by the death of a family of dictators, who lived a life of obscene riches while their subjects starved.12523Click to rate Jman, Fl USA, 4 years ago We have Bolsheviks in our White House, Universities, Hollywood, Courts, and grade schools.

Its time to defeat them to save my America and restore this constitutional Republic to its full glory.5841Click to ratepeterr, glos, 4 years ago Read some decent historical books on life on the glorious communist era - les G, Wales, United Kingdom, 9/5/2013 12:04 ++++++++++++++++ Absolutely right in your reply to:- wontgetfooldtlnxtime , Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.

When BLiar got in in 1997 and appointed the token Commie, now Lard (sic) Prescott to transport minister, Prescott immediately started talking about 5 year and 10 year plans.

Our friend in Newcastle needs to read what these 5 year and 10 year plans actually meant and achieved in the 70 years of Communist dictatorship in Russia.

Prescott was reading straight out of the Marx/Lenin Manual on how to subjugate a nation and its people................ How I loathe Prescott.......... and others like him: Scargill, Mc Cluskey and even Sir Anthony Wedgewood Benn. That ""glorious Communist era"" is what they wanted and tried to achieve for this country.778Click to ratesmiff1066, Portland, 4 years ago This is what happens when reds get under your bed.1855Click to rate O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O, Monseko Frabingo, Burkina Faso, 4 years ago Russians --- YUCK15218Click to rate Scapegoat, Woodside, United States, 4 years ago Tragic.8107Click to rate John, London, United Kingdom, 4 years ago Monarchy is like a cancer.

It needs to be dealt with. The Russians had the right idea.33053Click to rate Quiche Lorraine, in the kitchen, Switzerland, 4 years ago""Revolutionaries"" are often far worse than the people and autocrats they replace.

As shown time, after time, after time.23234Click to rate View all The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mail Online.

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Forced to abdicate in 1917, Nicholas went into exile with his wife and five children. After living more than a year under house arrest, the entire family was brutally executed in July 1918 by Bolshevik soldiers. Nicholas II was the last of the Romanov Dynasty, which had ruled Russia for 300 years.

Czar Nicholas II

"Humanities ›History & Culture Czar Nicholas IIRussia's Last Czar Share Flipboard Email Print Heritage Images/Contributor/Hulton Archive/Getty Imagesby Patricia Daniels, Contributing Writer Updated April 07, 2017Nicholas II, the last czar of Russia, ascended to the throne following the death of his father in 1894.

Woefully unprepared for such a role, Nicholas II has been characterized as a naïve and incompetent leader.

At a time of enormous social and political change in his country, Nicholas held fast to outdated, autocratic policies and opposed reform of any kind. His inept handling of military matters and insensitivity to the needs of his people helped to fuel the 1917 Russian Revolution.

Dates: May 18, 1868,kaiser* -- July 17, 1918Reign: 1894 – 1917Also Known As: Nicholas Alexandrovich Romanov Born Into the Romanov Dynasty Nicholas II, born in Tsarskoye Selo near St. Petersburg, Russia, was the first child of Alexander III and Marie Feodorovna (formerly Princess Dagmar of Denmark).

Between 1869 and 1882, the royal couple had three more sons and two daughters. The second child, a boy, died in infancy. Nicholas and his siblings were closely related to other European royalty, including first cousins George V (future king of England) and Wilhelm II, the last Kaiser (Emperor) of Germany. In 1881, Nicholas’ father, Alexander III, became czar (emperor) of Russia after his father, Alexander II, was killed by an assassin's bomb.

Nicholas, at twelve, witnessed his grandfather's death when the czar, horribly maimed, was carried back to the palace. Upon his father's ascension to the throne, Nicholas became the s Tesarevich (heir-apparent to the throne). Despite being raised in a palace, Nicholas and his siblings grew up in a strict, austere environment and enjoyed few luxuries.

Alexander III lived simply, dressing as a peasant while at home and making his coffee each morning. The children slept on cots and washed in cold water. Overall, however, Nicholas experienced a happy upbringing in the Romanov household. The Young Tsesarevich Educated by several tutors, Nicholas studied languages, history, and the sciences, as well as horsemanship, shooting, and even dancing. What he was not schooled in, unfortunately for Russia, was how to function as a monarch. Czar Alexander III, healthy and robust at six-foot-four, planned to rule for decades.

He assumed there would be plenty of time to instruct Nicholas in how to run the empire. At the age of nineteen, Nicholas joined an exclusive regiment of the Russian Army and also served in the horse artillery.

The Tsesarevich didn't participate in any serious military activities; these commissions were more akin to a finishing school for the upper class. Nicholas enjoyed his carefree lifestyle, taking advantage of the freedom to attend parties and balls with few responsibilities to weigh him down.

Prompted by his parents, Nicholas embarked upon a royal grand tour, accompanied by his brother George. Departing Russia in 1890 and traveling by steamship and train, they visited the Middle East, India, China, and Japan. While visiting Japan, Nicholas survived an assassination attempt in 1891 when a Japanese man lunged at him, swinging a sword at his head.

The attacker's motive was never determined. Although Nicholas suffered only a minor head wound, his concerned father ordered Nicholas home immediately. Betrothal to Alix and the Death of the Czar Nicholas first met Princess Alix of Hesse (daughter of a German Duke and Queen Victoria's second daughter, Alice) in 1884 at the wedding of his uncle to Alix's sister, Elizabeth.

Nicholas was sixteen and Alix twelve. They met again on several occasions over the years, and Nicholas was adequately impressed to write in his diary that he dreamed of one day marrying Alix.

When Nicholas was in his mid-twenties and expected to seek a suitable wife from the nobility, he ended his relationship with a Russian ballerina and began to pursue Alix. Nicholas proposed to Alix in April 1894, but she didn't immediately accept. A devout Lutheran, Alix was hesitant at first because marriage to a future Czar meant that she must convert to the Russian Orthodox religion.

After a day of contemplation and discussion with family members, she agreed to marry Nicholas. The couple soon became quite smitten with one another and looked forward to getting married the following year.

Theirs would be a marriage of genuine love. Unfortunately, things changed drastically for the happy couple within months of their engagement. In September 1894, Czar Alexander became gravely ill with nephritis (an inflammation of the kidney). Despite a steady stream of doctors and priests who visited him, the czar died on November 1, 1894, at the age of 49.

Twenty-six-year-old Nicholas reeled from both the grief of losing his father and the tremendous responsibility now placed upon his shoulders. Czar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Nicholas, as the new czar, struggled to keep up with his duties, which began with planning his father's funeral.

Inexperienced in planning such a grand-scale event, Nicholas received criticism on many fronts for the numerous details that were left undone.

On November 26, 1894, just 25 days after Czar Alexander’s death, the period of mourning was interrupted for a day so that Nicholas and Alix could marry. Princess Alix of Hesse, newly converted to Russian Orthodoxy, became Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. The couple returned immediately to the palace after the ceremony; a wedding reception was deemed inappropriate during the mourning period.

The royal couple moved into the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo just outside of St. Petersburg and within a few months learned they were expecting their first child. Daughter Olga was born in November 1895. (She would be followed by three more daughters: Tatiana, Marie, and Anastasia.

The long-anticipated male heir, Alexei, was born in 1904. )In May 1896, a year and a half after Czar Alexander died, Czar Nicholas’ long-awaited, lavish coronation ceremony finally took place. Unfortunately, a horrific incident occurred during one of the many public celebrations held in Nicholas’ honor. A stampede on the Khodynka Field in Moscow resulted in more than 1,400 deaths. Incredibly, Nicholas did not cancel the ensuing coronation balls and parties. The Russian people were appalled at Nicholas' handling of the incident, which made it appear that he cared little about his people.

By any account, Nicholas II had not begun his reign on a favorable note. The Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)Nicholas, like many past and future Russian leaders, wanted to expand his country’s territory. Looking to the Far East, Nicholas saw potential in Port Arthur, a strategic warm-water port on the Pacific Ocean in southern Manchuria (northeastern China).

By 1903, Russia’s occupation of Port Arthur angered the Japanese, who had themselves recently been pressured to relinquish the area. When Russia built its Trans-Siberian Railroad through part of Manchuria, the Japanese were further provoked. Twice, Japan sent diplomats to Russia to negotiate the dispute; however, each time, they were sent home without being granted an audience with the czar, who viewed them with contempt.

By February 1904, the Japanese had run out of patience. A Japanese fleet launched a surprise attack on Russian warships at Port Arthur, sinking two of the ships and blockading the harbor.

Well-prepared Japanese troops also swarmed the Russian infantry at various points on land. Outnumbered and outmaneuvered, the Russians suffered one humiliating defeat after another, both on land and sea. Nicholas, who had never thought the Japanese would start a war, was forced to surrender to Japan in September 1905. Nicholas II became the first czar to lose a war to an Asian nation. An estimated 80,000 Russian soldiers lost their lives in a war that had revealed the czar's utter ineptitude at diplomacy and military affairs.

Bloody Sunday and the Revolution of 1905By the winter of 1904, dissatisfaction among the working class in Russia had escalated to the point that numerous strikes were staged in St. Petersburg.

Workers, who had hoped for a better future living in cities, instead faced long hours, poor wages, and inadequate housing. Many families went hungry on a regular basis, and housing shortages were so severe, some laborers slept in shifts, sharing a bed with several others.

On January 22, 1905, tens of thousands of workers came together for a peaceful march to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.

Organized by radical priest Georgy Gapon, protesters were forbidden to bring weapons; instead, they carried religious icons and pictures of the royal family. Participants also brought with them a petition to present to the Czar, stating their list of grievances and seeking his help. Although the Czar was not at the palace to receive the petition (he had been advised to stay away), thousands of soldiers awaited the crowd.

Having been informed incorrectly that the protesters were there to harm the czar and destroy the palace, the soldiers fired into the mob, killing and wounding hundreds. The czar himself did not order the shootings, but he was held responsible. The unprovoked massacre, called Bloody Sunday, became the catalyst for further strikes and uprisings against the government, called the 1905 Russian Revolution.

After a massive general strike had brought much of Russia to a halt in October 1905, Nicholas was forced to respond to the protests finally. On October 30, 1905, the czar reluctantly issued the October Manifesto, which created a constitutional monarchy and an elected legislature, known as the Duma.

Ever the autocrat, Nicholas made sure the powers of the Duma remained limited -- nearly half of the budget was exempted from their approval, and they were not allowed to participate in foreign policy decisions.

The czar also retained full veto power. The creation of the Duma appeased the Russian people in the short run, but Nicholas’ further blunders hardened his people’s hearts against him. Alexandra and Rasputin The royal family rejoiced at the birth of a male heir in 1904. Young Alexei seemed healthy at birth, but within a week, as the infant bled uncontrollably from his navel, it was clear that something was seriously wrong.

Doctors diagnosed him with hemophilia, an incurable, inherited disease in which the blood will not clot properly. Even a seemingly minor injury could cause the young Tsesarevich to bleed to death. His horrified parents kept the diagnosis a secret from all but the most immediate family. Empress Alexandra, fiercely protective of her son --and his secret -- isolated herself from the outside world.

Desperate to find help for her son, she sought the help of various medical quacks and holy men. One such ""holy man,"" self-proclaimed faith healer Grigori Rasputin, first met the royal couple in 1905 and became a close, trusted advisor to the empress.

Although rough in manner and unkempt in appearance, Rasputin gained the Empress' trust with his uncanny ability to stop Alexei's bleeding during even the severest of episodes, merely by sitting and praying with him. Gradually, Rasputin became the empress' closest confidante, able to exert influence upon her regarding affairs of state.

Alexandra, in turn, influenced her husband on matters of great importance based upon Rasputin's advice. The Empress' relationship with Rasputin was baffling to outsiders, who had no idea that the Tsesarevich was ill. World War I and the Murder of Rasputin The June 1914 assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Bosnia set off a chain of events that culminated in World War I.

That the assassin was a Serbian national led Austria to declare war on Serbia. Nicholas, with the backing of France, felt compelled to protect Serbia, a fellow Slavic nation.

His mobilization of the Russian army in August 1914 helped to propel the conflict into a full-scale war, drawing Germany into the fray as an ally of Austria-Hungary. In 1915, Nicholas made the calamitous decision to take personal command of the Russian army. Under the czar's poor military leadership, the ill-prepared Russian army was no match for the German infantry.

While Nicholas was away at war, he deputized his wife to oversee affairs of the empire. To the Russian people, however, this was a terrible decision. They viewed the empress as untrustworthy since she had come from Germany, Russia’s enemy in World War I. Adding to their mistrust, the Empress relied heavily on the despised Rasputin to help her make policy decisions. Many government officials and family members saw the disastrous effect Rasputin was having on Alexandra and the country and believed he must be removed.

Unfortunately, both Alexandra and Nicholas ignored their pleas to dismiss Rasputin. With their grievances unheard, a group of angry conservatives soon took matters into their hands. In a murder scenario that has become legendary, several members of the aristocracy --including a prince, an army officer, and a cousin of Nicholas -- succeeded, with some difficulty, in killing Rasputin in December 1916.

Rasputin survived poisoning and multiple gunshot wounds, then finally succumbed after being bound and thrown into a river.

The killers were quickly identified but were not punished. Many looked upon them as heroes. Unfortunately, the murder of Rasputin was not enough to stem the tide of discontent. The End of a Dynasty The people of Russia had become increasingly angry with the government's indifference to their suffering.

Wages had plummeted, inflation had risen, public services had all but ceased, and millions were being killed in a war they didn’t want. In March 1917, 200,000 protesters converged in the capital city of Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg) to protest the czar's policies. Nicholas ordered the army to subdue the crowd. By this point, however, most of the soldiers were sympathetic to the protesters' demands and thus just fired shots into the air or joined the ranks of the protesters. There were still a few commanders loyal to the czar who forced their soldiers to shoot into the crowd, killing several people.

Not to be deterred, the protesters gained control of the city within days, during what came to be known as the February/March 1917 Russian Revolution. With Petrograd in the hands of revolutionaries, Nicholas had no choice but to abdicate the throne. Believing that he could somehow still save the dynasty, Nicholas II signed the abdication statement on March 15, 1917, making his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail, the new czar.

The grand duke wisely declined the title, bringing the 304-year-old Romanov dynasty to an end. The provisional government allowed the royal family to stay in the palace at Tsarskoye Selo, under guard, while officials debated their fate.

Exile and Death of the Romanovs When the provisional government became increasingly threatened by the Bolsheviks in the summer of 1917, worried government officials decided to secretly move Nicholas and his family to safety in western Siberia. However, when the provisional government was overthrown by the Bolsheviks (led by Vladimir Lenin) during the October/November 1917 Russian Revolution, Nicholas and his family came under the control of the Bolsheviks.

The Bolsheviks relocated the Romanovs to Ekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains in April 1918, ostensibly to await a public trial.

Many opposed the Bolsheviks being in power; thus a civil war erupted between the Communist ""Reds"" and their opponents, the anti-Communist ""Whites."" These two groups fought for control of the country, as well as for custody of the Romanovs. When the White Army began to gain ground in its battle with the Bolsheviks and headed toward Ekaterinburg to rescue the imperial family, the Bolsheviks made sure that rescue would never take place.

Nicholas, his wife, and his five children were all awakened at 2:00 a.m. on July 17, 1918, and told to prepare for departure. They were gathered into a small room, where Bolshevik soldiers fired upon them. Nicholas and his wife were killed outright, but the others were not so fortunate.

Soldiers used bayonets to carry out the remainder of the executions. The corpses were buried at two separate sites and were burned and covered with acid to prevent them from being identified. In 1991, the remains of nine bodies were excavated at Ekaterinburg. Subsequent DNA testing confirmed them to be those of Nicholas, Alexandra, three of their daughters, and four of their servants. The second grave, containing the remains of Alexei and his sister Marie, was not discovered until 2007. The Romanov family's remains were reburied at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, the traditional burial place of the Romanovs. *All dates according to modern Gregorian calendar, rather than the old Julian calendar used in Russia until 1918cite "