True Story of the Romanovs Final Days & Death in The Crown - Town & Country [93] As it cleared, it became evident that although several of the family's retainers had been killed, all of the Imperial children were alive and only Maria was injured. Yurovsky saw this and demanded that they surrender any looted items or be shot. In 1979, a geologist in Russia approached a grassy area near the Koptyaki forest. Lenin was, however, aware of Vasily Yakovlev's decision to take Nicholas, Alexandra and Maria further on to Omsk instead of Yekaterinburg in April 1918, having become worried about the extremely threatening behavior of the Ural Soviets in Tobolsk and along the Trans-Siberian Railway. Andersons rival, Eugenia Smith, who also claimed she was Anastasia, refused to give a DNA sample before she died in 1997. [75] He was frequently in consultation with Peter Ermakov, who was in charge of the disposal squad and claimed to know the outlying countryside. . The Tsar, Empress Alexandria, their four daughters and one son were all believed to have perished. [29], In August 1917, after a failed attempt to send the Romanovs to the United Kingdom, where the ruling monarch was Nicholas and his wife Alexandra's mutual first cousin, King George V, Alexander Kerensky's provisional government evacuated the Romanovs to Tobolsk, Siberia, allegedly to protect them from the rising tide of revolution. In the early morning of July 17, 1918, Bolshevik troops led the Russian imperial Romanov family to the basement of a Yekaterinburg house. Two of the children were missing, and there were several people claiming to be the long-lost Romanovs. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Over the years 2000 to 2003, the Church of All Saints, Yekaterinburg was built on the site of Ipatiev House. Until 1989, it was the only accepted historical account of the murders. [60], When Yurovsky replaced Aleksandr Avdeev on 4 July,[61] he moved the old internal guard members to the Popov House. [137] Publication and worldwide acceptance of the investigation prompted the Soviets to issue a government-approved textbook in 1926 that largely plagiarized Sokolov's work, admitting that the empress and her children had been murdered with the Tsar. [170] In July 1991, the bodies of five family members (the Tsar, Tsarina, and three of their daughters) were exhumed. Nicholas, facing his family, turned and said "What? [41] In early May, the guards moved the piano from the dining room, where the prisoners could play it, to the commandant's office next to the Romanovs' bedrooms. Alexandra did not trust Yurovsky, writing in her final diary entry just hours before her death, "whether it's true & we shall see the boy back again!". Updated: March 29, 2019 | Original: October 18, 2018. Only 3% of Russians "were certain that the Royal family's execution was the public's just retribution for the emperor's blunders". This story is the first in a two-part series about the Romanovs. The Bolsheviks placed the family under house arrest, and then suddenly executed them in 1918 an event that toppled Russia's last imperial dynasty. [181], In late 2015, at the insistence by the Russian Orthodox Church,[182] Russian investigators exhumed the bodies of Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra, for additional DNA testing,[183] which confirmed that the bones were of the couple. Investigators tested the bones mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is found outside the nucleus and acts as a power station for the cell. Yurovsky was furious when he discovered that the drunken Ermakov had brought only one shovel for the burial. . Transaction Publishers. [112] 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. [32] The lavatory on the landing was also used by the guards, who scribbled political slogans and crude graffiti on the walls. Investigators werent certain how many people were buried in the mass grave. 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. And in 2018, as the country was preparing to commemorate the 100th anniversary of their deaths, Russian investigators announced that further DNA testing confirmed that the. [86] The Romanovs were then ordered into a 6m 5m (20ft 16ft) semi-basement room. Members of the Presidium of the Ural Executive Council: number of people claimed to be survivors of the ill-fated family, Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine (18641918), "A Playwright Applies His Craft To Czar Nicholas II's Last Days", "From the archive, 22 July 1918: Ex-tsar Nicholas II executed", "Sleuths say they've found the last Romanovs", "Russia reopens criminal case on 1918 Romanov royal family murders", : , 1926. Romanov family shrouded in mystery Nicholas II, his German-born wife Alexandra Feodorovna, and their five children, Anastasia, Maria, Tatiana, Olga and Alexei, were executed by the Bolsheviks. The skeletons were numbered one through nine. Constitutional Rights Foundation . [100] Heavily laden, the vehicle struggled for 14 kilometres (9mi) on boggy road to reach the Koptyaki forest. / : II / . . On the night of July 16,. The Tsarevich was the first of the children to be executed. [51] The family was not allowed visitors or to receive and send letters. [166] Unlike the imperial family, the bodies at Alapayevsk and Perm were recovered by the White Army in October 1918 and May 1919 respectively. , II (Repentance. On 1 March 1918, the family was placed on soldiers' rations. [103] 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. 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. [99] While the bodies were being placed on stretchers, one of the girls cried out (some accounts say two or more) and covered her face with her arm. [124], Yurovsky separated the Tsarevich Alexei and one of his sisters to be buried about 15 metres (50ft) away, in an attempt to confuse anyone who might discover the mass grave with only nine bodies. [80] Yurovsky and Pavel Medvedev collected 14 handguns to use that night: two Browning pistols (one M1900 and one M1906), two Colt M1911 pistols, two Mauser C96s, one Smith & Wesson, and seven Belgian-made Nagants. It would seem that the discovery of the missing Romanovs would put the rumors and mysteries to rest, but that didnt happen. The End of a Dynasty: The Death of the Romanov Family 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. Jerry Springer kept his cancer diagnosis quiet until death - Los Seven bodies, including two that investigators believe belong to two missing teenage girls, were found Monday afternoon at an Oklahoma residence of a man who authorities were seeking in the teens . The state also remained aloof from the celebration, as President Vladimir Putin considers Nicholas II a weak ruler.[190]. He then shot at Maria, who ran for the double doors, hitting her in the thigh. . He unsuccessfully tried to collapse the mine with hand grenades, after which his men covered it with loose earth and branches. Remnick, Reporting: Writings from the New Yorker, p. 222. As the civil war developed, the whole family was sent to Tolbolsk in Siberia and from here to Ekaterinburg in the Urals. [140] The presidency of Mikhail Gorbachev brought with it the era of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (reform), which prompted Ryabov to reveal the Romanovs' gravesite to The Moscow News on 10 April 1989,[140] much to Avdonin's dismay. The leader of the new guards was Adolf Lepa, a Lithuanian. The files show how much the murder of the Tsar and. [101][102], While Yurovsky was checking the victims for pulses, Ermakov walked through the room, flailing the bodies with his bayonet. "All of them?" [76] Yurovsky wanted to gather the family and servants in a small, confined space from which they could not escape. 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. Forensic investigation into the authenticity of the remains of Russia's Royal family members. The royal family working in the garden during their internment in Tsarskoe Selo in spring 1917. out of the jurisdiction of Yekaterinburg and Perm province). Both agreed to provide DNA samples. [28] The servants were ordered to address the Romanovs only by their names and patronymics. The Romanov Family Died a Century Ago. Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window), Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window), Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window), Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window), Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window), Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images, https://www.history.com/news/romanov-family-bodies-discovery-coverup, Why the Romanov Familys Fate Was a Secret Until the Fall of the Soviet Union. [28], To maintain a sense of normality, the Bolsheviks lied to the Romanovs on 13 July 1918 that two of their loyal servants, Klementy Nagorny[ru] (Alexei's sailor nanny)[53] and Ivan Dmitrievich Sednev (OTMA's footman; Leonid Sednev's uncle),[54] "had been sent out of this government" (i.e. Authorities tell Arizona's Family that an officer was flagged down near Central and Thomas Road when . [127], Sokolov 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. Their bodies were removed, mutilated and burned before being buried in a forest. What? All Rights Reserved. "[90] Yurovsky quickly repeated the order and the weapons were raised. Whereas people inherit their nuclear DNA from each parent. They must have been, and Maria could not have such bras, as they were made in Tobolsk when she was gone, to think that these bras were worn by someone else It would be ridiculous. Officer hospitalized after being assaulted in downtown Phoenix [67] Yurovsky later observed that, by responding to the faked letters, Nicholas "had fallen into a hasty plan by us to trap him". [109] On 19 July, the Bolsheviks nationalized all confiscated Romanov properties,[55] the same day Sverdlov announced the tsar's execution to the Council of People's Commissars. It took multiple attempts and 20 minutes to kill every family member, and Yakov Yurovsky and his men had to use the butts of their guns, bayonets, knives and brute force to finish off the Romanov children and their servants. The case, however, was still open. That meant genealogists had to dig deep into the Tsars family tree and find living relatives who also had maternal consanguinity (or a blood relationship) with a shared female ancestor. [19], According to the official state version of the Soviet Union, ex-Tsar Nicholas Romanov, along with members of his family and retinue, were executed by firing squad by order of the Ural Regional Soviet. [16] Boris Yeltsin and his wife attended the funeral along with Romanov relations, including Prince Michael of Kent. Barlow-Austin's . It was found by White investigator Nikolai Sokolov and reads:[106], Inform Sverdlov the whole family have shared the same fate as the head. The Nagant operated on old black gunpowder which produced a good deal of smoke and fumes; smokeless powder was only just being phased in. [163] Sverdlov granted permission for the local paper in Yekaterinburg to publish the "Execution of Nicholas, the Bloody Crowned Murderer Shot without Bourgeois Formalities but in Accordance with our new democratic principles",[110] along with the coda that "the wife and son of Nicholas Romanov have been sent to a safe place". A British war correspondent, Francis McCullagh, who met Yurovsky in 1920 alleged that he was remorseful over his role in the execution of the Romanovs. [63], During the imperial family's imprisonment in late June, Pyotr Voykov and Alexander Beloborodov, president of the Ural Regional Soviet,[64] directed the smuggling of letters written in French to the Ipatiev House. But Alexei and Marias remains are still being held in a Russian state archivenot buried along with the rest of their family. For women, that means they have the same mtDNA as their mother, grandmother and so-forth. Olga sustained a gunshot wound to the head. The DNA test was conclusive. [143], On 15 August 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church announced the canonization of the family for their "humbleness, patience and meekness". [138] Yurovsky and his assistant, Nikulin, who died in 1964, are buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. It was clear they didn't die peacefully, Plotnikovtold The Guardian. [44], The guard commandant and his senior aides had complete access at any time to all rooms occupied by the family. Perry, John Curtis, and Constantine V. Pleshakov. There they lived in the former governor's mansion in considerable comfort. [45] Ten guard posts were located in and around the Ipatiev House, and the exterior was patrolled twice hourly day and night. 10 important facts about the murder of Russia's royal family Russia exhumes bones of murdered Tsar Nicholas and wife [11] 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,[136] and that the bodies were destroyed in a massive bonfire. He was a witness but later claimed to have taken part in the murders, looting belongings from a dead grand duchess. It was finally carried out in 1991, after the Soviet Unions collapse. Romanov Family Executions: 100 Years Later, Ending the Myths - Time Anderson was really Franziska Schanzkowska of Poland. The burial of the Romanov family is as gruesome as their execution The murder of the imperial family was no simple affair. Ex-tsar safe. In the words of author Joshua Hammer "the murder of Czar Nicholas Romanov and his family has resonated through Soviet and Russian history, inspiring not only immeasurable government cover-ups and public speculation but also a great many books, television series, movies, novels and rumors." (Hammer, 1) The murder of the Romanovs [88] Very well then, let him have one. Haunting last picture before execution of the boy born to be Russia's tsar Anastasia Romanov: The Mystery of Her Life and Death - ThoughtCo Genealogists were able to identify two distant relatives. [95] Ermakov shot and stabbed him, and when that failed, Yurovsky shoved him aside and killed the boy with a gunshot to the head. [25] In all such decisions Lenin regularly insisted that no written evidence be preserved. Readpart 2, More than 60 years earlier, Tsar Nicholas II. [177] However, reflecting the intense debate preceding the issue, the bishops did not proclaim the Romanovs as martyrs, but passion bearers instead (see Romanov sainthood).[177]. It was too late: The murder of the entire Russian imperial family, the Romanovs, had been ordered by the highest levels of Soviet leadership. Learn more about Erin and her work at erinblakemore.com. The authorities exploited the incident as a monarchist-led rebellion that threatened the security of the captives at the Ipatiev House. Two of the childrenlikely Maria and Alexeiwere burned and the remnants of their bodies buried in another, separate grave nearby. Against all odds, we recently found Kingsmore's personal story on this photographic assignment, as well as part of . [112] 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. On the night of 17/18 July 1918, Nicholas, his wife Alexandra and their children Alexei, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia as well as several of their staff were executed in the basement of Ipatiev House. And how could they further confirm the Tsars identity and convince skeptics? Captured on Film by U.S. Cameramen - The Romanov Murder Scene (1918 We strive for accuracy and fairness. Until her death in 1984, Anderson contended she was the missing Tsarina. For the Empress, the match was easy. [178][179] The rehabilitation was denounced by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, vowing the decision will "sooner or later be corrected". During his interrogation he denied taking part in the murders, and died in prison of typhus. [81], In the commandant's office, Yurovsky assigned victims to each killer before distributing the handguns. 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. "And who made the decision?" The intention was to park it close to the basement entrance, with its engine running, to mask the noise of gunshots. They clung to the principle of autocracy and hostility to democracy, which was then inherited by the Communists and is now espoused by the present regime in the Kremlin. Rumors about their possible survival swirled until 2007, when Sergei Plotnikov, a builder who was part of a club that looked for the missing Romanovs on the weekends came across bone fragments. "[82] 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. Abortion in the U.S.: What the data says | Pew Research Center [152] However, in a final letter that was written to his children shortly before his death in 1938, he only reminisced about his revolutionary career and how "the storm of October" had "turned its brightest side" towards him, making him "the happiest of mortals";[153] there was no expression of regret or remorse over the murders. [180], 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. Andersons compelling story attracted attention, and it was made into a 1956 movie starring Ingrid Bergman. [39], The windows in all the family's rooms were sealed shut and covered with newspapers (later painted with whitewash on 15 May). This page was last edited on 30 April 2023, at 15:38. Researchers Discover Tequila Worm Species, The Woolly Mammoth Meatball Could Kick Off a Trend of Eating Extinct Meats. [117], The reason for the lack of jewels in Maria's underwear was, according to Gillard and other witnesses, "not only the daughters who wore bras with jewels sewn into them, but these bras were on those daughters." Where were the two missing Romanov children? [130], Sokolov ultimately failed to find the concealed burial site on the Koptyaki Road; he photographed the spot as evidence of where the Fiat truck had become stuck on the morning of 19 July. [32] They were forbidden to speak any language other than Russian[33] and were not permitted access to their luggage, which was stored in a warehouse in the interior courtyard. These claimed to be by a monarchist officer seeking to rescue the family, but were composed at the behest of the Cheka. The Romanovs, in a 1913 photo. He had a permit to dig, and authorities assumed he was there for geological research. [112][113] 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. Yurovsky sent them to the Popov House for failing "at that important moment in their revolutionary duty". PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) -- A Phoenix police officer was assaulted overnight in the downtown area. [164] An official announcement appeared in the national press, two days later. Yurovsky killed Tatiana and Alexei. For decades, two women each claimed they were Anastasia, the youngest Romanov daughter. Anderson was really Franziska Schanzkowska of Poland. The bodies were again loaded onto the Fiat truck, which by then had been extricated from the mud. The Russian Imperial Romanov family (Nicholas II of Russia, his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, and their five children: Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei) were shot and bayoneted to death[2][3] by Bolshevik revolutionaries under Yakov Yurovsky on the orders of the Ural Regional Soviet in Yekaterinburg on the night of 1617 July 1918. Secret files tell of final terrors for Romanovs - The Independent [34] The imperial family was subjected to regular searches of their belongings, confiscation of their money for "safekeeping by the Ural Regional Soviet's treasurer",[35] and attempts to remove Alexandra's and her daughters' gold bracelets from their wrists. What Happened to the Real Russian Romanov Family Behind The - Esquire They were next moved to a house in Yekaterinburg, near the Ural Mountains before their execution in July 1918. The two missing children had been buried about 70 meters from the mass grave. The Death of the Romanovs - History Learning Site The Empress and Grand Duchess Olga, according to a guard's reminiscence, had tried to bless themselves, but failed amid the shooting. 185 on the line serving the Verkh-Isetsk works, 25 men working for Ermakov were waiting with horses and light carts. The sodden corpses were hauled out one by one using ropes tied to their mangled limbs and laid under a tarpaulin. In 2015, Nicholas remains were exhumed for further testing, and in 2018, new DNA testscorroborated the original DNA findings. "What about it?" 1939. 42: . Since the female body was badly disfigured, Yurovsky mistook her for Anna Demidova; in his report he wrote that he had actually wanted to destroy Alexandra's corpse. The executioners were ordered to use 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. [84], While the Romanovs were having dinner on 16 July 1918, Yurovsky entered the sitting room and informed them that 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. It was decided that the pit was too shallow. Her book, The Heroine's Bookshelf (Harper), won the Colorado Book Award for nonfiction. "It's all over," he answered. [104] Stepan Vaganov, Ermakov's close associate,[151] was attacked and killed by peasants in late 1918 for his participation in local acts of brutal repression by the Cheka. The execution lasted about 20 minutes, Yurovsky later admitting to Nikulin's "poor mastery of his weapon and inevitable nerves". Maria and Anastasia were said to have crouched up against a wall covering their heads in terror until they were shot. [141] The remains were disinterred in 1991 by Soviet officials in a hasty 'official exhumation' that wrecked the site, destroying precious evidence. The family was imprisoned with a few remaining retainers in Yekaterinburg's Ipatiev House, which was designated The House of Special Purpose (Russian: ). [97] Alexei received two bullets to the head, right behind the ear. The remains were buried in St. Petersburg cathedral in 1998, and the buried Romanovs weredeclared saints in the Russian Orthodox church. 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. After Nicholas II abdicated the . For much of 1918, the Romanov family had been the captives of the Bolsheviks who overthrew Nicholas II in the bloody Russian Revolution, and they were used to moving from place to place. Yurovsky instructed his men to "shoot straight at the heart to avoid an excessive quantity of blood and get it over quickly. They were hired on the understanding that they would be prepared, if necessary, to kill the tsar, about which they were sworn to secrecy. What did this mean? Whereas people inherit their nuclear DNA from each parent, mothers exclusively pass on mtDNA. [41] After the Romanovs made repeated requests, one of the two windows in the tsar and tsarina's corner bedroom was unsealed on 23 June 1918. [16] In 2007, a second, smaller grave which contained the remains of the two Romanov children missing from the larger grave, was discovered by amateur archaeologists;[17][13] they were confirmed to be the remains of Alexei and a sistereither Anastasia or Mariaby DNA analysis. and acts as a power station for the cell. He seized a truck which he had loaded with blocks of concrete for attaching to the bodies before submerging them in the new mineshaft. No one survived, and anyone who claimed otherwise was an imposter. The Tsar, Empress Alexandria, their four daughters and one son were all believed to have perished. Czar Nicholas and his family waited patiently in the basement. Yeltsin wrote in his memoirs that "sooner or later we will be ashamed of this piece of barbarism". But Solokov never found the bodies. , 3 (16)/VII 1918 II . Speculation arose as to whether she and her brother, Alexei. I asked, apparently with a touch of surprise. [14][142] Although criminal investigators and geneticists identified them as Alexei and one of his sisters, either Maria or Anastasia,[143] they remain stored in the state archives pending a decision from the church,[144] which demanded a more "thorough and detailed" examination. 21 Haunting Last Photos Of The Romanov Family's Final Days In testing the mtDNA, researchers compared the base pairs between the Tsar, Duke and great-niece. [122] Leonid Brezhnev's Politburo deemed the Ipatiev House lacking "sufficient historical significance" and it was demolished in September 1977 by KGB chairman Yuri Andropov,[138] less than a year before the sixtieth anniversary of the murders. But it would prove difficult to determine whether these bones belonged the murdered Romanovs. He also had the same distinction, which confirmed the skeleton in the mass grave was indeed the last Tsar of Russia. Finally, they dug another shallow grave, and, after abusing the corpses even more, buried all but two of the family members. Primary Menu Sections Search No excursions to Divine Liturgy at the nearby church were permitted. The local Cheka chose replacements from the volunteer battalions of the Verkh-Isetsk factory at Yurovsky's request. [3][5], Following the February Revolution in 1917, the Romanovs and their servants had been imprisoned in the Alexander Palace before being moved to Tobolsk, Siberia, in the aftermath of the October Revolution. The communist government in Russia, now the Soviet Union, kept the fate of the Romanov family a well-guarded state secret, only admitting their deaths in 1926. (Credit: Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons), Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science news, Want More? In 1993, the report of Yakov Yurovsky from 1922 was published. [74] He was under pressure to ensure that no remains would later be found by monarchists who would exploit them to rally anti-communist support. [117] Yurovsky, worried that he might 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. Dmitry Shlapentokh. Kudrin was also armed with a, 17/VII 1918 ( ), , . 2 (Lenin), Archive No. The DNA tests revealed that skeletons four and seven were the parents of skeletons three, five and six.