Romanov Execution

The Czar of Russia, Nicolas II, took power in 1894 but did not gain popularity with the Russian people. He denied peasants better pay and working conditions. World War I resulted in food and fuel shortages which made the public hate him even more. In addition, because Alexandra, the Czarina, was half-German, the public despised her because of the misery the Germans were imposing on Russia in World War I. These and other issues made Nicolas fall out of favor.

In the February revolution of 1917, Nicolas was forced to give up his throne, and a temporary government was put in place. Nicolas, his wife and five children, their doctor and few servants were immediately put under house arrest and taken to a residence where some of the children had been born called Tsarskoye Selo outside of St. Petersburg. The family later fled to Tobolsk in Siberia with the hopes of escaping to England because King George V was a cousin, but he refused fearing an uprising. In October 1917, the Bolsheviks, who had only gained a widespread following within the past few months, overthrew the temporary government and took the royals as prisoners. At this time, they were moved to another town in Siberia called Yekaterinburg into the home of a merchant named Ipatiev.

The Ipatiev House is where the family, the doctor and three servants were shot and killed inthe early morning hours of July 17, 1918. They were awakened from sleep by the Bolshevik guards, and asked to dress and go down the basement for safety because there were disturbances in Yekaterinburg. This, of course, was not true but the family had no idea.

It is thought that the order to have the family executed came straight from Lenin. This has been looked on as a tragic, unnecessarily brutal event. On July 17, 1998, the families remains were finally buried with honor, and Russia's president Boris Yeltsin was quoted as saying "We must tell the truth--the massacre has become one of the most shameful pages of our history."

One thing to mention is that the remains of Anastasia, the Czar's youngest daughter, and Alexei, the youngest child and male heir to the throne, have never been found. Many people have alleged that they are one of the two, such as Anna Anderson who claimed to be Anastasia about a year after the Romanovs disappeared. She had many similarities to Anastasia, and even fooled people who had known her personally. She could not speak Russian, but that was thought to be some sort of psychological block. Her claim was found to be false when DNA testing became available in the 90s.

http://www.richeast.org/htwm/ROMAN/ROMANOV.HTM

http://www.lawbuzz.com/tyranny/anastasia/anastasia_ch1.htm

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/nicholas.htm

JH