Shooting of the Romanov family - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The shooting of the Romanov family, of the Russian Imperial

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

House of Romanov, and those who chose to accompany them into exile, Dr. Eugene Botkin

Eugene Botkin

Yevgeny Sergeyevich Botkin was the court physician for Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra and, while in exile with the family, sometimes treated the hemophilia-related complications of the Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia.Botkin went into exile with the Romanovs following the Russian...

, Anna Demidova

Anna Demidova

Anna Stepanovna Demidova was a maid in the service of Tsarina Alexandra of Russia. She acquired posthumous fame because she was murdered alongside her employer in 1918....

, Alexei Trupp, and Ivan Kharitonov

Ivan Kharitonov

Ivan Mikhailovich Kharitonov, , was a cook at the court of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. He followed the Romanov family into internal exile following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and was executed with them by the Bolsheviks on July 17, 1918 at Ekaterinburg.Like the Romanovs, Kharitonov was...

, took place in Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,350,136 , making it Russia's...

on July 17, 1918 on the orders of Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...

, Yakov Sverdlov

Yakov Sverdlov

Yakov Mikhaylovich Sverdlov ; known under pseudonyms "Andrei", "Mikhalych", "Max", "Smirnov", "Permyakov" — 16 March 1919) was a Bolshevik party leader and an official of the Russian Soviet Republic.-Early life:...

, and the Ural Soviet, in order to prevent them being subsequently used to muster the White forces in the ongoing Russian Civil War

Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...

Background

On 22 March 1917, Nicholas, no longer a monarch

Monarch

A monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...

and addressed with contempt by the sentries as "Nicholas Romanov", was reunited with his family at the Alexander Palace

Alexander Palace

The Alexander Palace is a former imperial residence at Tsarskoye Selo, on a plateau around 30 minutes by train from St Petersburg. It is known as the favourite residence of the last Russian Emperor, Nicholas II, and his family and their initial place of imprisonment after the revolution that...

in Tsarskoe Selo. He was placed under house arrest with his family by the Provisional Government

Russian Provisional Government

The Russian Provisional Government was the short-lived administrative body which sought to govern Russia immediately following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II . On September 14, the State Duma of the Russian Empire was officially dissolved by the newly created Directorate, and the country was...

. Surrounded by his guards, confined to their quarters, the Imperial family was rudely inspected on Nicholas's first night back at home. The same night a band of soldiers broke into Grigory Rasputin's tomb and, lifting the putrefying corpse with sticks, flung it onto a pyre of logs and drenched it with gasoline. The body burned for six hours as Rasputin's ashes were scattered by the icy winds. The ex-Tsar remained calm and dignified and even insisted on the children resuming their lesson with himself as tutor in history and geography. Through the newspapers he took a keen interest in the progress of the war, but he could not help reading also how the press now printed lurid stories about Rasputin and the Empress, the 'confessions' of former servants and the private lives of the self-styled 'lovers' of the Tsar's four daughters.

In August 1917, Alexander Kerensky

Alexander Kerensky

Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky was a major political leader before and during the Russian Revolutions of 1917.Kerensky served as the second Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government until Vladimir Lenin was elected by the All-Russian Congress of Soviets following the October Revolution...

's Provisional Government evacuated the Romanovs to Tobolsk

Tobolsk

Tobolsk is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh Rivers. It is a historic capital of Siberia. Population: -History:...

, 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 as luxuries.

As the Bolsheviks gathered strength, leading to full-scale resistance by the summer, Nicholas, Alexandra and their daughter Maria were moved in April to Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg

. Alexei 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

Ipatiev House

Ipatiev House was a merchant's house in Yekaterinburg where the former Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, his family and members of his household were executed following the Bolshevik Revolution...

, which was called The House of Special Purpose .

The Bolsheviks had wanted to bring the tsar for a trial, but circumstances led to a quick decision to kill the whole family summarily. The Romanovs were being held by the Red Army in Yekaterinburg. As the civil war continued and the White Army (a loose alliance of anti-communist forces) were threatening to capture the city, the fear was that the Romanovs would have fallen into their 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 that he would have been able to negotiate for greater foreign intervention on behalf of the Whites. Soon after the family was executed, the city did in fact fall to the White Army.

On 16 July 1918 forces of the Czech legion were closing on Yekaterinburg. It was unknown to them that Russia's royal family was being held under house arrest there. The Bolsheviks, believing that the Czechs were on a mission to rescue the Russian royals, panicked and executed their wards. The real reason for the Czechs being in Yekaterinburg was to protect the Trans Siberian Railway, of which they had total control. Circumstance played a large part in the execution of the Russian royal family.

Execution

The telegram giving the order to execute the prisoners on behalf of the Supreme Soviet

Supreme Soviet

The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union was the Supreme Soviet in the Soviet Union and the only one with the power to pass constitutional amendments...

in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

was signed by Yakov Sverdlov

Yakov Sverdlov

. Around midnight, Yakov Yurovsky

Yakov Yurovsky

Yakov Mikhaylovich Yurovsky was an Old Bolshevik best known as the chief executioner of Russia's last Tsar, Nicholas II and his family in 1918, during the Russian Civil War.- Early life :...

, the commandant of The House of Special Purpose, ordered the Romanovs' physician, Dr. Eugene Botkin

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. The Romanovs were then ordered into a 6x5 meter semi-basement room. Nicholas asked if Yurovsky could bring two chairs, on which Alexei sat on his father's lap on one chair, and Alexandra sat on the other.

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, a firing squad was brought in and Yurovsky read aloud the order given him by the Ural Executive Committee:

Nicholas, facing his family, turned and said "What?" 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 cross

Sign of the cross

The Sign of the Cross , or crossing oneself, is a ritual hand motion made by members of many branches of Christianity, often accompanied by spoken or mental recitation of a trinitarian formula....

themselves, but failed amid the shooting. Yurovsky reportedly raised his gun at Nicholas and fired; Nicholas fell dead instantly. The other executioners then began shooting until all the intended victims had fallen. Several more shots were fired and the doors opened to scatter the smoke. There were some survivors, so P.Z. Yermakov

Peter Ermakov

Pyotr Ermakov was a Bolshevik commissar, notable as having been among those responsible for the assassinations of the deposed Tsar Nicholas II, his immediate family, and their retinue....

stabbed them with bayonets because the shouts could be heard outside. The last to die were Anastasia, Tatiana, Olga, and Maria, who were carrying several pounds (over 1.3 kilograms) of diamonds within their clothing, thus protecting them to an extent. However, they were speared with bayonets as well. Olga sustained a gunshot wound to the head. Anastasia and Maria were said to have crouched up against a wall covering their heads in terror until Maria was shot down, and Anastasia was finished off with the bayonets. Yurovsky himself killed Tatiana and Alexei. Tatiana died from a single bullet through the back of her head. Alexei received two bullets to the head, right behind the ear. Anna Demidova

Anna Demidova

Anna Stepanovna Demidova was a maid in the service of Tsarina Alexandra of Russia. She acquired posthumous fame because she was murdered alongside her employer in 1918....

, 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 she had carried that was filled with precious gems and jewels. Military commissar Peter Ermakov

Peter Ermakov

Pyotr Ermakov was a Bolshevik commissar, notable as having been among those responsible for the assassinations of the deposed Tsar Nicholas II, his immediate family, and their retinue....

, in a drunken haze, stabbed at the dead bodies of the former Tsar and Tsarina, shattering both their rib cages in a pool of blood.

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. Although official Soviet accounts place the responsibility for the decision with the Uralispolkom, Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....

in his diary states that the assassination took place on the authority of Lenin. Trotsky wrote:

In 1989, the report of Yakov Yurovsky was published. According to the report, units of the Czechoslovak Legion, making their retreat out of Russia, were approaching Yekaterinburg. Fearing that the Legion would take the town and free him, the Bolshevik jailers executed Nicholas and his family, arguing that there was "no turning back".

Executioners

Ivan Plotnikov, history professor at the Maksim Gorky Ural State University

Ural State University

The Ural State University is located in the city of Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russian Federation. Founded in 1920, it was an exclusive educational establishment made of several institutes which later became independent universities and schools.In 1936 the university was named after one of...

, has established that the executioners were: Yakov Yurovsky

Yakov Yurovsky

Yakov Mikhaylovich Yurovsky was an Old Bolshevik best known as the chief executioner of Russia's last Tsar, Nicholas II and his family in 1918, during the Russian Civil War.- Early life :...

, G.P. Nikulin, M.A. Medvedev (Kudrin), P.Z. Yermakov, S.P. Vaganov, A.G. Kabanov, P.S. Medvedev, V.N. Netrebin, and Y.M. Tselms. Filipp Isayevich Goloshchekin, a close associate of Yakov Sverdlov whom he had met in early July 1918 in Moscow, brought back the final orders to carry out the execution. Being a military commissar of the Uralispolkom in Yekaterinburg, Goloshchekin however did not actually participate in the executions. Most of the executioners were Russians

Russians

The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....

with the exception of Tselms, who was Latvian

Latvians

Latvians or Letts are the indigenous Baltic people of Latvia.-History:Latvians occasionally refer to themselves by the ancient name of Latvji, which may have originated from the word Latve which is a name of the river that presumably flowed through what is now eastern Latvia...

. Yakov Sverdlov, Yurovsky and Goloshchekin also had Jewish backgrounds. Older versions of the event claim that several Hungarian ex-prisoners of war were among the executioners. Three Latvians refused at the last minute to take part in the execution.

Aftermath

The following morning — when rumours spread in Yekaterinburg regarding the disposal site — Yurovsky removed the bodies and concealed 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 bodies in a sealed and concealed pit (56.9113628°N 60.4954326°E) on Koptyaki Road, a cart track (now abandoned) 12 miles (19 km) north of Yekaterinburg. The remains of all the family and their retainers with the exception of two of the children (who were eventually identified in 2008) were later found in 1991 and reburied by the Russian government following a state funeral

State funeral

A state funeral is a public funeral ceremony, observing the strict rules of protocol, held to honor heads of state or other important people of national significance. State funerals usually include much pomp and ceremony as well as religious overtones and distinctive elements of military tradition...

. A ceremony of Christian burial was held in 1998. The bodies were laid to rest with state honors in the St. Catherine Chapel of the Peter and Paul Cathedral

Peter and Paul Cathedral

The Peter and Paul Cathedral is a Russian Orthodox cathedral located inside the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, Russia. It is the first and oldest landmark in St. Petersburg, built between 1712 and 1733 on Zayachy Island along the Neva River. Both the cathedral and the fortress were...

in Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

, where most other Russian monarchs since Peter the Great lie. President Boris Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...

and his wife attended the funeral along with Romanov relations, including Prince Michael of Kent

Prince Michael of Kent

Prince Michael of Kent is a grandson of King George V and Queen Mary, making him a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. He is also the first cousin once removed of Prince Phillip. Prince Michael occasionally carries out royal duties representing the Queen at some functions in Commonwealth realms outside...

.

On August 15, 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church

Russian Orthodox Church

The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...

announced the canonization

Canonization

Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...

of the family for their "humbleness, patience and meekness". However, reflecting the intense debate preceding the issue, the bishops did not proclaim the Romanovs as martyr

Martyr

A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...

s, but passion bearer

Passion bearer

In Orthodox Christianity, a passion bearer is a person who faces his or her death in a Christ-like manner. Unlike martyrs, passion-bearers are not explicitly killed for their faith, though they hold to that faith with piety and true love of God...

s instead (see Romanov sainthood

Romanov sainthood

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, his wife Tsarina Alexandra, and their five children Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei are saints of the Orthodox Church...

). On October 1, 2008, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation

Supreme Court of the Russian Federation

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is the court of last resort in Russian administrative law, civil law and criminal law cases. It also supervises the work of lower courts. Its predecessor is the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union....

ruled that Nicholas II

Nicholas II of Russia

Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...

and his family were victims of political repression

Political repression

Political repression is the persecution of an individual or group for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing their ability to take political life of society....

and were rehabilitated

Political rehabilitation

Political rehabilitation is the process by which a member of a political organization or government who has fallen into disgrace, is restored to public life. It is usually applied to leaders or other prominent individuals who regain their prominence after a period in which they have no influence or...

. On 18 July 1918, the day after the killing at Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg

of the last Tsar, Nicholas II

Nicholas II of Russia

, and his family, other Romanovs, including a nun

Nun

A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...

, met a brutal death being thrown down a mineshaft near Alapayevsk

Alapayevsk

Alapayevsk is a town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Neyva and Alapaikha Rivers. Population: 44,263 ; 50,060 ; 49,000 . The local church is named Saint Catherines....

.

On Thursday 26 of August, 2010, a Russian court ordered prosecutors to reopen an investigation into the murder of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, despite the fact that the Bolsheviks believed to have shot them in 1918 are long dead. 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 case to be reopened 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 descendants and local news agencies.

Over the years, a number of people have claimed to be survivors of the ill-fated family. The process to identify the remains was exhaustive. Samples were sent to Britain and the United States for DNA analysis. The tests concluded that five of the skeletons were members of one family and four were unrelated. Three of the five were determined to be the children of two parents. The mother was linked to the British royal family, as was Alexandra. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....

, grandson of Alexandra's oldest sister Victoria, Marchioness of Milford-Haven, gave a DNA sample which matched with that of the remains. The father was determined to be related to Grand Duke George Alexandrovich

Grand Duke George Alexandrovich of Russia

Grand Duke George Alexandrovich of Russia, , was the third son of Alexander III and Empress Marie of Russia. He was named George after his mother's younger brother, King George I of Greece...

, younger brother of Nicholas II. British scientists said they were more than 98.5% sure that the remains were those of the Tsar, his family and their attendants. Relics from the Ōtsu Scandal

Otsu Scandal

The was a failed assassination attempt on Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich of Russia on 11 May 1891, while Nicholas was visiting Japan during his eastern journey.-Background:...

, a failed assassination attempt on Nicholas II, failed to provide sufficient evidence due to contamination. Nicholas's skeleton was confirmed to be his after its excavation on 22 June 1992. On December 5, 2008 the remains excavated in 1991 were ultimately identified as those of Nicholas II by Russian and American scientists using DNA analysis.

External links

An eyewitness account (Eyewitnesstohistory.com)
In search of the Romanovs (Time.com)
Execution Of The Romanov Family as seen in the movie The Romanovs: An Imperial Family
The Romanovs: An Imperial Family
The Romanovs: An Imperial Family is a 2000 Russian film about the last days of Tsar Nicholas II and his family. The Russian title implies both the Imperial Crown of Russia and the crown of thorns associated with martyrs...

(on Youtube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

)
http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/mainpage.html
In Memory of the Royal Martyrs 17 July 1918

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Background

Execution

Executioners

Aftermath

Further reading

External links