Murder of A Royal Family

In the early morning hours before the sun rose on July 17, 1918, a family consisting of the last Russian royal family and a few close members of their house was led to a basement where they were brutally murdered. Tsar Nicholas, Tsarina Alexandra, their son Tsarevich Alexi, their four daughters Grand Duchess Olga, Grand Duchess Tatiana, Grand Duchess Maria, and Grand Duchess Anastasia. The family was taken into the basement with the head cook Ivan Kharitonov, the head footman Alexei Trupp, the lady-in-waiting to the tsarina Anna Demidova, and the court physician Eugene Botkin. The family was woken by their physician and told that they all had to report down to the basement where they would be moved to a different location for safety. When the family had arrived in the basement a picture of the family was taken while they were still alive. After the picture was taken the family was told to stay put until it was time to go. Within a few minutes, soldiers had swarmed the basement and a statement was read, “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”. Some executioners later recounted later that the Tsarina and the Grand Duchess Olga were in the middle of blessing themselves when the shots started.

The soldiers evacuated the room to clear the smoke out before going back in to finish their orders. The only surviving victims were the children and Anna Demidova who survived because the Tsarina had sewn diamonds and gems into their corsets and clothing, the rest had succumbed to death by shots to the head. The surviving members died from shots to the head and excessive stabbing from Bayonets. The only surviving member was the Tsarevich’s cocker spaniel Joy who was rescued by one of the executing soldiers. The family was then taken to a nearby forest and buried in separate mass graves after the soldiers poured sulfuric acid on the bodies which left nothing but bones. The bodies of Tsarevich Alexi and his sister Grand Duchess Maria were put on a burn pile because the soldiers had already used the rest of the acid on the other family members. In 1979 the mass graves were found but two bodies remained missing, that of the Tsarevich Alexi and his sister Grand Duchess Maria, many believed that the two had survived the execution and soon rumors sparked that it was actually the Grand Duchess Anastasia that was missing and not Maria. Later in 2007, the remains of the missing children were found but unfortunately not buried. The family members that were found in 1979 were buried at St. Pauls Catherdral in Saint Petersburg, Russia but even after experts have DNA evidence that the two bodies found in 2007 are in fact Alexi and Maria the church still refuses to acknowledge that the bodies are of the Romanov children and remain unburied with their family.

To find out more about the murder of the royal family please click the link: Brutal Execution of the Romanov Family