The Romanov dynasty began in 1613 when Mikhail Fedorovich and ended 300 years later with Nikolai II. Nikolai II came to the throne in 1894.But at the time of his rule, class distinction couldn?t have been bigger.Nikolai's wife was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England known as Alexandra. Together they had five children: Olga (23), at the time of her death, Tatiana (21), Marie (19), Anastasia (17), and Alexei (14).Alexandra had been under the influence for a long time of Grigory Novykh, better known as Rasputin or the mad-monk. Rasputin gained his hold over Alexandra because he could heal the Alexei, who suffered from what they believed was a form of hemophilia. Alexandra began to trust his opinion on pretty much all issues, to the point where he was advising her on hiring/ firing government ministers.The czar's relatives feared the growing influence of Rasputin, and so they made a plan to kill him. The murderer was Felix Yusupov, and he gave him cake and wine poisoned with potassium cyanide. But the cyanide did not affect Rasputin, so Felix shot him, and later shot him 2x more. But Rasputin would just not die, he kept running and fighting. So they threw him into the Neva River. When his body was found 2 days later, his hands were making the sign of benediction across his chest/lungs were full of water, showing that he was still alive when thrown in the river. The day before he died, Rasputin wrote a letter to Nikolai saying, ?If I am killed by common assassins and especially by my brothers the Russian peasants, you, Tsar of Russia, have nothing to fear for your children, they will reign for hundreds of years in Russia...if it was your relations who have wrought my death, then no one in your family, that is to say, none of your children or relations will remain alive for two years. They will be killed by the Russian people.? Rasputin?s prediction came true less than a year later at the start of the Bolshevik Revolution.The Russian parliament formed a temporary government in order to maintain order. But revolts were getting to far out of control that the army?s chief implored Nikolai to abdicate. So, Nikolai resigned in March 1917, in favor of his brother, the Great Duke Michel who in his turn abdicates in favor of the temporary government.The temporary government initially held the family under house arrest. Their intention was to send them into English exile, but the government couldn?t stand up to the Bolsheviks? power.It wasn't long before the Romanov family was forced into exile in Tobolsk, then to Ekaterinburg. In Tobolsk, there life was very quiet and monotonous. But, a new red commissioner was sent to move the Romanovs again. The train that was supposed to carry the Romanovs to Moscow was stopped by Bolsheviks in Ekaterinburg.In Ekaterinburg, the Bolsheviks made a detention place for the Romanovs. Nikolai Ipatiev was removed from his home and the Romanovs were sent there. The Ipatiev house was kept guarded by a squadron of Bolsheviks soldiers.The white army was quickly approaching Ekaterninburg and Lenin and the reds feared that they might reinstate their new tsar if they arrived there.So, in July, Yakov Yurovsky was hired as the new commissioner and he brought with him ten other men, who became the future execution squadron.On July 16th 1918, shortly after midnight, Yurovsky woke up the Romanovs and asked them to go down in the house basement to take shelter. He said that the white army was encircling the city and that battle is imminent.So, the entire family, their Doctor, maid, chef, and footman got ready. The prisoners then went to the basement to a cellar room where he asked them to wait so he could prepare their departure towards a safer place.Yurovsky had told the family that the Communists in Moscow needed a photo. Suddenly, Yurovsky entered the room with 10 militiamen. He read the death sentence: "Nikolaï Alexandrovitch, your friends have tried to save you but they did not succeed and we are obliged to put you to death" and that in light of the fact that your relatives in Europe are continuing their aggression against Soviet Russia, the Ural Executive Committee had decreed that you are to be shot. Nikolai was confused and said, ?What? What?? Nikolai didn?t say anything else, and the girls made a few incoherent noises. Within a few seconds, they started shooting for 3 minutes. The commissioner shot Nikolai and Alexandra immediately and later Alexei. Just before he died they said Nikolai tried to shield Alexei, and Olga tried to make a cross with her fingers. About half the family survived the 1st wave of bullets, so the squad started shooting again. Anastasia and 2 of her sisters survived the next wave, but the bullets were ricocheting all over the room. The families 4 dogs had to be hanged to make them stop barking.The bodies were then loaded in a truck which left Ekaterinburg for an old iron mine located outside the town. There, the bodies were undressed and the soldiers found 18 pounds of hidden jewels in the daughter's corsets, which protected them from the bullets making them ricochet. The mine they had plan to bury the bodies in couldn?t be found, so they burned them, tried to dissolve them in acid and threw them in some water-filled pits. The next morning, the Soviet president looked at the work, but saw too much evidence. So the next night, Yurovsky dug the bodies up and reloaded the truck in order to bury them in a deeper pit mine located not far from there. But the truck got stuck so they buried the bodies under the road. But they didn?t have time to finish because on July 25th, Ekaterinburg fell to the advancing white army. After an investigation, Sokolov found the first pit mine but the actual burial site at Koptaiki wasn?t discovered until 1979 by a Russian mystery writer.Because there were only reports of the Tsar?s death, there were speculations that some of the family members survived. Also when the bodies were DNA tested, 2 of them could not be accounted for. The most notable imposter was Anna Anderson claiming to be Anastasia. She looked like her, but DNA tests proved that she wasn?t. In Canada, a man named ?Heino? died of a blood disorder and on his tombstone it said ?Alexei Nikolaievich, Sovereign Heir of Russia.? It was at first thought that he was not Alexei because a hemophiliac could not have survived being shot, but DNA testing of Heino?s disease and Alexei?s were compared. And Alexei was not actually a hemophiliac (the family just assumed because there were no doctors around to make the call) he had Aplastic Anemia or Leukemia. The odds of them having the disease themselves is 1 in a million, yet alone 2 unrelated people with similar DNA was too rare to be chance. There?s other facts too that proved Heino actually was the sovereign heir Alexei of Russia, although there still is some minor debate.Lots of debate where the bones should be buried. Moscow/Ekaterinburg wanted them but a committee decided to bury the Romanovs with their ancestors in Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. The decision to lay the Romanovs to rest was made on July 17, 1998, the 80th anniversary of their deaths.
