The Death of the Dynasty

The Romanovs’ end was the product of the Red Army’s conspiracy after they won the civil war. But the war didn’t come out of nowhere. Workers, peasants and people in general wouldn’t stand the Empire’s decision to spend billions of rubles on two wars (Japan and Europe), while their own population was starving. We already know about the process and the outcome of the civil war so let’s talk about how the new government erased any possibility of the royal and noble peoples regaining power in Russia.

When he realised that he could no longer rule sufficiently and that he, himself, was partly responsible for the crisis and rise of revolution, Nicholas II abdicated in favor of Mikhail, his younger brother. Unfortunately for the Empire, Mikhail also didn’t trust himself, resigning the next day because he decided that the State had to be reformed with the people’s consent before it could be ruled. And that’s how 300 years of Romanov power came to an end. But the royal family knew that the revolutionary army would never accept this as the only thing won, and that there would be other attempts to reclaim the throne. So they tried to escape into exile but did not succeed. They got on a train to go to Tobolsk in August 1917, as advised by the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky, in an attempt to save themselves. Two months later the Bolsheviks had full control of the government.

Mikhail Romanov, officially last Tzar

The family, with 45 of their servants, were practically living imprisoned, eating what they could and wearing regular clothes. And were moved again, in May 1918 to Yekaterinburg, filled with fear of prosecution by trial every single day, waiting for the Czech Legion to come and rescue them. But it was a false hope. One night, commandant Yakov Yurovsky appeared with a group from the military, gathered the whole family in a small room “for their own safety”, took a picture of them, and told them they were sentenced to death by the Ural Soviet. Nicholas Romanov, his wife, Alexandra, their four daughters, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and his only son, 14-year-old sick Alexei, and four servants were shot dead.

The Romanovs on a roof’s house in Tobolsk

In the year 2000, the members of the family were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church. But this was not the only tribute. Investigations surrounding the various rumours and suspicions of their deaths’ arose and were eventually taken up by scientists and explorers after the fall of the Soviet Union, 25 five years ago. Mysteries abound in the case of the slain royal family, for instance, Trotsky’s letters and Yurovsky’s reports were found along with the remains of the family’s bodies, among many other treasures. These mysteries have brought all forms of speculation including artistic creation, like the secret story of Anastasia, the youngest daughter of Nicholas, who was believed to have survived to the shooting, and whose story was recreated in a Disney motion picture. Her remains, though, were found in 2007. To this day, there are still people claiming to be descendants of the survivors of the Romanovs relatives, and state that they have rights to the throne.