"Anastasia" [ann-uh-STAY-zhuh] told part of the story, but there's more
to the full saga of the last Russian royal family, the Romanovs [ROH-muh-nahv]. Keep
watching to learn what we know — and what we don't — about their bloody end.
It was 1915 and World War One was in full force. The Last Russian Czar, Nicholai II, headed to
the Russian front line in a final attempt to keep the Romanov dynasty's authority alive.
Riots and rebellions were increasing in Russia due to the lack of food and
supplies and the high death toll of war. The threat of revolution was becoming
a reality. Then, in March 1917, Bolshevik revolutionaries forced Nicholai to abdicate,
effectively leading to the collapse of the Russian monarchy.
When offers of exile to Great Britain fell through,
the family was forced into house arrest at Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo,
a town just 15 miles south of Saint Petersburg. While life inside the palace was fairly normal
for the Romanovs, guards followed the royals when they went out for walks.
By August 1917, the provisional government was afraid that the unstable political situation
in the main cities could get violent. They decided to move the imperial family farther
away for their own safety. The Romanovs were then taken to the Governor's Palace
in the very small Siberian town of Tobolsk. Forty-six court attendants,
including servants, joined the five-day train trip to the family's new residence.
The Romanovs enjoyed a fairly relaxed, almost happy, life at the palace until April of the
following year when orders came that they had to move again.The family and servants then
headed for their new and final residence at the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg.
Life was very different at the Ipatiev house, which was a small mansion, but still a far
cry from the luxury the imperial family was used to. Alexei [uh-LEX-ay] was often ill,
and the Romanov daughters endured disrespectful behavior from the guards on a regular basis.
Except for short walks in the garden, the Romanovs spent most of their time
in five small rooms on the second floor of the house. By the beginning of July,
the usual guards were replaced by men from the Cheka secret police.
A few days later, they would be given the "go ahead" from Moscow to kill the entire family.
Just after midnight on July 17, 1918, the family was woken up and taken to
a room in the basement. They were told that revolutionaries were approaching,
and the family would be safer downstairs. The family's physician, cook, a chambermaid, and a
footman joined the family in the basement. After some time, secret police commander Yakov Yurovsky
walked into the room, announced the family had been sentenced to death, and shot the Tsar.
While Nicholai II died instantly, the rest of the family did not. Yurovsky's
guards then opened fire, filling the room with smoke and causing them to miss their targets.
Some of the victims were shot several times and others were bayoneted to death,
stabbed or attacked with the butts of the guns. It took over 20 minutes before everybody was dead.
It took several tries, which included a mine shaft, grenades, and acid,
before Yurovsky and his men finally dug a shallow grave for most of the bodies. The remains of two
of the children were burned and buried elsewhere. While the revolutionary Bolsheviks took credit for
killing Nicholai II, the murder of the imperial family remained a well-guarded secret for decades.
It wasn't until 1979 that the mass grave was found, though things remained quiet until an
investigation was launched in 1991. Once DNA confirmed the remains belonged to the Romanovs,
the family, except for the two missing children, was buried in St. Petersburg cathedral. Not long
after, they were declared saints in the Russian Orthodox church. But, things weren't so simple
for the other two children, who were suspected to be Alexei and either Maria or Anastasia.
For starters, their bodies weren't found until 2007, and despite DNA analysis proving their
lineage, the Russian Orthodox Church refused to acknowledge the findings.
New DNA tests confirmed the findings in 2015, when Tsar Nicholai II's body was exhumed for
DNA comparison. But, in 2018, the church still insisted that, quote, "more proof was needed."
The church claimed they needed to be extra careful in confirming the identity of the
children. They claimed their bones were considered sacred relics because of the
family's canonization. The truth, however, is possibly a lot more political than religious.
The grave containing the remains of the two children was located in 2007,
not far from the main burial site, but the bodies had been burned almost completely to ash.
While it's true that fewer than 50 bone fragments were found,
DNA tests were conclusive: They belong to members of the Romanov family.
The bodies of Alexei and Maria have never been buried. They remain in hold at a Russian state
archive because the church demands more proof that it really is them.
Conspiracy theories could have come into play, too. For years, there was speculation that the
two missing children hadn't been found because they had somehow escaped and were still alive.
Between 1918 and 1928, half a dozen women publicly claimed to be the missing Romanov
daughter. The most famous case was the story of Anastasia Tschaikovsky,
also known as Anna Anderson, who claimed to be the missing Anastasia.
Anderson had spent some time in a mental hospital after a suicide attempt and was eventually helped
by Romanov sympathizers to escape to the U.S. There, she engaged in a long legal
battle to be recognized as Anastasia Romanov. She eventually lost her court battle and died in 1984.
A DNA test performed a decade later proved Anderson was definitely not a Romanov.
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