One of the most shocking events of the 20th century was when the Russian royal family
were slaughtered and executed inside of a house in Yekateringberg. The murder of the
Romanov family was a shocking one, and alongside the Tsar and Tsarina, their children also
succumbed to the Bolshevik death squads. It was a shocking act that left Russia without
a royal family, and in the decades following there would be more chaos with Bolshevik and
Communist rule. But Alexandra Feodorovna, the Empress of Russia throughout her life
would attract a huge amount of criticism and there would be great scandal about her friendship
with Grigori Rasputin. But inside of the basement of that house, she was too killed. But what
was the story behind the execution of Russia’s last empress? Join us today as we look at
this, and remember to support our channel please make sure to subscribe.
Alexandra Feodorovna was also known as Alex of Hesse, and she was born on the 6th June
1872 in Germany. She was the sixth child of Grand Duke Louis IV and Princess Alice of
the United Kingdom, and was known as Alex by her family. When she was just six her mother
died, and she then spent many of her holidays with her British cousins. She was also educated
by her grandmother Queen Victoria, who loved her greatly and she wanted Alix to later become
the Queen Consort of the United Kingdom. She educated her in this way, and Victoria would
wish to have one of her sons marry her. She later went to study philosophy at Heidelberg
University, but at the age of 12 she had met her future husband Grand Duke Nicholas Romanov,
who was the heir to the Russian throne. Over the next few years and the following decade,
their friendship blossomed into a romance, but at first the idea of a marriage did not
seem popular. Nicholas’ father Alexander III was very anti-German, and Alix’s family
did not like the Russian people. It was also believed she carried the hereditary condition
of haemophilia, of which their future son Alexei would have, and this was considered
fatal. This rumour was dangerous for Alexandra, considering an heir to the throne with a deadly
disease would have been considered weak. However the couple were in love, and on the 26th November
1894, the couple would marry. Alix then accepted the name Alexandra Feodorovna following her
acceptance into the Russian Orthodox Church.
The pair’s marriage would seem to most people to have been happy and passionate, and they
would live in the private residence of the royal family. But life would be shattered
by tragedy. The couple would have four children who were all girls, and the Romanov family
needed a male heir, and Alexandra wanted to give Nicholas a son. She turned to mystics
to help conceive a boy, however Alexandra experienced a tragic false pregnancy in 1903.
But the following year she gave birth to a son named Alexei, but he was found to be suffering
from haemophilia. But Alexandra had found a deep belief with mystics, and she then came
into contact with the notorious Rasputin in 1908. He gained her faith, and allegedly cured
Alexei of his haemophilia, and to Alexandra Rasputin saved her son. But to the Russians,
they believed he was a faker and a con-artist, who brought great shame to the Russian royals,
and many believed that she was actually having an affair with Rasputin. But Alexandra’s
reputation with the public began to suffer further, as many believed she was meddling
in affairs of state, and at the time she and her husband could not help the Russian people
who were suffering, and there was turmoil inside of the country. This would not be helped
when the First World War broke out.
Russia was now at at war with Germany, and Nicholas would take command of the armed forces
against the advise of his generals. Alexandra was now acting as regent and she oversaw government,
with Rasputin acting as advisor. But the Russian military was suffering heavily in the war,
and they were losing thousands of men. There were rumours that the Empress was collaborating
with the Germans, and Alexandra was being criticised further. Her husband was at war,
and Rasputin was then advised by his domestic enemies inside of Russia. But by February
1917, the government was failing to deal with problems and there were food shortages and
a famine inside the cities. The workers went on strike and riots broke out in cities, and
Tsar Nicholas believed the war was lost, and that Russia was lost. Because of this, he
abdicated the throne, and Russia was involved in civil war with the Bolshevik forces led
by Lenin being very anti-Tsar.
The royal family were placed under house arrest, and they were kept in strict isolation at
Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, which was said to have been ‘The House Of Special
Purpose.’ It was said that, ‘All those under arrest will be held as hostages, and
the slightest attempt at counter-revolutionary action in the town will result in the summary execution of
the hostages.’ The servants were forced to address the Romanovs’ by their names,
and the imperial family were subjected to regular searches of their belongings. Alexandra
and her daughters had their gold bracelets seized, and they were kept in a house which
was completely covered with newspapers, and there wasn’t much ventilation and light.
Their rations were tea and black bread for breakfast, and cutlets or soup with meat for
lunch. The Romanovs were told they were no longer to live like emperors. Their servants
were later executed, and there were 16 men who guarded the house, and they slept in the
basement, hallways and commandant’s office during shifts. The external guard was made
up of 56 guards, and their behaviour was shocking. They would drink heavily and conduct illicit
behaviour in the basement rooms, but the house was heavily guarded with machine guns. The
Ural Regional Soviet met on the 29th June 1918 and agreed that the Romanovs should be
executed. There was planning for this that occurred, as well as to work out where to
dispose of their remains. There was debate as to whether it was required for Alexandra
and the children to be executed, but it was decided that all of the prisoners would die.
The plan was to perform all 11 prisoner executions at the same time.
Around midnight on the 17th July, the Romanovs were awoken by their physician and they were
told to put on their clothes. They believed they were being moved, but then they were
ordered into a 20ft by 16ft basement room. Alexandra asked for a chair because at the
time she was rather ill, and Nicholas asked for a chair for Alexei. They provided these,
and the prisoners were told to wait in the cellar whilst a truck was being fetched to
move them. However then an execution squad made up of secret police came in, and the
execution order was read. It was said, ‘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.’ With this, he turned to his family and said ‘What?’ Before the
order was repeated and the executioners prepared their weapons. Alexandra and her daughter
Olga tried to bless themselves, but during this the shooting began. The whole of the
Russian royal family were killed. Alexandra was standing around 6 feet from the gunman
who shot her husband, and she watched the execution of her husband and two manservants.
She had seen her husband being shot several times in the chest.
Then military commissar Peter Ermakov would turn his gun on Alexandra. She turned away
from him and made the sign of the cross, but before she finished, Ermakov had killed her
with a single gunshot which hit her head above the left earl. This exited by her right ear,
and she had been killed with one gunshot. But then after all the victims were dead,
Ermakov then stabbed Alexandra’s body and her husband’s which caused significant damage
to their rib cages, and also part of Alexandra’s vertebrae was chipped and damaged.
Alexandra Feodorovna had a rather interesting life, and she had a start in life where she
was raised by her grandmother the Queen of the United Kingdom. However she was part of
her disastrous husband’s running of Russia that plunged it into a world war where it
lost a great deal of soldiers, and also her links to Rasputin also damaged her reputation.
The Russian people turned against her, but her execution along with her husband and children’s
killing was a shocking and brutal act. Today she is known in the Russian Orthodox Church
as ‘Saint Alexandra the Passion Bearer,’ and she was a woman who suffered greatly in
her final weeks.
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