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The Romanovs. The Final Chapter. The Romanov Family. The Massacre.
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The Romanovs The Final Chapter
The Massacre • The Romanov family was murdered at Ekateringburg on July 17th, 1918. After his abdication in March 1917, Nicholas and his family had been put under house arrest and kept just outside of St. Petersburg. As the civil war developed, the whole family was sent to Tolbolsk in Siberia and from here to Ekateringburg in the Urals.
Tsar Nicholas II • Before Alexander III had passed away, he gave his consent to the marriage of the heir to the throne to Nicholas’ own choice, Princess Alix of Hesse. • Nicholas and Alexandra were genuinely in love much to the chagrin of his father, Alexander III and his mother, Empress Marie, who favored a more political match for Russia’s future to that of the unpopular German Princess.
The Romanovs had given Lenin a major problem. To many, Nicholas was still the legitimate ruler of Russia. While he was alive, people would rally to his cause. The simple fact was that many in the White corner were fighting to restore Nicholas the throne. The tsar, appointed by God, had many loyal followers. If Nicholas escaped, then his followers would have had someone at their head to lead them - against Lenin.
In the summer of the 1918, Ekateringburg was threatened by the advancing Whites. The decision was taken by the Bolsheviks to kill Nicholas and his family. On the night of July 17th, the family was awoken and told that there was trouble in Ekateringburg. They were told that they would be safer in the basement of the house they were staying in. The whole family, the family doctor (Botkin) and three servants went to the basement. A group of twelve Red Army soldiers appeared in the basement and shot those there. The legend has it that the princesses had to be finished off with bayonets as they had stuffed jewels in their blouses which had deflected the bullets.
Tsarina Alexandra • She was the favorite granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England. She first met Nicholas when she was 11 during the wedding festivities of her sister, Ella, to Nicholas’ uncle. • They met again when she was 17 and he was 21. • She was the God Daughter of Tsar Alexander III and his wife (Nicholas’ parents).
Tsaravich Alexei • Born in 1904, he was the only son of the Tsar and his wife. • He was born healthy, but soon developed Hemophilia, a hereditary blood disease on the mother’s side. • His parents used a mystic healer, named Rasputin to help with his disease.
Grand Duchess Olga • The oldest daughter of the Tsar. • As she grew, Olga showed herself to be sensitive, spiritual and very serious for one so small. Olga was kind and modest, using her small allowance to donate anonymously to charities. She was the most serious of the four girls and spent much time reading novels. She served as a nurse during WWI.
Grand Duchess Tatiana • She was considered by most to be the most elegant of the grand Duchesses. She was the second child of Nicholas and Alexandra. She was tallest of the four an seen as the “mother hen” with the younger children. She served as a nurse in WWI and was 21 when she was killed.
Grand Duchess Maria • She was often referred to as the most beautiful of the girls and was the third child. She had think, light brown hair, and dark blue eyes. Her sisters would kid her about her plumpness and call her bow wow. She was warm hearted and quite the flirt with the sailors from the yacht. She had just turned 19 when she was killed.
Grand Duchess Anastasia • She was considered to be the tomboy of the girls. She could speak Russian, French, and English fluently. As the youngest, most everything that could have been done had already been done by the eldest three, so she took to being the family clown.
OTMA • The four grand duchesses were very close. Infrequent contact with playmates made them especially close. They would use the acronym OTMA to sign letters and birthday cards.
Grigorii Rasputin • Rasputin came from peasant stock. He was born in Siberia and as a child, he shocked his village by constantly finding ways to get in trouble with the authorities. Drunkeness, stealing, and womanizing were activities particularly enjoyed by him.
Rasputin’s Religious Conversion • At Verhoturye Monastery, Rasputin was fascinted by a renegade sect within the Orthodox faith, the Skopsty. Followers of this firmly believed that the only way to reach God was through sinful actions. It was soon thereafter that the peasant adopted the robes of the monk, developed his own self gratifying doctrines, traveled the country as a “staretz” and sinned to his heart’s content.
Rasputin Arrives in St. Petersburg • By the time he reached his early thirties, Rasputin had traveled to the Holy land and back. It was while in Kazan that the mysterious traveling monk made an impression among the local clergy. It was with the recommendations of these fooled priests that Rasputin headed to St. Petersburg for his first visit. • While in the Russian capital, Rasputin’s presence attracted the attention of many of the country’s leading religious leaders. The staretz’ traveling tales, as well as the stories he told about his religious revival, seemed to capture the attention of the higher clergy of the Russian empire. The year was 1902.
Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra (the emperor and empress of Russia) had tried for years to give birth to an heir. After four girls were born, the royal couple was desperate. They called in many mystics and holy men. Finally, in 1904, Aleksandra gave birth to a baby boy, Aleksei Nikolayevich. Unfortunately, the boy who had been the answer to their prayers was afflicted with "the Royal disease," hemophilia. Every time Aleksei began to bleed, it would not stop. The royal couple became frantic to find a cure for their son. Again, mystics, holy men and healers were brought in. Nothing helped until 1908, when Rasputin was called upon to come aid the young tsarevich during one of his bleeding episodes.
Having proven to Alexandra his holy powers, Rasputin did not remain just the healer for Aleksei; Rasputin soon became the confidante and personal advisor of Aleksandra. To the aristocrats, having a peasant advising the tsarina, who in turn held a great deal of influence over the tsar, was unacceptable.
His pick up line… • Careful to maintain his pretence of being a humble if mystically talented peasant while in the royal couple’s presence, Rasputin however lost no time in indulging his voracious sexual appetite outside the court.
Irina Romanov • Irina Romanov, was the daughter of Grand Duke Alexander and Grand Duchess Xenia, and niece of Nicholas II. • Used as part of the plot to kill Rasputin.
Felix Yusupov • Felix Yusupov was born in Russia in 1886. As a young man, he married Irina Romanov. Like many members of the royal court, Yusupov objected to the influence that Rasputin had over the Tsar and his wife. • One of the murderers of Rasputin.
Grand Duke Dmitri • Sent in disgrace by is 1st cousin Nicholas to join an army unit in Persia. After the murder, Dmitri later escaped to England and from there, to the United States. • One of the murderers of Rasputin.
Rasputin’s Murder • The plan was relatively simple. Felix Yusupov was to befriend Rasputin and then lure Rasputin to the Yusupov palace to be killed. • Knowing Rasputin's love of sex, the conspirators would use Felix's beautiful wife, Irina, as bait. • Felix and Rasputin would enter a side entrance of the palace with stairs leading down to the basement so that no one could see them enter or leave the palace. • Since the Yusupov palace was along the Moika Canal and across from a police station, using guns was not possible for fear of them being heard. Thus, they decided to use poison.
The dining room in the basement would be set up as if several guests had just left it in a hurry. Noise would be coming from upstairs as if Irina, Felix's wife, were entertaining unexpected company. Felix would tell Rasputin that Irina would come down once her guests had left. While waiting for Irina, Felix would offer Rasputin potassium-cyanide laced pastries and wine. • After Rasputin was killed, the conspirators were going to wrap up the body in a rug, weigh it down, and throw it into a river. Since winter had already come, most of the rivers near Petrograd were frozen. The conspirators spent a morning looking for a suitable hole in the ice to dump the body. They found one on the Malaya Nevka River.
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