LadyTudorRose's boring homework... Romanov edition!

The Death of the Romanov Family

On July 17, 1918, at 1:30 am, Dr. Eugene Botkin was woken up by Yakov Yurovsky. He was told to wake up his employer, the former Tsar Nicholas II, and make sure that Nicholas’s wife and children were woken up and dressed. The Romanov family had been living in Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg under house arrest for seventy-eight days. That night they were sent down to the cellar and told they would be photographed. Nicholas’s wife, Alexandra, asked for chairs for herself and her son, which were brought out (Massie 4). While they waited, they whispered to each other and Alexandra tried to talk to her daughters, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia, in English, the language the family used in private. Yurovsky then called in eleven men, armed with revolvers. He then told the confused family and their retainers that they were to be executed. Nicholas responded “What?” and Alexandra and Olga tried to cross themselves before the shots began. Thought they’d each been given individuals to shoot, all of the gunmen aimed at Nicholas before turning on the rest of the family. For decades afterwards, the killing of the Romanov family sparked debate, drama, and mystery. It led to increased tensions and conflicts within the European royal community, and helped cement the final end of Imperial Russia.

In March, 1917, Nicholas II abdicated the throne for himself and his son. He drew up a manifesto naming his brother Michael the next Tsar, but Michael declined to accept the throne. Nicholas was pressured to abdicate by the Provisional Government in the wake of the Russian Revolution. Nicholas felt he and his family would be safe if he signed away his rights (King and Wilson 84) and anticipated they would be able to find asylum abroad. King George V of Great Britain was a first cousin of both Nicholas and Alexandra. George and Nicholas had been friendly for years and even physically resembled one another. It was expected that the Romanov family would find safety in Britain. The British government was prepared to offer them asylum, but George prevented it. George had been worried about his own popularity, though he would later insist he had done everything he could to save them, as would his children and grandchildren (Edwards 310). That was not exactly the case, as George had had the option of offering them asylum when it could have saved them, and any other rescue efforts he may have been involved with (evidence is scarce either way) would have come once it was too late. Though George could not have known that they would die if they remained in Russia, he had little reason to believe they would otherwise be safe. Many of the family’s other relatives were in Germany, which was at war with Russia during World War I and would not have offered asylum to enemy royalty, regardless of family connections. Most of their other relatives in Denmark, Spain, and Greece, were not in a position to help the family. The possibility of them being sent to one of their overseas residences was also suggested, but arrangements were not made. Ultimately, when the Bolsheviks came in power in October 1917, it was no longer considered wise to keep the family alive in Russia where they would serve as symbol for Monarchists.

In late 1917, many in the extended family fled to Finland, Crimea, or other parts of Europe. Nicholas, his wife and children, and his brother Michael, were kept under house arrest and were unable to flee. Michael was murdered separately a month before Nicholas was killed (Perry and Pleshakov 194). The Soviets feared the possibility of Nicholas meeting up with Monarchist forces and being used a tool to fight the Revolution. Other relatives hid out to avoid being captured by the Reds. Nicholas may have at some point contemplated the possibility of his own execution, but it is unlikely he or anyone else in the family thought that Alexandra and the children would be killed as well (Massie 10). As a child, Olga Romanov had once told her tutor, after learning about Tudor England, she was glad to live in civilized times where she didn’t have to worry about being executed.
By 1918, the Soviet government became convinced the Nicholas was going to have to die. The problem was with what to do with his family. His wife, the former Empress, was incredibly unpopular, even more than her husband. She was believed to have German sympathies because of her German heritage, even though she considered herself more British than German. The issue was what to do with the children. Though had they known what was in store they probably would’ve changed their minds, the family did not want to be broken up. There was also the issue of where to send them, as George V had already proven unlikely to offer asylum and most of their other relatives were torn up by war. By spring 1918, when the family was moved to Ipatiev House, it was decided they were all going to die. The servants were considered irrelevant and it was decided they would be executed too if they would not leave the family. One of the kitchen boys was sent away before the executions so he would be able to survive.

The night before she died, the former Tsarina and “Empress of all Russias”, wrote in her diary that it was a cold night for July and that she had played cards with her husband before bed. A few hours later she, and her entire family, would be dead. Their deaths spawned anger, mystery, and even pretenders who claimed to be them. But ultimately, the family and their servants, were just a few deaths among many caused by the Russian Revolution, and World War I before it. But no other deaths during that time period caused quite as much mystery and controversy as the deaths of Nicholas, Alexandra, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei Romanov.




Works Cited:
Edwards, Anne. Matriarch: Queen Mary and the House of Windsor. New York: W. Morrow, 1984. Print.
King, Greg, and Penny Wilson. The Fate of the Romanovs. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2003. Print.
Massie, Robert K. The Romanovs: the Final Chapter. New York: Random House, 1995. Print.
Perry, John Curtis., and Konstantin Pleshakov. The Flight of the Romanovs: a Family Saga. New York, NY: Basic, 1999. Print.



An old English assignment floating around my documents folder. We were able to pick our topic. Naturally, I got an A.