On this day 100 years ago, Russia's last reigning monarch, Tsar Nicholas II, his wife and five children were murdered by the Bolsheviks. Follow #Romanovs100 Live Feed to find out what exactly happened on July 16th-17th, 1918.
16 July 2018
Give us Patience, Lord to us thy children,⠀
In these dark stormy days to bear,⠀
the persecution of our people,⠀
the tortures falling to our shores.⠀
⠀
Give us strength, just God to us who need it,⠀
the persecutors to forgive,⠀
our heavy painful cross to carry,⠀
and thy great meekness to achieve.⠀
⠀
When we are plundered and insulted,⠀
in days of mutinous unrest,⠀
we turn for help to thee, Christ Savior,⠀
that we may stand the bitter test.⠀
⠀
Lord of the world, God of Creation,⠀
Give us thy blessing through our prayer,⠀
give us peace of heart O master,⠀
this hour of utmost dread to bear.⠀
⠀
and on the threshold of the grave,⠀
breathe power divine into our clay,⠀
that we, Thy children, may find strength,⠀
in meekness for our foes to pray.⠀
⠀
* * *⠀ ⠀
A family friend, poet Sergey Bekhteev dedicated this poem to Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana and sent it to them in a letter to Tobolsk. Olga copied the poem by hand and put that note into one of her books. It was later discovered among her things in Ekaterinburg, only after the family’s death, when the area fell into anti-Bolshevik forces, who immediately launched a probe to find out what happened at the Ipatiev House.
A family friend, poet Sergey Bekhteev dedicated this poem to Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana and sent it to them in a letter to Tobolsk. Olga copied the poem by hand and put that note into one of her books. It was later discovered among her things in Ekaterinburg, only after the family’s death, when the area fell into anti-Bolshevik forces, who immediately launched a probe to find out what happened at the Ipatiev House.
Nicholas was the shooters’ primary target and died first. A terrifying mess of shooting, screaming, stabbing and fighting ensued, leaving the cellar coated in blood when the killers had carried out Yurovsky's orders. The air thick with gun smoke, the victims disfigured.
From a later report by Yurovsky:
"Nicholas brought down Alexei in his arms... Entering the empty room A[lexandra] F[eodorovna] asked: “Isn’t there even a chair here? Can’t one sit down?” The commandant ordered to bring two chairs. Nicholas put Alexei on one of them, the other was taken by A.F. The others were told to stand in a line. When they did, the squad was called [from the next room]."
Before their relocation to Tobolsk, Siberia, the family hoped they would be allowed to go to Livadia in Crimea
Historians mostly agree, that startled in the middle of the night and used to relocations, the family were not fearful for their life, believing they were going some place new, still hoping.
On the night of the execution Alexei Romanov and his mother, Alexandra Feodorovna, were both too weak to even stand without support...
The last entry in Alexandra Feodorovna’s diary - ‘Arranging medicines’ - actually stood for her and her daughters reconstructing their corsets to conceal diamonds and jewels.
The execution was planned out by Yakov Yurovsky, commandant of Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg, where Nicholas and his family were kept under arrest. His plan did not go through smoothly...
As the hours get late, things start to escalate in the Ipatiev House and the family is ordered to leave their beds and pack...
It's heartbreaking to see how the royal children had to grow up fast, caring for each other in captivity.
Before marrying Nicholas II, Alix of Hesse (later to become Alexandra Feodorovna) had to convert to Orthodox Christianity - she adopted her new religion fervently.
Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna were always very affectionate with each other in their correspondence.
Here are some accounts of how life changed when the family was transferred from Tobolsk to Ekaterinburg.
Keeping the spirit up in the circumstances the Romanovs and their closest entourage found themselves in was near to impossible.
In this letter Tatiana, the family's second-oldest daughter, sent from Tobolsk, it is clear the family were clueless as to where they were heading: they were waiting for poor Alexei to recover. A haemophiliac, any illness posed more danger to him than to others.
The whole family was deeply religious.
A quote from the Romanovs' eldest daughter, Olga, about their captivity in Tobolsk, prior to the Ipatiev House.
Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was her usual suspicious self regarding the boy's disappearance. The couple's only son, Alexei, was almost 14 in 1918, but the youngest of the five children, to his parents he remained "baby" to the end.
For days the Bolsheviks quarrelled whether or not to kill the boy cook. They decided to spare him by isolating him from the family first...
On July 16th Ipatiev House, where the Romanov family was held captive in Ekaterinburg, was stirred by a series of events that may have been seen as worrying to eyes less exhausted by previous arrests and turmoil, than those of the ex-emperor. These small changes had already become routine. In reality, it would be the family's last day alive and here is how it unfolded.