Nicholas II of Russia: Encyclopedia II - Nicholas II of Russia - Death

Nicholas II of Russia - Death

The provisional Russian government at first kept Nicholas, Alexandra, and their children confined in the Alexander Palace 15 miles from St. Petersburg at Tsarskoe Selo (Tsar's Village). Attempting to remove them from the vicinity of the capital and so from possible harm, the Kerensky government moved them east to Tobolsk, in Siberia in August 1917. They remained there through the Bolshevik October Revolution in November 1917, but were then moved to Red Army and Bolshevik-controlled Yekaterinburg. The Tsar and his family, including several family servants, were executed without trial by firing squad and finished off by bayonets in the basement of the Ipatiev House where they had been imprisoned, on the night of July 17, 1918, by a detachment of Bolsheviks led by Yakov Yurovsky, a watchmaker from Perm.

The Soviets always argued that the execution took place as units of the Czech Legion, making their retreat out of Russia, approached Yekaterinburg. Fearing that the Legion would take the town and free him, the Tsar's Bolshevik jailers pursued the immediate liquidation of the Imperial Family. This is, however, disputed by telegraphic evidence and the Sokolov Report, which show mounting pressure to execute the Imperial Family by hard-line Bolsheviks, who argued that there was "no turning back." [2] The telegram giving the order on behalf of the Supreme Soviet in Moscow was signed by Jacob Sverdlov, after whom the town was subsequently renamed.

The bodies of Nicholas and his family were long believed to have been disposed of down a mineshaft at a site called the Four Brothers. Initially, this was true — they had indeed been disposed of there on the night of July 17. The following morning — when rumors spread in Yekaterinburg regarding the disposal site — Yurovsky removed the bodies and concealed them elsewhere. When the vehicle carrying the bodies broke down on the way to the next chosen site, Yurovsky made new arrangements, and buried most of the bodies in a sealed and concealed pit on Koptyaki Road, a cart track (now abandoned) 12 miles north of Yekaterinburg. Their remains were later found in 1991 and reburied by the Russian government. The process to identify the remains was exhaustive. Samples were sent to Britain and the United States for DNA testing. The tests concluded that five of the skeletons were members of one family and four were unrelated. Three of the five were determined to be the children of two parents. The mother was linked to the British royal family, as was Alexandra. The father was determined to be related to several other Romanovs. Scientists said they were more than 99 percent sure that the remains were those of the Czar, his family and their attendants. Two skeletons remain unaccounted for - Alexei, the 13 year old heir to the throne, and one of his sisters, either Maria or Anastasia.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Death", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki