The downfall of the Russian Tsar The Romanovs The downfall of the Russian Tsar His bloodline had ruled Russia for over 300 years with great names such as Peter the Great and Ivan the Terrible.

Nicholas II and Alexandra Married in 1894 Alexandra was a German princess (mother English) had to convert from her Lutheran faith to Russian Orthodoxy before engagement. Nicholas became Tsar when his father died (of kidney disease @ 49) - Nicholas was only 26 and was counting on his father ruling 20-30 more years.

Alexandra was generally disliked by the Russian People - An intensely shy person,she literally froze up at public appearances,and when she appeared she was silent, seemingly cold, haughty and indifferent. She was hurt by their unenthusiastic reception, and declared herself to be tired of the loose morals and etiquette of the Russian court. Alexandra, in turn, was called provincial, uninteresting, and haughty. But she and Nicholas loved each other.

Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia The Tsaritsa’s failure to provide a son as an heir was an embarassment to her and the Russian people.

Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich Alexei was a heamapheliac - he inherited this disease through his mother via his Grandmother Queen Victoria (passed by the women but manifested in male genes). Because of his sensitivity to even small cuts and bruises which could kill him, he hardly ever went out in public, and his mother tried to hide his disease from Russia…that is where Rasputin comes in.

Grigori Rasputin Contemporary opinions saw Rasputin variously as a saintly mystic, visionary, healer and prophet or, on the contrary, as a debauched religious charlatan. He did help Alexei when the doctors seemed to fail (hypnosis/ stop asprin) and the queen was already a believer in mysticism and desperately clung to her son. Rasputin was a peasant, so it was scandalous that he had so much influence and power with the Tsar’s family. Spent time at a monastary and wondering the country. Had two children (boy and girl), and was rumored to be a member of the ogastic mystical group Khlysty. He was an ascetic. When the Tsar went away to war, Alexandra was completely reliant on him and rumors spread.

Rasputin’s prophesy and death A friend of Rasputins had grown absolutely disgusted with his behaviour and disrespectful talk about the royal family, had appealed to women who had been harmed by Rasputin to form a mutual support group. Guseva thrust a knife into Rasputin's abdomen, and his entrails hung out of what seemed like a mortal wound. Convinced of her success, Guseva supposedly screamed, "I have killed the antichrist!” He went through intensive surgery and recovered but became addicted to opium as a result. Years later, Prince Felix Yusupov and the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich invited him to their palace for a party. The group led him down to the cellar, where they served him cakes and red wine laced with a massive amount of cyanide. According to legend, Rasputin was unaffected, although Vasily Maklakov had supplied enough poison to kill five men. Conversely, Maria's account asserts that, if her father did eat or drink poison, it was not in the cakes or wine, because after the attack by Guseva he suffered from hyperacidity and avoided anything with sugar. In fact, she expresses doubt that he was poisoned at all. It has been suggested, on the other hand, that Rasputin had developed an immunity to poison. Suddenly, Rasputin opened his eyes and lunged at Prince Yusupov. When he grabbed Prince Yusupov he ominously whispered in Yusupov's ear "you bad boy" and attempted to strangle him. At that moment, however, the other conspirators arrived and fired at him. After being hit three times in the back, Rasputin fell once more. As they neared his body, the party found that, remarkably, he was still alive, struggling to get up. They clubbed him into submission and castrated him. After binding his body and wrapping him in a carpet, they threw him into the icy Neva River. He broke out of his bonds and the carpet wrapping him, but drowned in the river. "If I am killed," he told the Tsar and his court, "by my own people, by the peasants, then you will continue to rule in peace and harmony. However, if I am killed by the noble class, then within two years, you and your children and all the royal family will be no more.”

Exile to Siberia Ipatiev House He was placed under house arrest with his family by the Provisional Government. Surrounded by his guards, confined to their quarters for 78 days. The same night a band of soldiers broke into Grigory Rasputin's tomb and, lifting the putrefying corpse with sticks, flung it onto a pyre of logs and drenched it with petrol. The body burned for six hours as Rasputin's ashes were scattered by the icy winds.[6] The ex-Tsar remained calm and dignified and even insisted on the children resuming their lesson with himself as tutor in history and geography. Through the newspapers he took a keen interest in the progress of the war, but he could not help reading also how the press now gleefully printed lurid stories about Rasputin and the Empress, the 'confessions' of former servants and the private lives of the self-styled 'lovers' of the Tsar's four daughters.[7]

Execution on July 17, 1918 The telegram giving the order to liquidate the prisoners on behalf of the Supreme Soviet in Moscow was signed by Yakov Sverdlov. Around midnight Yakov Yurovsky, the superintendent of The House of Special Purpose, ordered the Romanovs' physician, Dr.Eugene Botkin, to awaken the sleeping family and ask them to put on their clothes.[1] The Romanovs were then ordered into a 6x5 meter semi-basement room.[1] Nicholas asked if he could bring two chairs for himself and his wife. A firing squad appeared next and Yurovsky announced:Nikolai Aleksandrovich, your relatives have tried to save you, but they had not to. And we are forced to shoot you by ourselves...[1]Yurovsky then began to read the decision of the Ural Executive Committee (Uralispolkom), and Nicholas said "What?"[1] As the weapons were raised, the Empress and the Grand Duchess Olga, according to a guard's reminiscence, had tried to cross themselves, but failed amid the shooting. Yurovsky reportedly raised his gun at Nicholas and fired; Nicholas fell dead instantly. The other executioners then began shooting until all the intended victims had fallen. Several more shots were fired at the victims and the doors opened to scatter the smoke.[1] Some stayed alive, but were finally stabbed with bayonets by Yermakov because the shouts could be heard outside.[1] The last ones to die were Anastasia, Tatiana, Olga, and Maria, who were wearing several pounds (over 1.3 kilograms) of diamonds within their clothing, thus rendering them bullet-resistant to an extent.[9] However they were speared with bayonets as well. Olga sustained a gun shot wound to the head while Anastasia and Maria were said to have crouched up against a wall covering their heads in terror until Maria was shot down by bullets, and Anastasia had been finished off with the bayonets.Yurovsky himself killed Tatiana and Alexei. Tatiana died from a single bullet through the back of her head.[10] Alexei received two bullets to the head, right behind the ear. [11] Anna Demidova, Alexandra's maid, survived the initial onslaught but was quickly murdered against the back wall of the basement, stabbed to death while trying to defend herself with a small pillow she had carried into the sub-basement that was filled with precious gems and jewels.[12]Military commissar Peter Ermakov, in a drunken haze, stabbed at the dead bodies of the former Czar and Czarina, shattering both their rib cages in a pool of blood. [13] An official announcement appeared in the national press, two days after the killing of the tsar and his family. It informed that the monarch had been executed on the order of Uralispolkom under pressure posed by the approach of the Czechoslovaks.[14] Although official Soviet accounts place the responsibility for the decision with the Uralispolkom, Leon Trotsky in his diary states that the assassination took place on the authority of Lenin.

Secret burial and missing bodies The following morning � when rumours 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 (19 km) north of Yekaterinburg. The remains of all the family and their retainers with the exception of two of the children (who were eventually identified in 2008) were later found in 1991 and reburied by the Russian government. They couldn’t find the bodies of the boy and either the daughter Maria or Anastasia.

Analysis of Nicholas’ rule Historian Barbara Tuchman gives a damning evaluation of his reign: [The Russian Empire] was ruled from the top by a sovereign who had but one idea of government—to preserve intact the absolute monarchy bequeathed to him by his father—and who, lacking the intellect, energy or training for his job, fell back on personal favorites, whim, and other devices of the empty-headed autocrat. His father, Alexander III, who deliberately intended to keep his son uneducated in statecraft until the age of thirty, unfortunately miscalculated his own life expectancy, and died when Nicholas was twenty-six. The new Czar, now forty-six, had learned nothing in the interval, and the impression of imperturbability he conveyed was in reality apathy—the indifference of a mind so shallow as to be all surface. When a telegram was brought to him announcing the annihilation of the Russian fleet at Tsushima, he read it, stuffed it in his pocket, and went on playing tennis.

Analysis continued Robert K. Massie provides a more sympathetic view of the Tsar: ... there still are those who for political or other reasons continue to insist that Nicholas was "Bloody Nicholas." Most commonly, he is described as shallow, weak, stupid—a one-dimensional figure presiding feebly over the last days of a corrupt and crumbling system. This, certainly, is the prevailing public image of the last Tsar. Historians admit that Nicholas was a "good man"—the historical evidence of personal charm, gentleness, love of family, deep religious faith and strong Russian patriotism is too overwhelming to be denied—but they argue that personal factors are irrelevant; what matters is that Nicholas was a bad tsar... Essentially, the tragedy of Nicholas II was that he appeared in the wrong place in history.

Revisionist History? Now that you know the facts about the Romanovs, what would you think if it were twisted around for political reasons? Example…Rasputin is maligned by the princes and his death is mythologized to cause the people to believe he corrupted the Tsar and family. Or the revolutionaries lie about the Tsar trying to escape in order for them to have reason to kill him and his family? How do you feel about people changing these stories for entertainment vs. political reasons? Movies, historical fiction, kids books…