Page 28 - All About History - Issue 33-15

MURDER

IN THE HOUSE OF

Shotandstabbedbydrunkenrevolutionaries,themurderof

theRussianroyalfamilystillreverberatestoday

WrittenbyWillLawrence
hen they awoke on the morning of Tuesday 16 July 1918, were accustomed and treating them with increasing disdain. The
it was just another day in captivity for the Romanovs. tsar’s four daughters, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, were
TheformertsarofalltheRussias,NicholasAlexandrovich harassed; graffiti appeared on the walls making lewd suggestions
Romanov, his wife Alexandra and their five children had about Alexandra and her murdered favourite, the peasant holy man
W spent the last 16 months in captivity, Nicholas having Rasputin.Still,thefamilylivedinhope.ThearrivalinearlyJulyof
abdicatedinMarch1917,bringingtoanend300yearsofRomanov Yakov Yurovsky had brought the Romanovs some relief. A close
rule over the Russian empire. friend of Lenin’s, Yurovsky introduced more disciplined guards to the
Tobeginwith,thefamilywasheldunderarrestatthepalace house who treated Nicholas’s daughters with respect.
at Tsarskoye Selo, enjoying a life of relative luxury. Some say that The tsarina Alexandra, meanwhile, was boosted by an upturn
Nicholas,neveraconfidentorcomfortableruler,hadneverbeen inherson’sconstitution;Alexei,thecouple’syoungestchild,was
happier, revelling in the trappings of rule without the responsibilities. afflicted by haemophilia and had often suffered ill health. When
InlateApril1918,however,thefamilyweretransferredtothebleak she went to bed at about 10.30pm on 16 July, Alexandra penned a
Urals and settled in the town of Ekaterinburg. positivenoteinherdairy.Itwascool,shewrote,about15degrees.
Here, at Ipatiev House, their lives became monotonous, their Maybethefamily’sordeal,sufferingamidtheheatandtediumof
Bolshevik captors depriving them of the luxuries to which they Ekaterinburg, would soon abate.
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