Page 32 - All About History - Issue 33-15

Murder In The House Of Romanov

Anastasia, stabbed in the chest by “When evidence news of the tsar’s death and
adrunkenguardbeforeYurovsky rumours about the fate of his
finished the job with his pistol. for the death family elicited little response THH
13-year-old Alexei, it seems, was of the entire from the populace. Many
thelastfamilymembertodie. historians, meanwhile, regarded
Lyingonthefloor,saysMassie,he family began the execution as little more than
raised his arm to shield himself a footnote in a much larger story.
before clutching at his father’s to leak, legends After all, the revolution claimed
shirt.“Oneoftheexecutioners sprung up that millions of lives. Why should the
kicked the tsarevich in the head death of this one family deserve
with his heavy boot,” Massie perhaps some particular attention?
writes. “Alexei moaned. Yurovsky The answer, says Figes, lies
steppedupandfiredtwoshots had survived” in the fact that these murders
into the boy’s ear.” were ”a declaration of the Terror.
What scholars do agree upon It was a statement that from
is that what was planned as a now on individuals would count
quick and clean execution played for nothing in the civil war.” He 10
out as a grim slaughter. They also points to the words of the Red
agree on the time frame. It took 20 minutes for Army founder Leon Trotsky: “We must put an
the Bolsheviks to murder the royal family and toss end once and for all to the papist-Quaker babble
their mangled bodies into a truck. about the sanctity of human life.” Certainly, as
“Given all the evidence that has come to the Russian Revolution unfolded, it showed little 11
light,” writes the historian Orlando Figes, “it is consideration for human life.
inconceivable that any of the Romanovs survived The Russian Revolution is, in fact, a collective
this ordeal.” The only certain survivor, he says, was name for two separate revolutions, the first coming
Alexei’s pet King Charles spaniel, Joy. in February 1917 and sparking the dismantling of
The official announcement appeared two days the tsarist autocracy and the founding of a new
later on 19 July, an editorial in the newspaper of Provisional Government. The second came in
record, Izvestia, claiming that Nicholas had been October of the same year when the Bolsheviks
executed and the family sent to a safe place. News overthrew the Provisional Government and stirred
of the murder, they believed, could incite public a civil war against the anti-socialist White Army.
sympathy. The truth remained largely unknown Some scholars put the number of deaths in this
until the publication in 1924 of a book by Nikolai conflict in the region of 12 million. The terror
Sokolov, which revealed much of the horror. wrought by the Bolshevik state security service, the
Even when evidence for the death of the entire Cheka, meanwhile, accounted for thousands more.
family began to leak, legends sprung up that It began with the February Revolution of 1917,
perhaps some had survived. The legend still lives which erupted upon the streets of the Russian
today, notes Figes, ”which merely goes to show that capital city Petrograd (formerly Saint Petersburg),
there is more currency – and more profit – in fiction as food shortages took hold. On 22 February,
than in history.” thousands of metal and textile workers took to
The murder of the Romanovs has emerged as the streets. By 27 February, more than 200,000
a story of huge significance in the history of the workers went on strike, marching in the streets and
Russian Revolution, even though, at the time, hurling missiles at the police.

01 02
Nicholas Alexandra
Alexandrovich Feodorovna
Romanov AGE AT DEATH:
AGE AT DEATH: 50 46
The last tsar of Russia A pious and spiritual
oversaw a disastrous woman, Alexandra
war with Japan and was a devoted
the establishment of mother. She fell
the duma. He took under the infl uence
command of the army of Rasputin
during 1915 and was and meddled in
Duma messengers protected asked to abdicate two governmental
by armed guards during the years later. policy during WWI.
Russian Revolution, 1917

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