YEKATERINBURG — 1918 · Murder
The Execution of the Romanov Family
Overthrown in the 1917 revolution, Nicholas II, the last Russian tsar, his wife Alexandra and their five children were held first at Tsarskoye Selo, then at Tobolsk in Siberia, and in spring 1918 were moved to the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. On the night of 16-17 July 1918, on the orders of the Ural Regional Soviet, a Bolshevik squad killed the family and four of their retainers in the basement. The bodies were taken to the Koptyaki forest outside the city and secretly buried. For years the Soviet authorities gave contradictory accounts of the family's fate, a vacuum that produced many impostors claiming to be survivors. Most of the remains were found in 1979 and exhumed in 1991; confirmed by DNA testing, they were buried in St Petersburg in 1998. The two missing sets of remains were found in 2007.
- Date
- 1918
- Place
- Ipatiev House, Russia, Yekaterinburg, RU
- Category
- Murder
- Case Status
- Closed
- Coordinates
- 56.8443, 60.6092 ↗
Timeline of Events
- March 1917Nicholas II abdicated; the family was detained.
- April-May 1918The family was brought to the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg.
- 16-17 July 1918The family and their retainers were killed in the basement.
- 1979-1991The mass grave was found and the remains exhumed.
- 17 July 1998The remains were buried in St Petersburg.
Sources
- History.com — Romanov family executed history.com ↗
- Wikipedia — Murder of the Romanov family en.wikipedia.org ↗
- History.com
- Wikipedia
Source grade A: several independent sources, at least one an official record or reference work. If you spot a mistake or something missing, report it with "Suggest a correction" in the app.
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🕯️ This record was prepared with respect, in memory of those who lost their lives.