How the Romanov family lived their last days before their tragic execution

When abdicating the throne, Nicholas II tried to negotiate the fulfillment of certain conditions for himself and his family. At that time, the Romanovs were not yet going to be sent to Tobolsk, so the abdicated emperor insisted on the absence of strict security and unhindered passage to the family in Tsarskoe Selo. Most of all, Nicholas hoped that the children would be able to remain at home for a long time without risk to their own safety. At that time, they were sick with measles, and any travel could worsen their condition. Romanov Sr. also asked for permission to travel to England for himself and his family.

At first, the Provisional Government agreed to fulfill all the conditions. But already on March 8, 1917, General Mikhail Alekseyev informed the Tsar that he "could consider himself as if arrested." After some time, notification of refusal came from London, which had previously agreed to accept the Romanov family. On March 21, the former Emperor Nicholas II and his entire family were officially taken into custody.

A little over a year later, on July 17, 1918, the last royal family of the Russian Empire would be shot in a cramped basement in Yekaterinburg. The Romanovs were subjected to deprivation, getting closer and closer to their grim end. Let's look at rare photos of members of the last royal family of Russia, taken some time before their execution.

Following the February Revolution of 1917, the Provisional Government sent the last royal family of Russia to the Siberian city of Tobolsk to protect them from the wrath of the people. Several months earlier, Tsar Nicholas II had abdicated, ending more than three centuries of rule by the Romanov dynasty.

The Romanovs began their five-day journey to Siberia in August, on the eve of Tsarevich Alexei’s 13th birthday. The seven members of the family were joined by 46 servants and a military escort. The day before reaching their destination, the Romanovs passed the home village of Rasputin, whose eccentric influence on politics may have contributed to their dismal end.

The family arrived in Tobolsk on August 19 and began to live in relative comfort on the banks of the Irtysh River. In the Governor's Palace, where they were housed, the Romanovs were well fed and were able to socialize with each other without being distracted by state affairs and official events. The children put on plays for their parents, and the family often went into town for religious services—the only form of freedom they were allowed.

When the Bolsheviks came to power in late 1917, the regime of the royal family slowly but surely began to tighten. The Romanovs were forbidden to attend church or leave the mansion at all. Soon, coffee, sugar, butter and cream disappeared from their kitchen, and the soldiers assigned to protect them wrote obscene and offensive words on the walls and fences of their home.

Things went from bad to worse. In April 1918, a commissar named Yakovlev arrived with orders to transport the former Tsar from Tobolsk. The Empress was adamant that she accompany her husband, but Comrade Yakovlev had other orders that complicated matters. At that time, Tsarevich Alexei, a hemophiliac, had become paralyzed in both legs due to a bruise, and everyone expected that he would be left in Tobolsk and that the family would be separated for the duration of the war.

The Commissar's demands for a move were unyielding, so Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, and one of their daughters, Maria, soon left Tobolsk. They eventually boarded a train to travel via Yekaterinburg to Moscow, where the Red Army was headquartered. However, Commissar Yakovlev was arrested for trying to save the royal family, and the Romanovs disembarked in Yekaterinburg, in the heart of Bolshevik-held territory.

In Yekaterinburg, the rest of the children joined their parents - they were all locked in the Ipatiev House. The family was placed on the second floor and completely cut off from the outside world, with the windows boarded up and guards posted at the doors. For the rest of their days, the Romanovs were allowed to go outside for only five minutes a day.

In early July 1918, the Soviet authorities began preparing to execute the royal family. The regular soldiers on guard duty were replaced by members of the Cheka, and the Romanovs were allowed to attend church one last time. The priest who conducted the service later admitted that none of the family spoke a word during the service. Five trucks with barrels of benzidine and acid were ordered for July 16, the day of the murders, to quickly dispose of the bodies.

Early in the morning of July 17, the Romanovs were gathered and told of the White Army's advance. The family believed that they were simply being moved to a small, lighted basement for their own protection, as it would soon be unsafe there. As he approached the site of his execution, Russia's last tsar passed the trucks in one of which his body would soon lie, unaware of the terrible fate that awaited his wife and children.

In the basement, Nikolai was told that he was about to be executed. Not believing his own ears, he asked again: "What?" - immediately after which the Chekist Yakov Yurovsky shot the tsar. Another 11 people pulled the triggers, flooding the basement with the blood of the Romanovs. Alexei survived the first shot, but was finished off by Yurovsky's second shot. The next day, the bodies of the members of the last royal family of Russia were burned 19 km from Yekaterinburg, in the village of Koptyaki.