Mystery of the Romanovs
Bones thought to be those of Grand Duchess Anastasia and Tsarevich Alexei are discovered by archaeologists in a Yekaterinburg forest in 2007, and scientists from all over the world work to provide the most conclusive DNA analysis in 21st Century History.
As over a century passes, mystery still plagues the final moments of Tsar Nicholas II and his family. Amid a mess of skeletons unearthed in a desolate Siberian forest and proven to be those of the Tsar, his wife and three of their children, two remain missing.
Could Anastasia and the Tsarevich Alexei have cheated death and escaped the night when Bolsheviks executed the last Imperial Family of Russia? Will the discovery of two more skeletons in 2007 only 60 meters away from skeletons found in 1991 seal the Romanov mystery?
Tsar Nicholas II on the one hand was a loving father and husband and on the other an incompetent tyrant. I agree he and the Tsaritsa (she advised him on many things political ) both should have been put on trial.the Tsarevich & his four sisters,together with three employees,one a doctor,were all innocent and should have been released.When he (Tsar) was overthrown,he was the last of Lenins problems. The country was torn apart with civil war,the nation was out of control,people were starving.Russia has nine time zones( we in the U.K. have I ) it was a titanic struggle between the red Guards and the White guards.They (family) could have been rescued by the Whites,who were sympathetic,so the local red soviet decided to execute,it was impossible under the prevailing conditions,to transport them thousands of miles to Moscow to face trial.If they released the children,exile abroad(reckoned the commissars),what's stopping them in the future from sending foreign armies to overthrow Lenins new Gov't (almost all Gov'ts were hostile to the new Russia at that time) According to the Urals soviet they would have to finish them all off And so that was the end of the Russian royal family...the end of the Romanov dynasty.
Ugh this was my favorite! Anybody know if I can get it on DVD or if there's another link to it?
The Romanovs had it coming. They were parasites that ruled Russia with an iron hand without even a passing concern for the lot of the common man. The destruction of their diseased dynasty was the destruction of one of the last vestiges of what can only be called feudalism...good riddance to their kind of royal rubbish.
It is still so hard to get my mind around this. I have always wondered, since I first heard about the Romanovs, as a child, if the two had actually escaped and had had a long life. It was not to be.
They were together in life, and together in death. At least we can finally put the hope of their survival at rest.
Interesting short documentary about this family. It is sad what was done especially to those innocent children.
John Q, that's a pretty broad statement, but hurrah to you because you got everyone talking.
I'm a dyed in the wool pacifist, I could never condone killing anyone, let alone children. Also, I've read a lot about this family and the events leading up to their deaths. I don't believe they were criminals, nor evil people, especially the youngest of them. If you were born a prince in that day and age, how do you know anything different? You would have been completely cut off from the common man, and indoctrinated into your role as prince. I believe the Romanovs were as most royals are - mistaken, misguided, but for the most part decent enough people. It was their misfortune and also their own fault to not have a better connection with their citizens at a critical junction in history. At any rate, the revolutionaries thought there should be no heirs to the throne left from that family, and they made it so. I think so many countries are related to them through royal blood (check out how many current royal families have Queen Victoria's bloodline, it's kind of astounding), that relations with Russia have ever since been tainted by this act of murder. It's interesting to me that they did not mention Alexei's hemophilia, he was very ill from it all his life. When people said they thought maybe Alexei had escaped, it was obvious to me that he could not have. If he was shot even superficially, he would most likely not have survived it, even with medical attention. He needed to be treated with great care in every day life, to avoid getting even a bruise. So, even if he did escape, it seems unlikely that he would survive a rough and tumble life as an escapee in the middle of Siberia, without his personal doctor and the care he was used to getting. I always feel sorry for him and his sisters, they didn't deserve anything like being shot in a basement. That was murder, not an execution. There was no trial, and children should never receive the death penalty in any circumstance. Granted, only 2 individuals here were children at the time, the very two that people hoped had survived, Anastasia and Alexei.
Yeah I wondered about the haemophilia.
You are right, Cherrybomb, the Romanovs were decent enough people and in some ways better than many as Royals go. Nicholas, from all accounts, was a devoted husband and father. From the reading I've done, there is no indication that he had mistresses or that Alexandra had affairs. Also from what I've read of royal dynasties, it seems that the longer the family has been in place, the more ironclad the tradition becomes. Marie Antoinette was hated for her supposed extravagance when, in fact, she could not change a thing about palace expenditures because she ran afoul of the aristocracy who made money from their positions at court. Tsaritsa Alexandra was said to observe wryly that she could not get even the menu for their afternoon family tea changed. Unfortunately, royalty gets terribly isolated from their subjects and that eventually leads to downfall.
What you wrote is very true. Russia certainly had had more extravagant and cruel rulers. The last Romanovs were more like an everyday family in how they lived and cared about each other. The girls were not showoffs. Nicholas was shy and really didn't have what it took to rule (his younger brother would have made a more efficient ruler).
Alexandra was misunderstood. She did not have an outgoing personality, was really very shy herself and grew to love the Russian people in her own way. But she was a bit of a prude and believed in divinely inspired rule, which made her harsh at times. I put this down to her Hesse/English upbringing.
They should not have withheld the fact about Alexei's hemophilia for as long as they did. The Russian people would have reacted with sympathy, and perhaps have accepted the Royal family more. All people can relate to tragedy.
Nicholas and Alexandra had one of the most intense romances in history. You are correct, they did not cheat on each other and were very, very devoted. That is another story in itself, though.
In the age most advanced communication n information gathering technologies any one on Earth can access to, we find our political class (read Royalty via democracy), too in this part of the world-India have completely sequestered themselves from realty around thereby rendering themselves oblivion to the peoples' (subjects') plights and aspirations. But for this self-selected isolation from masses and keeping well meaning professionally competent advisers at bay, they are no different from yesteryear Royalty such as Romanovs claiming their right to rule due to their divine? origin. innocent? Definitely no no.
I guess the politics of the situation demanded that none of them should survive so there would be no legitimate claim to the throne, but to kill the children that way was just out and out savagery. So sad. I read a few books about this in my teens, before it was proven that Anna Anderson was not Anastasia and loved the fairytale quality of her story. Even then I think most people must have realised that they all died that night. DNA ruined a good mystery, One of my favourites.
there is no such thing as innocients in a royal family
Children are not born guilty and until they head out into the world and start being their own person, they are still kids - innocent of their parents wrong doing.
No matter what the parents have done, to kill children is just blood lust and revenge. To dispose the Romanovs as rulers of Russia was the right thing to do. To murder them without a trial is a criminal act and was a precursor to what was to come in the new Russia.
Exactly! Or the children of criminals, draft-dodgers, and Republicans! Oh, and the children of people who think about being criminals. Oh, and those who do not fall in step with the government. Oh, and the children whose parents do not follow exactly every single rule of the Bible! Yep! Kill them all!
And you would know this how? Did innocents abound amongst the nightmare that followed in the footsteps of the slaughter of this family? Certainly not, the people of Russia lived in fear and became slaves to the ideology of the new Tzars, take your pick, Lenin and Stalin, hatchet men like Beria and the rest of the delightful man made Gods that murdered and starved them. Be quiet, you have nothing to say.
o sweet to the ears..
China thought differently when they had their revolution. they allowed the Emperor to live and stay in China.
True enough, I think this might be a little different though, the Romanovs were only a branch of a huge family tree, If any of them had survived there may have been a greater impetus from other nations to restore them to the throne. With all of them gone who else would be willing to perch so precariously in their place.
that's because china didn't have khazars..