Before the firing squad: How the Romanovs lived out their last days 100 years ago

For most of his lifeNicholas Romanov kept a diarywriting scrupulouslyalmost drearily – carefully noting events such as playing cards and having dinner. He did so as heir to the Romanov throneas Emperor Nicholas II – and didn’t stop after losing his crown in 1917 and becoming just “citizen Romanov”.

“It’s a niceclean house,” he wrote on April 301918 after the Bolsheviks transferred him and his family to Yekaterinburg (just over 1,000 miles east of Moscow). The Ipatiev House, was a neat and tidy merchant's mansion - and a well guarded one too.

Mikhail Medvedevone of the family's Bolshevik guards who would become their executioner, wrote: “It was kind of a fortress: two high fences arounda system of outposts insidemachine guns.” This was the place where the royal family would spend their last 78 days and die under a hail of gunfire on the night of July 17.

Cold call

Nicholas II and his family1918.

Getty Images

The Romanovs had already traveled a lot after the abdication of Nicholas II in 1917. The Interim government sent them to the city of Tobolsk in Siberia (1,400 miles east of Moscow) but after the Bolsheviks seized power and Civil war broke out in Russiaanti-Bolshevik White army forces threatened the region.

Lenin decided to move the Romanovs to the Uralswhere he considered the Bolsheviks held a stronger position. As a resultthe regime for the royals was harsher. “In Tobolskit was ex-Tsarist army guardsmen who held thembut in Yekaterinburg the Red Guard were in charge – former workersmany of whom had done jail time and hard labor under the Tsarist regime,” historian Ivan Silantyev notes.

That meant zero tolerance towards the royal prisoners. For instancethe guards painted the walls in the bathroom with “cynical pictures” and texts about the relationship between the ex-Empress Alexandra and her former favorite Grigory Rasputin (who had been murdered in 1916). At nightthe guards used to sing vulgar songs or something about “death to the monarchy” under the prisoners’ windows.

“The guards looked completely indecent,” Terentiy Chemodurovthe former Tsar’s servant who was sent away days before the murder, reported later. “Rudecockyconstantly smokingthey provoked fear and disgust.”

Life at the Ipatiev House

Nicholas II or just "citizen Romanov"

Public domain

With rude guards and dire circumstances (the ex-emperor’s daughtersfor instancehad to sleep on the floorand the Tsarevich Alexey suffered from hemophilia and couldn’t walk) Ipatiev House was hardly a royal residence. Neverthelessthe Romanovs managed to maintain the image of a more or less stable life.

Deeply religious peopleeach morning they prayed before doing their best to keep themselves busy with anything they could. They could walk in the courtyard but only for an hour a day. When Nicholas asked why, a Red Guard officer replied: “So that it looks more like a prison to you.”

Yet Nicholas remained calm – at leastjudging by his diary – he concentrated on the small things. “The dinner was terribly late today – they served it at 3:30 pm todaynot at 1:00 pm!” Nicholas wrote May 13for instance. On his birthday (May 18) he noted: “I've lived to 50! Can hardly believe it myself…”

MeanwhileAlexandra FeodorovnaNicholas’ beloved spousewasn’t wasting time. With her four daughters (OlgaTatianaMariaAnastasia)they were sewing family jewelry – diamonds and gems – into the seams of dresses and coatsso in future they would have something to live on. They did not suspect that they would never have the need for it.

Fake conspiracy

Yakov Yurovskychief executioner of Tsar Nicholas II and his familyearly 20th century.

Getty Images

On June 27Nicholas wrote: “We received two letters telling us that some loyal people will kidnap us!” One of the guards secretly passed a letter written in French to the royal familystating that "a friendly army is closing in” and it would free the prisoners.

In factit was a Bolshevik provocation: “Yekaterinburg Bolsheviks wrote a letter on behalf of an officers’ organization stating that Yekaterinburg was about to fall and proposing an escape plan,” Mikhail Medvedev recalled. The trap worked: the Romanovs spent one of the nights fully dressedwaiting to be rescued.

Medvedev suggests that the Romanovs’ proved willingness to attempt an escape was one of the reasons they were murdered. Along with the White enemy advance on Yekaterinburgthe Bolshevik decision to get rid of the Romanovs was arrived at.

Downstairs

Room in the Ipatiev HouseYekaterinburgwhere the Russian royal family was brutally murdered1918.

Mary Evans Picture Library/Global Look Press

“The weather is nice and warmwe have no news from the outside,” Nicholas wrote on July 13. It was to be his last ever diary entry – four days laterhehis family (Alexandrafour daughters and son) and four servants were shot in the basement of the Ipatiev House.

Commander Yakov YurovskyMikhail Medvedev and several other Chekists (members of Bolshevik counter-intelligence) puzzled how to kill the family for a long time. “Nothing we could think of,” Medvedev wrote. “Maybe throwing grenades into the rooms after they fell asleep? No – too much noise… Yurovsky proposed stabbing them while they slept.”

The Chekists came up with a third option. They woke the Romanovs and their servants on the night of July 17 and told them to go downstairspretending it was for their own safety as White forces descended on Yekaterinburg. After everyone gathered in the basementYurovsky stated out loud that Nicholas’ supporters were trying to free themand therefore it was his duty to bring to an end the 300 year old house of Romanov.

After thatthe Chekists started shooting. The former emperor died instantlybut his daughters were not so lucky - the shots ricocheted off the diamonds sewn inside their clothesso the Chekists finished them off with bayonets and knifesnot stopping until every member of the family was dead.

That was the end of Nicholas Romanov's family but the saga of the burial and their death's investigation just began. Read our article with information on how it all went. 

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