Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
his wife Alexandra, three of their four daughters, the royal doctor and three ser-
vants. Absent were any remains of daughter Maria or the royal couple's only
son, the tsarevich Alexey.
According to a 1934 report filed by one of the assassin-soldiers, all five chil-
dren died with their parents when they were shot by a firing squad in Yekaterin-
burg. The bodies were dumped in an abandoned mine, followed by several
grenades intended to collapse the mine shaft. When the mine did not collapse,
two of the children's bodies were set on fire, and the others were doused with
acid and buried in a swamp. Even then, most of the acid soaked away into the
ground - leaving the bones to be uncovered 73 years later.
In mid-1998 the royal remains were finally given a proper burial in the Roman-
cessors dating back to Peter the Great. A 19-gun salute bade them a final
farewell. President Boris Yeltsin was present, together with many Romanov fam-
ily members.
The Orthodox Church, however, never acknowledged that these were actually
the Romanov remains, and church officials did not attend the burial. Instead, the
church canonised the royal family in recognition of their martyrdom.
Despite the controversy, it seemed the story had finally come to an end
(however unsatisfying for some). But in 2007 amateur archaeologists in Yekater-
inburg found the bodies of two more individuals - a male aged between 10 and
13 and a female aged 18 to 23. The location corresponds with the site described
in the 1934 report; and the silver fillings in the teeth are similar to those in the
other family members. Genetic tests carried out in 2008 confirmed that these
were indeed the remains of the tsarevich Alexey and his sister Maria. After al-
most a century of mystery, the end of the Russian royal family is finally known.
