On March 8, 1917, the February Revolution broke out in Russia, and the last emperor of the Russian Empire, Nicholas II, abdicated on March 15. With the Russian Provisional Government taking over the Russian Empire and creating the Russian Republic, the Romanov dynasty effectively came to an end.
Nicholas II
After the abdication of Nicholas II, the family of Nicholas II was placed in Tobolsk, Siberia, by the Provisional Government led by Alexander Kerensky. On November 7, the October Revolution broke out in Russia, and the family of Nicholas II were arrested by the Bolshevik army and imprisoned at the Ipachev Villa in Yekaterinburg. On the night of 16 July 1918 or the early morning of 17 July 1918, nearly 10 members of the Nicholas II family, including their servants, were led to an abandoned classroom, where Cheka men executed the family en masse using pistols and bayonets. Their bodies were doused with sulfuric acid and gasoline and destroyed, and the remnants were buried in an abandoned cave in the Yekaterinburg region.
Four princesses
However, there have been rumors that Anastasia Nikolaevna (the youngest daughter of Nicholas II) escaped the assassination, and because the location of Anastasia's body has never been determined, this rumor has been rampant.
The eldest princess Olga and the fourth princess Anastasia, the little princess is still a little loli, and has not grown up
Rumors have been circulating that Anastasia may have survived or fled. One of the most famous claimants was Anna Anderson, who insisted that she was faking death among the corpses of her family and entourage, and then a kind guard noticed that she was still alive among the corpses, and she was able to escape with his help.
The whole family of Nicholas II
Anna Anderson (16 December 1896 – 12 February 1984) claimed to be Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. In 1920, Anna Andersson was committed to a mental hospital in Berlin after an attempted suicide. In March 1922, Anna Anderson's claim as the Grand Duchess of Tsarist Russia began to attract public attention.
Anna Anderson
The question of Anastasia's life and death is one of the famous riddles of the 20th century. Until 1991, several bodies were exhumed from large graves in the woods outside Yekaterinburg, believed to be the family of Nicholas II and their servants. The cemetery was discovered nearly a decade ago, but it was deliberately hidden from the Soviet government at the time. After excavation, the excavators found that there should have been 11 bodies (only 9 remains of Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra, Crown Prince Alexey, 4 Grand Duchesses: Olga, Tatyana, Maria and Anastasia, their family physician Pokkin, the servant Alexei Trout, the cook Ivan Kritonov and Empress Alexandra's maid Anna Demidova). According to investigations by later court experts, Anastasia's body disappeared from this cemetery.
Anastasia with her sister
On August 23, 2007, a Russian archaeologist announced the discovery of two incompletely burned bones at a campfire near Yekaterinburg. The archaeologist said the bones were of a boy between the ages of about 10 and 13 and a young woman between the ages of 18 and 23. Anastasia was 17 years and one month old at the time of her death, Maria was 18 years and 1 month old, and Alexei was two weeks away from turning 14. Anastasia's eldest sister, Olga, and second sister, Tatyana, were 22 and 21 years old at the time. DNA tests conducted by the US military DNA identification center and the Medical University of Innsbruck confirmed that the two bones belonged to Alexei and his sister, thus proving that all family members, including Anastasia, died in 1918.
At this point, the rumors of Anastasia Nikolaevna's survival also ended. DNA tests revealed that the remains were members of the royal family, proving that all four princesses had been murdered in 1918.
Life of Anastasia Nikolaevna