The Execution of Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova and her Family

The Romanov Family, Anastasia is to the

far right, next to her father, The Last Tsar of Russia.

Nikolai Aleksandrovich, in view of the fact that your relatives are continuing their attack on Soviet Russia, the Ural Executive Committee has decided to execute you.

Ok, so maybe its the history buff in me, but the true fate of The Grand Duchess always fascinated me. Ever since i saw the movie in 1997 that Fox came out with I always thought it was interesting story, plus my sister Megan was completely obsessed with it, it was on almost 27/7 in my house. But it turns out that the movie is NOTHING like the real story. For example, in the movie the family is at a ball in their home when an evil Rasputin comes and destroys everyone and thing but a 6 or 7 year old Anastasia flees with her Grandmother. In real life though that is completely false, not only was Anastasia 17 years old at the age of her murder, but the whole family was in exile and being held captive when an army of men lined them up and open fired on them.

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia had 4 daughters and 1 son and he was married to Alexandra Fyodorovna. 

All the women in the family beside Anastasia were nurses and volunteer at local hospitals. Even though Anastasia was to young to be a nurse she still helped out by reading and taking walks with war vets. The youngest child and Anastasia's only brother was Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia who was born very ill as he inherited his mothers Hemophilia that traces back to her great grandmother Queen Victoria. Alexei was 3 years younger then Anastasia and was in the Royal Russian Army. 

The whole family was arrested in 1917 due to the Russian Revolution of 1917and taken captive. The family was on house arrest under the order of the Provisional Government. Then on the morning of July 17, 1918, the family was told that they needed to get dressed because they had to be moved for safety reasons (actually because the White Army was planning on a rescue of the family). They where led into a basement where they where told to line up, and a drunken  Yakov Sverdlo read to them: "Nikolai Aleksandrovich, in view of the fact that your relatives are continuing their attack on Soviet Russia, the Ural Executive Committee has decided to execute you." All the Tsar got to say was "What?" and he was instantly shot dead in the head by Yakov, illegally. The younger girls had all had diamonds and jewels sewn into the clothing that they had on, and it had protected them to an extent. But for the ones that were shot right in the head, they died instantly. From what I read there was a massive amount of smoke in the room and the door had to be propped open to clear out the smoke before they could continue. It was not until the bodies where being removed that they realized Anastasia and one of her sisters where still alive. They where then stabbed to death. The whole family was dumped in one location and then resumed and put into another spot. Only the 3 eldest sisters and parents where found and the Russian Army could not account for Anastasia or her younger brother, thus the rumors that she survived.

The rumors where only fueled when a women named Ann Anderson claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia, and claimed that she slipped through a door and was spared her life when a soldier found her and helped her to safety. But when Ann died in 1992 DNA results where done and she was in no way a match to any of the Tsars family, but that of a mentally ill missing factory worker. The reason she was so widely thought to be the duchess was because she knew so many things and looked exactly like her, and like her she had abnormality on her foot.

In 2007 the charred remains of a young boy and women were found by a campsite that was said to be described in Yakov's memoir. DNA testing the following year concluded that the remains where that of Alexei and one of his sisters. Now that the whole family was accounted for, they where reunited.

The family should not have been killed and it was out of fear that when the family was found and rescued that the people who where holding them captive would be killed.