The Romanovs: The Final Chapter

May 02, 2008

It’s a question that has been asked for decades: Did anyone survive the massacre of the last Tsar’s family?

No.

Ending one of the 20th century's most enduring mysteries, the final answer came straight from scientific tests.

DNA analysis confirmed that bone fragments dug up in Russia last year belong to Tsar Nicholas II's two missing children -- Crown Prince Alexei, who was 13 at the time of his death, and his sister, the Grand Duchess Maria, 19.

"We received full confirmation that they do belong to the Tsar's children," Eduard Rossel, the governor of Sverdlovsk region, where the royal family was killed, told journalists.

"Now we have the whole family," he said.

The Tsar Nicholas II, his German-born wife Alexandra, their four daughters and hemophiliac son Alexei were murdered along with their doctor and three servants in 1918.

Those who did not die outright were finished off by bayonets. Their bodies were doused in acid and finally dumped in a pit.

The story of the Romanovs' execution - the dull bayonet stabbings, the shots that ricocheted off their diamond lined corsets - alimented an endlessly hyped myth.

"I have a box full of letters by fraudulent Grand Dukes and Gran Duchesses, swearing they had miracolously escaped the Bolshevisks' bullets and bayonets," Nicholas Romanov, the great-great grandson of the "Iron tsar" Nicholas I, once told me.

The most famous claimer, dramatized in a 1956 romantic film starring Ingrid Bergman, was Anna Anderson, who nineteen months after the tsar murder, emerged in Berlin claiming she was the Grand Duchess Anastasia -- a claim she mantained until her death in 1984.

DNA tests revealed she was born in Poland, named Franziska Schanzkowska.

Here is a YouTube slideshow with plenty of photos of Tsar Nicholas II and his family.

Comments

[DianaGainer]

To me, the most enduring mystery about the Romanovs remains -- Anna Anderson. Not her identity, since that has been established, but how she came to know so much about the imperial family, in such detail, that she was able to convince so many people who had known Anastasia (whom she claimed to be) personally. I have read about her life and clearly she was a very disturbed individual, but she also knew very personal details that the average person would not have known. Quite a mystery still! How did she manage it -- from Poland no less?

[Jeorgie T. Slavetzky]

prince Aleksie romanov survive, he lived in philippines,the navy ship commanded by commodore stark that guarded siberian flotilla that escaped the prince landed in philippines on 1918 at the age of 14 yrs. old