THE DEATH OF A DYNASTY
On the night of 16-17 July 1918, a father, mother, their five children and four of their staff were shot and stabbed to death in the basement of a house in Ekaterinburg, near the Ural Mountains. The victims were former tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, son Alexei (13), and daughters, Olga (22), Tatiana (21), Maria (19) and Anastasia (17).
When Nicholas II abdicated in March 1917, the imperial family was initially held under house arrest in the Alexander Palace, about 14 miles south of Petrograd. Despite the curtailment of their freedom, the family was permitted to maintain a
