The House of Romanov was the reigning imperial house of Russia from 1613 to 1917. They achieved prominence after Anastasia Romanovna married Ivan the Terrible, the first crowned tsar of all Russia. Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, and his immediate family were executed in 1918, but there are still living descendants of other members of the imperial house.
Alexandra Feodorovna, born Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine, was the last Empress of Russia as the consort of Tsar Nicholas II from their marriage on 26 November [O.S. 14 November] 1894 until his forced abdication on 15 March [O.S. 2 March] 1917. A granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Alexandra was one of the most famous royal carriers of hemophilia and passed the condition to her son, Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia.
Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia was the second daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last monarch of Russia, and of Tsarina Alexandra. She was born at Peterhof Palace, near Saint Petersburg.
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last sovereign of Imperial Russia, and his wife, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna.
Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia was the third daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. Her murder following the Russian Revolution of 1917 resulted in her canonization as a passion bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.
Ipatiev House was a merchant's house in Yekaterinburg where the former Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, his family, and members of his household were murdered in July 1918 following the Bolshevik Revolution. Its name is identical to that of the Ipatiev Monastery in Kostroma, from where the Romanovs came to the throne. As an act for the 60th anniversary of the Russian Revolutions, it was demolished in 1977 by orders of the Politburo to the local Soviet government, almost 59 years after the Romanov family murder and 14 years before the dissolution of the Soviet Union itself.
Charles Sydney Gibbes was a British academic who from 1908 to 1917 served as the English tutor to the children of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia. When Nicholas abdicated the throne in March 1917 Gibbes voluntarily accompanied the Imperial family into exile to the Siberian city of Tobolsk. After the family was murdered in 1918 Gibbes returned to the United Kingdom and eventually became an Orthodox monk, adopting the name of Nicholas in commemoration of Nicholas II. He died in 1963 and is buried at Headington cemetery, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England.
Alexander Nikolayevich Avdonin is a Russian who was the first known person, in 1979, to begin exhuming the grave of the seven murdered Romanovs and four members of their household. He was born in Sverdlovsk in the Soviet Union, where the Romanovs were murdered in 1918.
Princess Helen of Serbia was a Serbian princess. She was the daughter of King Peter I of Serbia and his wife, the former Princess Ljubica of Montenegro. She was the elder sister of George, Crown Prince of Serbia and King Alexander I of Yugoslavia. Helen was also a niece of Queen Elena of Italy, Princess Anastasia of Montenegro, wife of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia and of Princess Milica of Montenegro, wife of Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich of Russia, the women who introduced Grigori Rasputin to Tsarina Alexandra.
The canonization of the Romanovs was the elevation to sainthood of the last imperial family of Russia – Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Tsarina Alexandra, and their five children Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei – by the Russian Orthodox Church.
Members of the ruling Russian imperial family, the House of Romanov, were executed by a firing squad led by Yakov Yurovsky in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on July 17, 1918, during both the Russian Civil War and near the end of the First World War.
Pyotr Zakharovich Ermakov was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary, notable as one of several men responsible for carrying out the murder of the Romanov family, including the deposed Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, their children, and their retinue.
Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna is a 1986 American-Austrian-Italian made-for-television biographical film directed by Marvin J. Chomsky, starring Amy Irving, Rex Harrison, Olivia de Havilland, Omar Sharif, Christian Bale and Jan Niklas. The film was loosely based on the story of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia and the book The Riddle of Anna Anderson by Peter Kurth. It was originally broadcast in two parts.
The Romanovs: An Imperial Family is a 2000 Russian historical drama film about the last days of Tsar Nicholas II and his family. The Russian title implies both the Imperial Crown of Russia and the crown of thorns associated with martyrs. The film premiered at the 22nd annual Moscow Film Festival. The film was selected as the Russian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 76th Academy Awards, but it didn't make the final shortlist.
The Russian Imperial Romanov family were shot and bayoneted to death by Bolshevik revolutionaries under Yakov Yurovsky on the orders of the Ural Regional Soviet in Yekaterinburg on the night of 16–17 July 1918. Also murdered that night were members of the imperial entourage who had accompanied them: court physician Eugene Botkin; lady-in-waiting Anna Demidova; footman Alexei Trupp; and head cook Ivan Kharitonov. The bodies were taken to the Koptyaki forest, where they were stripped, mutilated with grenades to prevent identification, and buried.
Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia was the eldest child of the last Russian emperor, Nicholas II, and of his wife Alexandra.
Stepan Vaganov was a Russian sailor and Bolshevik revolutionary. A participant in the establishment of Soviet power in the Urals and in the civil war, he is known for his personal participation in the killing of the Romanov family under Yakov Yurovsky on 17 July 1918.
Alexandra Alexandrovna Tegleva, also known as Shura Tegleva and Sasha Tegleva, was a Russian noblewoman who served as a nursemaid in the Russian Imperial Household. As nursemaid to the children of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, she went with the family into exile in Tobolsk following the abdication of Nicholas II during the February Revolution, but was ultimately prevented from staying with them during their house arrest at Ipatiev House. She survived the Russian Revolution and married Pierre Gilliard, a Swiss academic who served with her in the Imperial Household as the children's French tutor. She moved to Lausanne as a white émigré and remained there the rest of her life. Tegleva worked with her husband to investigate and debunk the claims made by Anna Anderson, a Romanov impostor who pretended to be Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna.
Elizaveta Nikolaevna "Liza" Ersberg was a German-Russian parlormaid who served in the Russian Imperial Household. The daughter of a stoker employed by Emperor Alexander III, she was hired by Empress Maria Feodorovna as a parlormaid at the Alexander Palace in 1898. She used her post to obtain a position at court for her friend Anna Demidova, who became a lady-in-waiting to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.
Joy was an English Cocker Spaniel owned by Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia. Alexei Nikolaevich, born in 1904, was the youngest child and only son of Emperor Nicholas II. Joy, whose origins are unclear, appeared at the palace in 1914 and became closely bonded with Alexei, accompanying him on various trips and providing comfort during his struggles with hemophilia. Joy's quiet nature likely contributed to his survival following the murder of the Romanov family in 1918. After the family's execution, Joy was discovered by the White Army in Yekaterinburg. He was later taken care of by Colonel Pavel Rodzianko, with whom he moved to England after the defeat of the White Army. Joy lived out his final years in Windsor at Rodzianko's estate and died in the mid-1920s.
