Romanov Family Executed - July 17, 1918

The Romanov family was executed on this day in 1918.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to this day in history class. It's July. The
Romanovs were executed on this day in nineteen eighteen. It
is one of the more famous mass executions in history,
and it also spawned an ongoing mystery about whether maybe
one of the Romanov children had escaped. The Romanovs were
an imperial dynasty. They ruled Russia for more than three

(00:26):
hundred years after coming to power in sixteen thirteen, and
the head of the Romanov family in question at this
point was Czar Nicholas the Second. He came to power
in eight four. He had a reputation for being cruel
and out of touch and easy to manipulate. Not a
great combination and a leader, but he was also deeply patriotic,

(00:48):
religiously varied, devout, and devoted to his family. Ultimately, though
he was not a popular ruler at all, things got
worse when the Russian Revolution of nineteen oh five started.
In this revolution followed Russia's defeat in a war with Japan,
and the thing that sparked it. Even though things were
difficult in the aftermath of this war, what really launched

(01:11):
it was a protest by workers. The Czar's troops opened
fire on these protesting workers, killing more than a hundred people,
and this was one of the many events in history
to later be described as Bloody Sunday. This massacre sparked
the Revolution, which led to a general strike, in a
counter revolution and just ongoing unrest. Then World War One

(01:34):
made things even harder. Then the February Revolution started in
the early months of nineteen seventeen that was connected to
food shortages which had been ongoing through a lot of this.
By this point, Nicholas and his wife Alexandra were widely hated.
They were not trusted at all. They had also had
a whole long ordeal with an advisor, Resputant, who had

(01:58):
said that he could treat the only son, Alexei, for hemophilia,
which was not a treatable condition or a curable condition
at the time, and Alexei, as their only son, was
supposed to be the heir to the throne. Resputin had
been murdered by a group of nobles in a prolonged
effort that involved as being poisoned, shot, shot again, beaten,

(02:20):
and thrown into the river. Then another revolution followed later
on in nineteen seventeen. That was the Bolshevik Revolution, which
was led by Vladimir Linen and that led to a
civil war. The Bolsheviks took over for the provisional government
that had been put in place. The Romanovs were placed
under house arrest for months, and then they were exiled

(02:41):
to Siberia in August of nineteen seventeen. They continued to
be moved around and just generally not treated well during
their imprisonment, and then finally they and some servants that
were loyal to them were all executed on July seventeenth
of nineteen eighteen. There were still a few other Romanov
only members still living in Russia at this time. They

(03:02):
all fled and the Bolsheviks evolved into the Communist Party.
Rumors started not long at all after this execution about
whether one of the children, particularly Anastasia, who was the
youngest daughter, had escaped. Thus, there were several Anastasia impostors
and people who made various claims to being the surviving

(03:24):
daughter of the Romanovs. The most famous was named Anna Anderson,
and she was proved not to be legitimate after her death.
Nine bodies were discovered in nineteen seventy nine, although the
find wasn't disclosed for decades. And DNA analysis suggested that
these were the Romanov parents, three of their children, and
four unrelated people who were their attendants. There was those

(03:47):
some dispute about these results and whether they were correct
or not, but regardless, that find left two children, Alexei
and Anastasia, unaccounted for, so people still wondered if maybe
any of these Anastasia a months had been legitimate. Two
more bodies were found in two thousand and seven, though,
and overall, the conclusion at this point is that these

(04:09):
are all of the bodies of the Romanovs, and that
they all were killed in nineteen eighteen. In two thousand
and eight, the Russian Supreme Court ruled that they had
been victims of political oppression by the Bolsheviks, and the
Russian Orthodox Church Council of Bishops also voted to canonize
the family in two thousand. You can learn more about
all of this in the March ten episode of Stuff

(04:31):
You Miss in History Class called what Happened to the Romanovs,
and also in the September three, two thousand and eight
episode of Stuff You miss in History Class called how
did Raspute and Really Die? Thanks also to Eve's Jeff
Cope for her research work on this podcast, and to
Tari Harrison for her audio work and all of these episodes.
You can subscribe to This Day in History Class on
Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, and wherever else you get podcasts. Tomorrow,

(04:56):
tune in for a famous fire which did happen, but
one of the most famous things about it probably did
not h