This post was originally published at my blog, birdbrain. I originally posted it on July 17 to commemorate Russia’s last imperial family. I am now posting it here as well.

It was on this night (well, okay, it was early, early morning, as in about 2.00 AM), ninety years ago, that Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family–wife, four daughters, one son, and their three servants–were murdered by the Bolsheviks.

I’m no great supporter of monarchies, but I’ve always been bothered by what happened to the Romanovs. They really weren’t bad people–Nicholas was just not suited to rule. He never really wanted to be tsar, by the way; he only became tsar because he felt it was his duty. He stupidly did not want the give any power to an elected assembly, though he was later forced to allow a parliament (called the Duma). Had he given power to an elected assembly, as most of the civilised world was doing, perhaps Russia could have made a peaceful transition into a democratic country.

That was not to be. The tsar was arrested and imprisoned. After Tsar Nicholas was removed from power, Alexander Kerensky was put in charge of a more democratic government that unfortunately did not succeed. The Bolsheviks instead gained power and the Romanovs were executed early in the morning on July 17 on Lenin’s orders (Lenin was a very bad person, though history does not always seem to portray him that way), thereby ushering in a long period of Communist rule for Russia.

The following photograph (via Wikipedia) shows the family during happier times in 1913. From left to right: Grand Duchesses Olga and Maria, Nicholas, Tsarina Alexandra (his wife), Grand Duchess Anastasia, Tsarevich Alexei, and Grand Duchess Tatiana. The children were tragically young when they died: Olga was twenty-two; Tatiana twenty-one; Maria nineteen; Anastatia seventeen; and Alexei thirteen.

Their bodies were unceremoniously dumped in pits. In 1998, the family was reburied in the St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. They have been canonized as saints by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Just a side note: for many years, people thought that it was possible that one or two of the girls could have survived the terrible night of July 17–in fact, many women came forward claiming to be Anastasia. In recent years, extensive excavation has confirmed that none of the family survived.

Natalie is a university student. She used to be quite uninterested in politics until she had her "awakening", so to speak, in October 2007. She enjoys playing violin, reading, writing, photography, and knitting. She is the proud owner of two pet birds. She someday hopes to go to law school and eventually go into politics.