In March 1917, labor activists sparked a revolution, and when soldiers sent by Nicholas refused to shoot the revolutionaries, the Tzar realized he had lost control and abdicated the throne in Aleksey's name and in favor of his brother Mikhail, on March 15, 1917. A provisional government was set up by Alexander Kerensky, who was the leader of the duma (Russia's parliament). This was a bit of a democracy, but despite the majority of the country's wishes, Kerensky chose to reamain in the First World War. This gave other revolutionaries reason to oust him. That and the fact that his government did not appease some of the country. The Romanovs, meanwhile, were put under house arrest. |  |
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In Ekaternburg, the Romanov family was treated horribley. Aleksey was in great pain due to his sledding accident. The guards threatened many times to shoot him if he did not stop screaming from his pain. But their torment ended July 16th, 1918, when they were awoken in the middle of the night and taken to the cellar. I feel I must point out that there are variations about what exactly happened that night, no one really knows except the executioners, who would stretch the truth to say that so and so shot so and so, and their unfortunate victims, who of course are unfortunately deceased. So I will try to give you a "generically accurate" if you will, account of what happened. There, Yurovsky, the head captor of the family, read to them a proclamation from Lenin himself, ordering that they be killed. At that point the Tzar was shot first, by Yurovsky, then guards fired at their targets, each soldier was assigned to a particular person. Nikolai and Alexandra died first, shot to death, followed by the Tzarevich, and then the firing ceased, only to find other screaming victims still alive. The Grand Duchesses were bayonetted to death. |
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