It wasn't until the fall of the Soviet Union that the remains were fully recovered and identified through DNA testing. In 1998, eighty years after their deaths, the Romanovs completed their final journey in truth—they were interred with full state honors in St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, returning to the city where their dynasty began.
The journey began in February 1917, when the pressures of World War I and domestic famine forced Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate. Initially, the family—Nicholas, Empress Alexandra, and their five children—were held under house arrest at Tsarskoye Selo. At this stage, the "journey" still held a glimmer of hope; there were talks of asylum in England with Nicholas’s cousin, King George V. However, political sensitivities in London and the rising tide of radicalism in Russia quickly shuttered those doors. The Move East
On the night of July 16, the family was woken and told they were being moved for their own safety. They were led into a small, semi-basement room. Nicholas, Alexandra, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, the young Alexei, and four loyal servants stood together for a final photograph that would never be taken. Instead, a firing squad entered.
It wasn't until the fall of the Soviet Union that the remains were fully recovered and identified through DNA testing. In 1998, eighty years after their deaths, the Romanovs completed their final journey in truth—they were interred with full state honors in St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, returning to the city where their dynasty began.
The journey began in February 1917, when the pressures of World War I and domestic famine forced Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate. Initially, the family—Nicholas, Empress Alexandra, and their five children—were held under house arrest at Tsarskoye Selo. At this stage, the "journey" still held a glimmer of hope; there were talks of asylum in England with Nicholas’s cousin, King George V. However, political sensitivities in London and the rising tide of radicalism in Russia quickly shuttered those doors. The Move East The Final Journey of the Romanovs
On the night of July 16, the family was woken and told they were being moved for their own safety. They were led into a small, semi-basement room. Nicholas, Alexandra, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, the young Alexei, and four loyal servants stood together for a final photograph that would never be taken. Instead, a firing squad entered. It wasn't until the fall of the Soviet