Russia's last royal family was shot in a basement in 1918, their bodies hidden for 73 years — and two of the children's remains weren't found until 2007.
On the night of July 16–17, 1918, Tsar Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra, their five children, and four servants were led into the basement of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg and told to wait for a photographer. Instead, Yakov Yurovsky read out a death sentence and the firing squad opened fire. The entire family — including 13-year-old Alexei and 17-year-old Anastasia — were killed.
The execution was brutal and chaotic. Several of the children survived the initial volley because jewels sewn into their clothing deflected bullets. Executioners resorted to bayonets and pistols at close range. The entire process took approximately 20 minutes. One soldier reportedly fled the room unable to continue.
The decision to execute the family was driven by fear: the Czechoslovak Legion and anti-Bolshevik White Army forces were advancing on Yekaterinburg. The Bolsheviks were terrified that if the Romanovs were rescued, they could become a rallying symbol for counter-revolution. The city fell to White forces just eight days later.
The bodies were loaded into trucks, driven to a forest outside town, and subjected to an extraordinary effort at concealment — doused with sulfuric acid, burned, and buried in two separate shallow graves in the Koptyaki forest. The killers were so determined to hide the evidence that they returned the next night to bury the remains more carefully.
The burial site was discovered by amateur historian Alexander Avdonin in 1979, but kept secret during the Soviet era. The Soviet government only publicly acknowledged the graves during Glasnost in 1989. DNA analysis in the 1990s confirmed the identities, and the remains of Nicholas, Alexandra, and three daughters were reinterred in Saint Petersburg's Peter and Paul Cathedral in 1998.
For decades, the fates of two of the children — Alexei and one daughter, most likely Maria — remained unknown, fuelling widespread rumours that one of the children, particularly Anastasia, had survived. The mystery inspired films, impostors, and decades of speculation. The final remains were found in a separate grave in 2007, and DNA confirmed they were Alexei and Maria.