The (Possibly) Solved Mystery of the Lost Tsarevich

August 23, 2007 10:16 PM

On July 16th, 1918, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia - along with his wife, their children, and a handful of retainers - was assassinated by Bolsheviks in the basement of the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg. The bodies were split up and buried in different locations; it was not until 1989 that a mass grave was located and exhumed. In 1991, the found remains were officially announced as belonging to the Romanovs...or at least, most of them. Conspicuously missing were the Tsarevich Alexei and one of his Grand Duchess sisters (likely Maria but most popularly believed to be Anastasia). The report of primary executioner Yakov Yurovsky indicates that the assassins had wanted to complicate the discovery of the remains as much as possible in order to keep the "White Guards" from locating the bodies and exalting the murdered royals, thereby undermining support for the Bolshevik cause. However this week it was announced that the missing remains may have finally been located.
posted by angeline (42 comments total)

For me, the strangest part of the whole Romanov story is that the person responsible for the demolition of the Ipatiev House was....Boris Yeltsin.
posted by nasreddin at 10:20 PM on August 23, 2007

don't really think you can assassinate somebody you're holding in detention. . . 'execute' would be a better choice.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 10:22 PM on August 23, 2007

True, execute would have been a good choice as well; I really only chose assassination because of the extreme political motivation behind the execution.
posted by angeline at 10:24 PM on August 23, 2007

Between the Bolsheviks and the Romanovs, I'm not sure who was worse.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:33 PM on August 23, 2007

It's too bad America no longer has the moral standing to condemn the Bolsheviks.
posted by Krrrlson at 10:34 PM on August 23, 2007

¨It's too bad America no longer has the moral standing to condemn the Bolsheviks.¨

...while the Romanovs and the Czars before them were the epitome of the American dream AND smelled of roses!
posted by lerrup at 10:44 PM on August 23, 2007

I'm still a true believer that Anna Anderson was Anastasia. Screw DNA. Facts mean nothing to me.
posted by padraigin at 10:56 PM on August 23, 2007

We'll see how brave you are.

If the young woman found with Alexei died when she was 18-23, wouldn't that make her more likely to be Maria, though? I thought previous excavations had ruled out Anastasia because the skeltons had wisdom teeth eruptions, making them too old to be her.
posted by Violet Hour at 11:09 PM on August 23, 2007

The bbc link kinda white washes a bit:In January 1905, on 'Bloody Sunday', the army in St Petersburg shot at a crowd....
It was in fact The palace guard that open fire on the group of peasants gathered to petition the King, imagine their surprise when after a trumpet signal, shots rang out. King not acting like kin risk regicide. disclaimer: every thing I know about Bloody Sunday was found in the liner notes of Shostakovitch's symphony#11 'The year 1905'
posted by hortense at 11:26 PM on August 23, 2007

This finding is false, as I am the sole heir of the Romanovs, descended from the Princess ANASTASIA, who escaped execution through the help of a bolshevik guard.

Since the TSARS death, none of his next-of-kins has come forward to put claims for this money as his heir, because people believe they all died in the same way himself and his wife (May their soul rest in peace). Though, the bank where he deposited has made several publications to locate the family members, but all was not successful. they cannot release the funds from his account unless someone applies for claim as the next-of-kin to the deceased as indicated in their banking guidelines.

Upon this discovery, I now seek your permission to have you stand as a next of kin to the deceased, as all documentations will be carefully worked out by me for the funds (US$35,000,000.00) to be released in your favour as the beneficiary's next of kin. Because after five years the money will be called back to the bank's treasury account as unclaimed bills and the money shared amongst the directors of the bank. So it was as a result of this, I conceived the idea of searching for a foreigner who can apply as the next of kin/beneficiary.

My email address is in my profile. Please acknowledge receipt of this message in acceptance of my mutual business endeavor by emailing me with your bank account number, if you are interested.
posted by UbuRoivas at 11:54 PM on August 23, 2007 [5 favorites]

UbuRoivas, you've captured the precious element the Nigerians lack-- romance.

Where do I send my (worthless) check?
posted by maryh at 12:28 AM on August 24, 2007

Esteemed business partner maryh,

It honors me that a person as yourself will assist the only heir of ROMANOFF Fortune to recover the $35,000,000.00 monies deposited by the TSAR before his demise at the hands of conspirators and plotters. His entire fortune has been transferred by the Russian Imperial Bank in 1917 to Lagos Central Bank as this is where my dearly missed great-great-great-grandmother, Princess ANSTASIA escaped to from Russia, but this fortune is held in a locked trunk in the janitor closet for a good hiding place. I only need an advance on the fortune from your good self in the form of US dollars or gold bullion so I can bribe the janitor and we can share in the fortune soon.

Please send only $10,000.00 in cash or gold to my faithfull servant, Obikwe Wankanob and he will deliver to me. His address is: Care of grocery store near old market, across from old tyre yard, near corner of road to Abuja, Lagos NIGERIA.

I look forward to business with your esteemed patronage self.

Crown Prince WILLIAM H ROMANOV, esq.
posted by UbuRoivas at 12:45 AM on August 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

Wait, so Clive Cussler was wrong?
posted by maxwelton at 12:51 AM on August 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

I have a bunch of Centrifugal Bumblepuppy back issues that might be worth... something. Also some 50's era novelty mugs printed with witty alcoholism-related bon mots. Maybe you can find a market for them?

PS: I think your country is neat, and I bet you are very handsome. Will you send a photo? I am very desperate to marry, as my wealthy aunt's will demands I must before my 23rd birthday, or I will lose my obscenely huge inheritence. This would be a sorry loss for the right man, as my almost indescribably vast yet embracingly intimate breasts (that have been scientifically recorded to purr like contented kittens) would lie fallow and unloved without the recompense of the purist and kindest suitor?

Also, I own a goose that lays large eggs of solid gold. Or uranium, we can negotiate that. Please send a response at your soonest convienience to my email.
posted by maryh at 2:20 AM on August 24, 2007

Just shows what happens when adamant atheists get power.
posted by Gnostic Novelist at 2:27 AM on August 24, 2007

*snort!!*
posted by maryh at 2:33 AM on August 24, 2007

adamant atheists
posted by maxwelton at 2:34 AM on August 24, 2007 [2 favorites]

Anastasia escaped to Kalamazoo, MI and Elvis was living with her until she died in 1990.
posted by caddis at 5:26 AM on August 24, 2007

Just shows what happens when adamant atheists get power.

Because it works out so much better when Men of God seize power in bloody revolutions.

wait... have I been punked?
posted by Devils Rancher at 5:42 AM on August 24, 2007

From the article:

In the 1990s, DNA tests revealed she was a Polish peasant named Franziska Schanzkowska.

Man, that DNA testing is INCREDIBLY precise! It even knew her NAME!
posted by briank at 6:03 AM on August 24, 2007

Excellent! Thanks for the link. This story has always fascinated me, and I never would have caught this news otherwise.

I'm sure I read in Dr. Maples' (one of the original forensic investigators) book "Dead Men Do Tell Tales" that the Russians were the ones putting forth the claim that Maria was missing? (I could be wrong, it's been about 10 years since I read this book)...Back when the bodies were first exhumed, the Americans claimed that Anastasia was the missing daughter, but the Soviets claimed it was Maria, because they wanted to prove their superiority in the field of forensic science, or something like that.

The Fate of the Romanovs by Greg King and Penny Wilson also sheds some light on the less-than-ideal conditions under which the bodies were initially removed from the grave and examined (or at least, they seem to - I'm only halfway through the book)

Some amateur forensic investigators (read - Romanov fangirls) claim that Tatiana is missing. Their method is interesting, and I apologize in advance for the horrible transitioning pages.
posted by meesha at 6:13 AM on August 24, 2007

It's too bad America no longer has the moral standing to condemn the Bolsheviks.

Jesus H. Christ, can't we go two seconds without another hyperbolic comparison between the Bush Administration and some horrid and bloody totalitarian regime?
posted by Pollomacho at 6:34 AM on August 24, 2007

In the description of the execution and burial, we find that:

The valuables turned out to be about one-half pud.

????
posted by luser at 6:37 AM on August 24, 2007

..while the Romanovs and the Czars before them were the epitome of the American dream AND smelled of roses!

It's too bad America no longer has the moral standing to condemn the Romanivs and the Czars before them, either.
posted by PlusDistance at 7:15 AM on August 24, 2007

Jesus H. Christ, can't we go two seconds without another hyperbolic comparison between the Bush Administration and some horrid and bloody totalitarian regime?

No
posted by caddis at 7:34 AM on August 24, 2007

luser: I think pud = pood, a unit of weight that is about 36 pounds (that's 16 kilograms to the rest of the world).
posted by stopgap at 7:44 AM on August 24, 2007

Just shows what happens when adamant atheists get power.

Because it works out so much better when Men of God seize power in bloody revolutions.

wait... have I been punked?

Yes. Gnostic Novelist makes a habit of dropping ridiculous statements like that in threads. Check out his posting history. I debunked him quite reasonably and patiently when he posted this comment in a thread about Richard Dawkins, but this time he gets a derisive wiggle of the orange tailfeathers.
posted by orange swan at 7:47 AM on August 24, 2007

nice post. hadn't read some of this stuff.
posted by PugAchev at 8:52 AM on August 24, 2007

This is interesting, thanks.
posted by triggerfinger at 9:41 AM on August 24, 2007

Wow, I was just looking at some of this stuff not a week ago. I remember reading that a fellow involved in the exhumation of the remains in the 90's said that he thought he knew where the others were buried, based on the account of Yurovsky. Seems that he was right.
posted by Tullius at 10:56 AM on August 24, 2007

Nice post. I've never really understood the fascination with the Romanovs—they were just an ordinary family, except one kid was hemophilic and the parents had the misfortune to find themselves in charge of an entire country, which they had not the faintest qualification to govern, and their brutal death was no sadder than the millions of others that took place in those wretched years—but given that the fascination exists, you picked some good links. (Thanks, in particular, for not linking to any of the tsar-worshipping sites out there. I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that this pathetic group of people are officially saints.)
posted by languagehat at 11:24 AM on August 24, 2007

I know to a reasonable certainty that none of the claimants to Anastasia's identity were real, because her childhood playmate was a daughter of a Russian General, named Concordia Gregorieff, whose family was adopted by my family when they emigrated from Russia. She's always maintained that none of the pretenders is the little girl she knew as a child. She celebrated her 100th birthday a few years ago, which I was privileged to attend.
posted by scalefree at 12:01 PM on August 24, 2007 [2 favorites]

I'm super amused by the 419 spoofs up near the top of the thread, heh.

LanguageHat: Thank you! I didn't realize till I was assembling this that quite a lot of the available information online is either Wikipedia or badly done fansites - which were both sources I was determined to avoid in my first post to the blue. Didn't get to put as many links as I might have liked as a result. *shakes fist* Darn fangirls!
posted by angeline at 12:25 PM on August 24, 2007

Pollomacho: "can't we go two seconds without another hyperbolic comparison between the Bush Administration and some horrid and bloody totalitarian regime?"

I like comparing th eBush administration to random breakfast cereals, Picasso paintings, and girdles made from giraffe skin. It's more challenging.
posted by ZachsMind at 2:05 PM on August 24, 2007

Jesus H. Christ, can't we go two seconds without another hyperbolic comparison between the Bush Administration and some horrid and bloody totalitarian regime?

It's a way of pretending that things are better than they are.
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:08 PM on August 24, 2007

I've never really understood the fascination with the Romanovs
One thing that might change your mind is that they may not really have been Romanovs. The male line of Romanov ended with the death of Peter II in 1730. After a couple of empresses, Grand Duke Peter of Holstein-Gottorp became Tsar Peter III. Holsten-Gottorp didn't quite have the cachet of Romanov, however, so the new line styled themselves as Romanov or Oldenburg-Romanov. Peter III married a minor German princess named Sophie von Anhalt-Zerbst. Sophie worked hard to ingratiate herself with the Russians, including converting to Russian Orthodox and taking the name Catherine. Cathy was perfect Russian nobility -- she overthrew (and possibly murdered) her husband after he'd been tsar for only six months and became Empress Catherine II (aka Catherine the Great) and mother of Paul I, great-great-great-grandfather of Nicholas II. In her memoirs, Catherine insinuated that Paul's father was not Peter III (him being impotent and all), but a lover named Sergei Saltykov. Most historians discount that insinuation, but there's still the possiblity that the Romanovs that died in 1917 were Anhalt-Zerbst-Saltykovs.

Before dismissing them as mere poseurs, however, consider the fact that the Saltykovs line traces back to the sister of the first Romanov tsar as well as the Rurikids, whose 700-year male line ended with the death of Tsar Fyodor. Fyodor was the son of Ivan the Terrible and Anastasia Zakharinya. Anastasia was the daughter of Roman Zakharin-Yuriev, from whom the Romanov line got its name. After Fyodor's death, Boris Godunov defeated the Romanov family and exiled them to the far reaches of Russia. After Godunov's death, the crown was offered to -- and declined by -- several Rurikid and Gedimid princes until it was accepted by the first Romanov tsar: Michael, son of the exiled leader of the Romanovs.

So Nicholas and his children could have been blood descendants of Peter the Great, or they could have sprung from a bastard line that traced 700 years further than the first of the Romanov tsars. That's only the highlights -- how could this family not be fascinating?
posted by forrest at 2:23 PM on August 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

OK, I guess I wasn't clear with the Yeltsin thing.

He demolished the Ipatiev house in 1977, before anyone knew who he was.
posted by nasreddin at 2:37 PM on August 24, 2007

One thing that might change your mind is that they may not really have been Romanovs... So Nicholas and his children could have been blood descendants of Peter the Great, or they could have sprung from a bastard line that traced 700 years further than the first of the Romanov tsars. That's only the highlights -- how could this family not be fascinating?

See, I'm just not into the whole aristocracy thing. I don't care if your family can be traced back a thousand years; if the people involved were boring gits, your family is boring. And frankly, most of the Romanovs and/or Anhalt-Zerbst-Saltykovs were pretty boring. (Not a patch on the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha—excuse me, "Wettin"—excuse me again, I mean "Windsor" family, one of the most boring royal lines ever, and I really don't understand the interest Americans take in them.) I'm interested in Catherine herself because she was a fascinating woman, not because she was the descendent of a line of petty German nobility that went back X number of generations.

One thing I love about Proust is the way he mercilessly mocks aristocratic obsession with bloodlines: "No, no, my dear, she's from the junior branch of the family, her great-uncle married a Montmorency, but they aren't received in the best society..." I suppose it's no sillier than stamp collecting or lepidoptery, but I find it unspeakably tedious in real life.
posted by languagehat at 3:50 PM on August 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

Russia to Investigate Last Czar's Death

"Prosecutors announced Friday that they have reopened an investigation into the deaths of the last Russian czar and his family nearly 90 years ago after an archaeologist reported that he may have found the missing remains of Nicholas II's son and heir to the throne.

The announcement of the reopened investigation signaled the government might be taking seriously the claims made Thursday by Yekaterinburg researcher Sergei Pogorelov.

In comments broadcast on NTV, Pogorelov said bones found in a burned area of ground near Yekaterinburg belong to a boy and a young woman roughly the ages of Nicholas' 13-year-old hemophiliac son, Alexei, and a daughter whose remains also never have been found."

posted by ericb at 5:06 PM on August 24, 2007

I think you still might be missing something fun, languagehat. The fascination isn't simply because they're aristocracy, it's because their actions are magnified by the fact of royalty. If Cletus Yokum kills his son in a fit of anger, it's just another knuckle-walker in the state pen. If an emperor kills his son in a fit of anger, a dynasty might end and the empire thrown into civil war in the fight for succession. Thousands die and the world lurches down a path that might not have existed except for that fit of anger.

The example I gave was not meant to claim an age-old lineage is somehow divine, it was an attempt to illustrate that there might be more to families like this than "ho-hum, another bunch of dead white guys". Interest in the effects of royalty on human history does not translate to an obsession with bloodlines any more than reading Proust translates to an obsession with homosexual Frenchmen.
posted by forrest at 7:15 PM on August 24, 2007

Hmm. Some of that sounds combative. It wasn't meant to be, languagehat. I apologize if I came across as belligerent.
posted by forrest at 7:17 PM on August 24, 2007

Jesus H. Christ, can't we go two seconds without another hyperbolic comparison between the Bush Administration and some horrid and bloody totalitarian regime?

Anyone familiar with my posting history will know that my comment was tongue-in-cheek, but apparently neither side noticed.
posted by Krrrlson at 10:46 PM on August 24, 2007