The Romanov mystery solved: How archaeologists, scientists and historians discovered what really happened in 1918

The early twentieth century was a turbulent time in Russia as the Romanov family’s authoritarian grip on power was weakening. Disastrous wars and severe corruption lead to social upheaval that finally culminated in the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and the Bolsheviks seizing power in 1917.

The Russian revolution gave way to a civil war between ‘Reds’, the Bolsheviks, and ‘Whites’, the anti-Bolsheviks. In order to prevent the restoration of the imperial family, the Bolsheviks put the Romanovs under house arrest in Siberia. But fearing that White forces might be able to rescue the Romanovs, drastic measures were taken by the Bolsheviks which led to a decades-long mystery.

How science solved the Romanov mystery

The imperial dynasty that ruled Russia for 300 years was ended by the Bolsheviks with the murder of Nicholas II and his family on July 16, 1918. What had happened to them and the whereabouts of their remains was shrouded in mystery for decades leading to many rumors. The Bolsheviks said that only the Tsar had been executed and the rest of the family relocated to cover up their actions.

The fate that befell them finally came to light in 1989 when the Soviet Union began undergoing radical change. It was revealed that all seven members of the Romanov family and four of their servants had been executed in the cellar of the Ipatiev House, a merchant’s house in Yekaterinburg. Their bodies had been thrown down a mineshaft only to be later recovered, unceremoniously burned and then thrown in a mass grave.

Their remains were finally located by an amateur historian Alexander Avdonin and geologist Geli Ryabov in 1979, but they kept their discovery a secret. Finally, in 1991 the Romanov’s remains were exhumed. However, it would take another three years to confirm the identity of the bodies found.

With the help of British experts, DNA testing was conducted that conclusively confirmed the identities of five bodies that were discovered in the mass grave were Nicholas, his wife Alexandra and three of their daughters.

It would take nearly two decades more to find the missing two children. In 2007, a second mass grave was found which contained the heir to the imperial throne, Alexei, and one of his sisters.

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