39. He Loved War
In a bizarre way, the outbreak of WWI was great...for Alexei Romanov. Tired of being locked in the palace with little to do, the Tsarevich got the chance to join his father at the Russian Army's headquarters. Though one might think the pampered prince would hate roughing it with the soldiers, Alexei was in heaven. He looked up to the men around him, and even started refusing his lavish meals, instead eating only the black bread of soldiers' rations.
It was also during his time at headquarters that Alexei showed the first signs that he might make a good leader after all...
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
40. He Provided Comfort
Though Alexei's station gave him an inflated ego, he did generally take his responsibilities quite seriously. When one officer learned that his son had perished at the front, Nicholas sent Alexei to sit with the grieving father. Alexei stoically approached the man and said, "Papa told me to come sit with you as he thought you might feel lonely tonight."
While still just a boy, Alexei showed maturity beyond his age when comforting the man. Nearing his teenage years, this little terror was finally coming into his own. Unfortunately for Alexei and the rest of the Imperial Romanovs, WWI was the beginning of the end.
41. His Father Gave Up The Throne
As Alexei had been growing up, his father had been making a bigger and bigger mess of things in Russia. Finally, his horrific decision-making during WWI pushed the people too far. During the February Revolution of 1917, revolutionaries apprehended the entire royal family, Alexei included, and forced Nicholas to abdicate his throne.
With his parents' restrictions, Alexei had always believed that his life was a nightmare—well, he was about to learn what a real nightmare was.
42. He Begged For Mercy
Of course, a spoiled boy like Alexei didn't take well to captivity. While imprisoned in Tobolsk, he wrote of his unbearable boredom and begged for God to have mercy on him. Now, let's not get it twisted: The Soviets kept the royal family in an extravagant mansion, and they still had some of their servants with them. This wasn't the Gulags—but, as far as Alexei believed, it might as well have been.
So, he did what he always did: He acted out.
43. He Took A Risk
The way Alexei saw it, life couldn't get any worse (FYI: It definitely could, and would), so he started tempting fate. He played rambunctiously with a kitchen boy named Leonid Sednev, and took risks that he never would have before. At one point, he rode a sled down the stairs—dangerous for any boy, but potentially fatal for Alexei.
I don't know what Alexei felt at the top of those stairs as he prepared to careen down them, but I can guess what he felt after: Pain and regret.
Thomas Taylor Hammond (1920-1993), Wikimedia Commons
44. He Paid For His Stunt
Alexei knew the risk, but he went down those stairs anyway—still, I doubt he realized just how bad that trip would be. He injured his groin, causing an internal hemorrhage that quickly took a turn for the worse. Within hours, he could barely keep his head up, let alone walk under his own power. He needed a wheelchair just to get around. He couldn't have known, but he'd never walk under his own power again.
But as if his pain wasn't bad enough, the Soviets were about to tear his family apart.
45. Guards Split His Family Up
The Bolsheviks kept moving the Imperial family for fear that royalists might track them down and free them. The time came for them to move again, but with his injury, Alexei was in no condition to travel. The (ex) Tsar begged their captors for more time, but the Bolsheviks weren't exactly the most understanding bunch. They forced Nicholas and Alexandra to begin the journey to Yekaterinburg, while leaving Alexei behind with his sisters.
As they left, I imagine the nervous parents feared they would never see their children again. They were spared that pain, at least—though the end was rapidly drawing near.
46. He Rejoined His Parents
Eventually, Alexei recovered just enough to make the journey to Yekaterinburg with his sisters. They enjoyed a warm reunion with their parents—but that would be the last journey they'd ever take. On July 16, 1918, one of their guards announced that Alexei's playmate, Leonid Sednev, was leaving the manor to visit his uncle. The family was furious: Sednev was Alexei's only friend, how could he leave so unceremoniously?
Of course, none of them knew the dark truth. Sednev didn't leave to visit his uncle: He left because the guards didn't want him to witness what was about to happen.
47. He Asked For A Chair
Later that night, Alexei Romanov lay asleep in bed when the family doctor, Eugene Botkin, shook him awake. Botkin went one by one to each of the Romanovs and told them to put their clothes on. He claimed that chaos had engulfed the city, and they had to go to the basement for their safety. For all Botkin knew, he was telling the truth. Guards hustled the Romanovs into a bare cellar.
Nicholas demanded they at least bring in some chairs for his wife and ailing son. The guard relented, but Nicholas didn't hear what he told his comrade outside the door: "The heir wants to die in a chair. Very well then, let him have one."
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48. The End Had Arrived
After bringing the chairs, a guard told the Romanovs to wait until a truck arrived to transport them to a secure location. However, just a few minutes later, the door reopened. This time, several guards filed inside, and one of them was holding a piece of paper. He faced the Romanovs and read it aloud: "Nikolai Alexandrovich, in view of the fact that your relatives are continuing their attack on Soviet Russia, the Ural Executive Committee has decided to execute you."
After that, there was no time to react.
49. The Execution Went Wrong
Upon hearing the order, Nicholas spun around and cried, "What? What, did you say?" The guard quickly repeated what he said, and Nicholas replied, "Stop! You know not what you do!" But it was too late. The guards had already opened fire. Within moments, smoke and the acrid smell of gunpowder filled the room. The guards, whether untrained, nervous, intoxicated, or a combination of all three, failed to give any of the Romanovs a swift end.
Their arms finally fell silent—but as the smoke began to clear, they quickly realized that the execution had gone horribly, horribly wrong.
50. He Survived
The first thing that pierced the silence were the moans of Romanov children. The parents lay still, but Alexei and his sisters all still breathed. Each of them had jewelry sewed into their clothing, smuggled from the palace. The diamonds had managed to deflect the gunfire enough that none of them had landed a fatal blow on any of the children.
As if that night hadn't already been chilling enough, it was about to take an even more disturbing turn.
51. It Got Even Worse
After the first round of bullets, officers rushed down from upstairs. The sound of their weapons had awoken many in the neighborhood, defeating the purpose of the whole "secret execution" plan. An officer ordered the guards to use their bayonets on the children instead—but their nerves failed them once again. Though they set upon the children, none of them knew what they were doing. Instead of putting Alexei Romanov and his sisters out of their misery, the guards only succeeded in making it worse.
52. His Fate Was Painful And Messy
The guard in charge of taking Alexei's life fumbled with his bayonet, then decided to end the boy more quickly with his weapon. He unloaded an entire magazine, and yet still Alexei clung to life. Finally, the leader of the guards, Yakov Yurovsky, pushed his incompetent men aside and fired one shot into Alexei's head.
One by one, the remaining Romanov children stopped moving. It was a horrifying fate for children whose only crime was sharing their father's blood—but this was not yet the end of their story.
53. His Beloved Pet Survived
Though he would never know it, Alexei Romanov could have taken solace in the fact that his beloved spaniel Joy, who went with him everywhere, survived the massacre and lived until a British officer rescued him. Joy was the only member of the Romanovs' retinue to survive, however. Their doctors and servants all entered that basement with them, and none of them left it alive.
With Alexei and his family out of the picture, the Bolsheviks now had to erase all trace of the messy execution.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
54. He Didn't End Up Next To His Family
Guards stripped the Romanovs of all their clothes, drove them out to an abandoned mineshaft, doused them in sulphuric acid so no one could recognize them, then tossed them into the darkness below. That was the final resting place of the Romanov family—except for Alexei and one of his sisters. The guards had a plan for them that they hoped would throw anyone searching for the lost royals off their scent.
55. Guards Had A Different Plan For Him
Alexei Romanov didn't get to rest with his parents. Guards took his remains, along with the remains of one of his sisters, and burned them in a bonfire. Next, they smashed the bones with a spade, then tossed them into a smaller pit about 50 feet away from the mass grave. They figured anyone who found the remains at the bottom of the mineshaft wouldn't guess it was the royal family, as the Tsarevich and one of the girls wouldn't be there.
In case you couldn't tell yet, the guards were mostly incompetent, but their plan actually worked...for a while.
56. His Remains Were The Key
Amateur archaeologists discovered the site of the Romanovs' grave in 1979, but they soon realized something was wrong. Two bodies were missing: One of the girls, and Alexei. Rumors persisted for decades that perhaps the boy had somehow escaped—until 2007, nearly a century after his death, researchers found the remains of a preteen boy and a young woman in a firepit nearby.
DNA testing confirmed that the bones had belonged to Alexei and his sister Maria. Finally, after nearly a century, the mystery of the Romanovs' end was settled, once and for all.
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