Legends about the Romanov massacre

History and science have rebuilt the fate of the Romanovs, but it took many decades. Meanwhile, legends and conspiracies about the massacre took root in society

Russia, 1991. Studies on the skull of Tsar Nicholas II (photo: Laski Diffusion / Getty Images) Between 16 and 17 July 1918 the imperial Romanov family ( Tsar Nicholas, the empress, and the five children) was executed by a group of Bolshevik revolutionaries in a house in Ekaterinburg. On July 18, while the corpses of the Romanovs and their servants were moved and maimed to prevent any recognition, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fedorovna, sister of the tsarina, was also killed in Alapayevsk. Together with her five other Romanovs. The remaining members of the fallen family were killed in the following months, the rest of the exiles.

The end of the Romanovs, however, was not as clear cut as it was probably in the plans. Not only did the events of July 1918 generate their share of conspiracy legends and theories, but they are still alive after more than 100 years.

Someone (not) survived

Details on The execution of the Romanovs, and in particular of the tsar's family, have accumulated over time. At the time the death of Nicola and his wife was announced, but a great deal of information was known only to the performers. No one else had seen the bodies, and their concealment had been more complicated than the execution itself. Previously the corpses had been undressed and thrown into a well in the abandoned mine of Ganina Yama. Then it was decided to move them to another, deeper mine. But on the road the truck got bogged down, and the Romanovs were unloaded again and then buried a few kilometers away from the first site. Both times explosives and acids and flames were used, in an attempt to erase the identity of the bodies and reduce the risk of making them martyrs.

The vacuum of information about the end of the Romanov soon began to be filled by rumors . Really none of the children had survived? There was no way to know with certainty. The changelings began to come forward. The Anastasia and Alexei , the youngest of the Romanov family, were the most common. Do not miss also the Tatiana and Maria . In Italy it's lived a long, alleged Olga (the eldest daughter of the tsar) named Marga Boodts , of which our media spoke much. He had signed in 1955 a contract with Mondadori, but the book will be published only in 2011 and in Spain.

But among all the imposter Anna Anderson is without a doubt the most famous. This Anastasia told her he escaped the massacre thanks to the jewelry that at that time they were sewn on, in view of a getaway with the family. Worked as a bulletproof vest, and after the bayonets they only managed to wound her , not kill her. You pretended dead, then a guard helped her.

From the 1920s until his death in 1984 , his story has bewitched the public, also thanks to the support they received from some vips, including some members of the imperial family. His story has generated dozens of books, a film from Oscar , and a cartoon. As regards the latter, by a strange effect Mandela , many people think that Anastasia 1997, both of Disney, instead the production is of the Fox.

impostors to the test dna

As for the other imposter, the story of Anna Anderson had been questioned , but never decisively refuted. Even if in 1925, it had been found the first burial site of the Romanovs , with part of their assets, the bodies still missing. In 1927, after an investigation launched by the brother of the tsarina, it was discovered that Anderson was in reality the Polish Franziska Schanzkowska . The woman had been admitted to the asylum after surviving the blast of a grenade. But the many supporters of Anastasia could still argue with other clues : graphology expert reports, physical similarities, scars compatible. At that point, the question involved not only the Anderson and the Romanov survivors, but also those who had taken to heart the cause of Anderson, some of whom had economic interest depended on the celebrity of the case. Then came the dna .

In the years ’70 were finally found nine bodies which were probably of the Romanov family and the servants . With the collapse of the soviet Union opened the way to put an end to the mystery . In 1991, the mitochondrial dna of the remains was compared with that of prince Philip, duke of Edinburgh . This dna is inherited through the mother ( except for rare cases ), and according to the genealogical tree had to be the same as that of the tsarina and her children. The dna of Philip, in fact, reflect that of an adult woman and three little girls .

(image: Mystery Solved: The Identification of the Two Missing Romanov Children Using Dna Analysis. From Plos One , 2009) James Carnegie , the third duke of Fife, reflect, instead, with a grown man, who had to be tsar . There were two bodies, that of Alexei and (probably) Mary , but there was the opportunity to discover the truth about Anna Anderson. Dead and cremated in 1984, she remained some hair and a biopsy retained by the hospital. Not only it was confirmed that it was not Anastasia , but also that the identity found in the years ’20 was correct.

at The end, in 2007 , came finally to the charred walls of the other two bodies. Perhaps they had been separated to further confuse those who have found the site. Were carried out new test techniques and the most up to date: they were the Romanovs , and they were directly related. Behind the dna , a volume of historical evidence and anatomical had already given a response: no member of the family had survived.

The remains of the Romanovs between religion, politics and conspiracies

Back in Russia . The plan is to physically erase the Romanov why not become the object of devotion, it didn't work . For the orthodox Church today are the martyrs and saints . No shortage of miracles attributed to them. Why, then, the remains of Maria and Alexei , the last to be found, have not yet been ceremoniously buried with the rest of the family? In short, the question is a political one . The orthodox Church refuses to recognize the results of the latest analysis of dna, and in reality, he was skeptical even before the investigations on the end of the Romanovs. Despite having celebrated in 1998, the funeral of the tsar and of the three daughters , has always kept an ambiguous position . He then alleged new analyses by Russian scientists, which have received new confirmations , but the Church's position has not changed.

In 2017, this distrust of the official version of the fate of the Romanovs took a turn particularly worrying. Bishop Tikhon Shevkunov , close to Vladimir Putin, has declared the belief of many colleagues that the execution of the Romanov family was actually a murder ritual . The bishop did not go over, but those words, expressed in that context, they took on a precise meaning . For generations the jews are chased from the accusation of the blood , a legend that sees them precisely as the protagonists of ritual killings. And this is not the first time that appeared the theories of the Romanovs. Began to circulate shortly after the events, and the orthodox Church had already served in the past .

To this the words of the bishop could not be ignored . The party defended rejecting completely the charge of anti-semitism . In his opinion, the crime of ritual which he had been committed by the atheist bolsheviks , not jews. Here it is, finally, a plot again, assuming that someone believes it.