Czar Nicholas Ll
Kaiser Wilhem II and Tsar Nicholas II in 1905. Henry Nevinson, of The Daily Chronicle commented that Gapon was 'the man who struck the first blow at the heart of tyranny and made the old monster sprawl.'
Media captionThe Romanov family members were killed by revolutionary Bolsheviks Russian investigators have exhumed the remains of the last tsar and his wife, as they re-examine their 1918 murders. Samples were taken from Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, and from the bloodstained uniform of Alexander II, Nicholas's grandfather, killed in 1881. The Romanov family members, who were killed by revolutionary Bolsheviks, are buried at a St Petersburg cathedral. The Orthodox Church wants to confirm family links before other relatives can be reburied with them. The long-running murder case had been closed in 1998, after DNA tests authenticated the Romanov remains found in a mass grave in the Urals in 1991.
But the DNA tests did not convince some Russian Orthodox Church members, because the remains of two - Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria - were found only in 2007, at a different spot in the Urals. The Investigative Committee, a state body, says new checks are needed in order to authenticate the remains of those two.
Russia plans to rebury Alexei and Maria alongside the rest of the family in St Petersburg's Peter and Paul Cathedral. But for that to happen the Church wants to be certain about the remains. Image caption The four Romanov princesses with their brother Alexei Hail of bullets Tsar Nicholas II, Alexandra, their four daughters - grand duchesses Anastasia, Maria, Olga and Tatiana - their son the Tsarevich Alexei and four royal staff members were murdered in the cellar of a house in Yekaterinburg in 1918. One night they were lined up as if for a family photo, and then a Bolshevik firing squad killed them in a hail of bullets, according to witness accounts. Those who did not die immediately were bayonetted. The royal couple and three daughters were formally reburied on 17 July 1998 - the 80th anniversary of the murder.
They were canonised by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000. Alexei and Maria are also likely to be canonised before the 100th anniversary in 2018. Their remains are currently kept at the Russian State Archives.
The new investigation also involves taking samples from Alexandra's sister the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna, buried in Jerusalem. Only now can Russian investigators get access to those remains. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The tsar and his family at Tsarskoye Selo palace near St Petersburg in 1916 Support from descendants The Romanovs were ousted from power and exiled in 1917, shortly before the communist Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government. Documents from the so-called 'White Guards Investigation' concerning the family's 1918 murder will also be studied. They came to light in the past four years. Tsar Alexander II was killed by a bomb thrown by a 'People's Will' revolutionary in 1881, and buried in his military uniform in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. A lawyer for Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, a descendant of the murdered Romanovs, said she supported the new investigation.
Quoted by Russia's Tass news agency, lawyer German Lukyanov said 'not all aspects of the imperial family's murder were explained in the case, and not all the Russian Orthodox Church's questions were answered fully and clearly'. 'The grand duchess hopes that the examination of the Yekaterinburg remains will be scientific. The truth must be established in this case, with an answer to the main question: whose are these remains?'
Czar Nicholas II of Russia was crowned in 1894, and was the last Emperor of Russia. He was born on 19 May, 1868, the first child of Tsarevitch Aleksandr III and his wife, Maria Fyodorovna. He was christened His Imperial Highness Nicholas Aleksandrovitch Romanov, Grand Duke of Russia. He was followed by three brothers and two sisters: Grand Duke Aleksandr (1869-1870), Grand Duke Georgy (1871-1899) Grand Duchess Ksenia (1875-1960), Grand Duke Michael (1878-19180 and Grand Duchess Olga (1882-1960). He was related to the Danish, British and German royal families.
As a child, Nicholas wasn't quite as bright as his younger brothers, resulting in his father's belief that Nicholas, a somewhat shy and sensitive child, wasn't 'man enough' to be Emperor of Russia, and he often derisively referred to his son as a girl. His father had already picked out a French princess to be Nicholas' wife, in order to cement relations with the French.
Unfortunately for him, however, he further alienated his father when he fell in love with a German princess, Alix (aka Alexandra), and decided to marry her instead. Although dead set against this marriage, his father finally gave his reluctant blessing only on his deathbed, when he realized that if Nicholas were not allowed to marry Alix he would marry no one, thus placing the continuation of the Romanov dynasty in danger). In November of 1894, he married Her Ducal Highness Princess Alix Victoria Helena Louise Beatrice of Hesse-Darstadt and By Rhine.
They had five children: Grand Duchess Olga (b. 1895-1918), Grand Duchess Tatiana (b. 1897-1918), Grand Duchess Maria (b.
1899-1918), Grand Duchess Anastasia (b. 1901-1918) and Tsarevitch Aleksey (1904-1918). He initially abdicated in favor of his son, Tsarevich Aleksey Nikolaeyvitch Romanov, but swiftly changed his mind after advice from his son's doctors that the heir would not live long apart from his parents, who would be forced into exile. Nicholas drew up a new manifesto naming his brother, Grand Duke Michael, as the next Tsar. He issued a statement, which was suppressed by the Provisional Government.
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Grand Duke Michael deferred taking power until the people were allowed to vote on whether Russia should become a republic or retain the monarchy. Michael was murdered on 13 June 1918, at the age of 39.