Romanov Execution: What Happened to the Family in July 1918
The Romanov execution of 16-17 July 1918: who was killed in Yekaterinburg and by whom, the disputed question of who ordered it, how the remains were hidden, found and identified by DNA, and what happened to them afterwards.
Last updated September 2026
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The Romanov execution took place in the early hours of 17 July 1918, in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg. A Bolshevik squad shot the former emperor Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra. They also shot their five children and four members of their household. Soviet officials hid the bodies.
For decades they hid the truth about the family's fate too. This page sets out who died, where and how. It also covers the disputed question of who gave the order. And it explains how researchers found and identified the remains.
TL;DR: Guards shot the family on the night of 16-17 July 1918. Yakov Yurovsky led them. They killed Nicholas II and Alexandra, their five children and four servants. It happened in the basement of the Ipatiev House. The main grave was found in 1979. It was made public in 1989 and dug up in 1991. Two missing children were found in 2007 and identified in 2008. Sources still disagree on who ordered the killing.
Who was killed in the Romanov execution
| Name | Relation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Nicholas II | Former emperor; abdicated March 1917 | Reviewed |
| Alexandra Feodorovna | His wife, the former empress | Reviewed |
| Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia | Their four daughters, aged 22 to 17 | Reviewed |
| Alexei | Their son and heir, aged 13 | Reviewed |
| Yevgeny Botkin | Family physician | Reviewed |
| Anna Demidova | Alexandra's maid | Reviewed |
| Alexei Trupp | Footman | Reviewed |
| Ivan Kharitonov | Cook | Reviewed |
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From abdication to Yekaterinburg
Nicholas II gave up the throne on 15 March 1917 (2 March, Old Style), during the February Revolution. The Provisional Government held the family under house arrest. They were kept at the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo. In August 1917 it moved them to Tobolsk in Siberia. That was far from the unrest in Petrograd.
The Bolsheviks took power in November 1917. After that, conditions grew harsher. In spring 1918 the Bolsheviks moved the family to Yekaterinburg, in the Urals. They held them in a merchant's house seized from its owner, Nikolai Ipatiev. The Bolsheviks called it the "House of Special Purpose".
The night of 16-17 July 1918
By July 1918, anti-Bolshevik forces were closing in on Yekaterinburg. They included the Czechoslovak Legion. Local leaders feared the Whites would free the family and rally around them.
On the night of 16-17 July, the commandant, Yakov Yurovsky, woke the prisoners. He told them they would be moved for their safety. He led them to a basement room.
There his squad opened fire. Several victims did not die at once. The squad finished them with bayonets and more shots.
The squad took the bodies by truck to the Koptyaki forest outside the city. First they tried to destroy them in a mine shaft, and failed. Then they buried most of the bodies under a road at a place called Porosenkov Log. They burned two of the bodies and buried them apart nearby.
Who ordered the killing
The order to kill the family
Responsibility for the Romanov execution.
Status: Disputed The local decision is agreed. Moscow's role is not.
Note: Historians agree that the Ural Regional Soviet in Yekaterinburg decided on the killing. They agree that Yurovsky's squad carried it out. The Bolshevik leaders in Moscow approved the killing of Nicholas in public after the fact.
At first they announced only his death. Historians disagree on whether Lenin and Yakov Sverdlov ordered the killing of the whole family in advance. No written order signed by Lenin has been found. The evidence that survives can be read either way.
Sources: Britannica, "Nicholas II: Abdication and death"; History.com, "Romanov family executed".
Other Romanovs killed in 1918
The Yekaterinburg killings were part of a wider campaign against the family. Bolsheviks killed Nicholas's brother, Grand Duke Michael, near Perm in June 1918. On 18 July, the day after Yekaterinburg, they killed more Romanovs at Alapayevsk.
Among them was Alexandra's sister, Grand Duchess Elizabeth. More grand dukes were shot in Petrograd in January 1919. The Romanov family page covers the wider family.
Finding the remains
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1979 | Local researchers Alexander Avdonin and Geli Ryabov find the main grave and keep it secret |
| 1989 | Ryabov makes the discovery public |
| 1991 | The grave is officially exhumed; nine skeletons recovered |
| 1992-1994 | DNA studies identify Nicholas, Alexandra and three daughters |
| 1998 | Burial in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, Saint Petersburg, on 17 July |
| 2007 | Remains of two more people found nearby |
| 2008 | DNA tests confirm they are Alexei and one of his sisters, most likely Maria |
| 2009 | A published genomic study confirms the identifications of the whole family |
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The early DNA work compared the remains with living relatives. One was Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, a great-nephew of Alexandra through her sister. A 2009 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences confirmed the result. The remains from both graves belonged to Nicholas II's family. A team led by Evgeny Rogaev did the work.
The burials
The last two children
Burial of Alexei and Maria.
Status: Disputed Found in 2007. Still not buried.
Note: Nicholas, Alexandra, three of their daughters and four servants were buried on 17 July 1998. The grave is in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg. The remains of Alexei and his sister were not included. They had been found in 2007 and identified in 2008.
The Russian Orthodox Church has not accepted the findings. Russian investigators reopened the case in 2015. The Moscow Times reported in 2020 that they had confirmed their findings again. As of the latest reports, the two children still await burial.
Sources: BBC News, "Tsar's lost children identified", 2008; The Moscow Times, "Investigators Re-Confirm Last Russian Royal Family's Remains", 2020.
Recognition since 1918
The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia declared the family martyrs in 1981. The Russian Orthodox Church made Nicholas, Alexandra and their five children saints in 2000, as passion-bearers. On 1 October 2008, Russia's Supreme Court cleared the family's name. It ruled that they had been victims of political repression.
The site today
Soviet officials tore down the Ipatiev House in 1977. The Russian Orthodox Church later built the Church on the Blood on the site. It was consecrated in 2003. Pilgrims visit it, most of all each July.
To read more, try our guide to the best books about the Romanovs. It picks eight. They run from the whole dynasty to the family's last months.
Verdict: the Romanov execution
The Romanov execution killed eleven people. It happened in Yekaterinburg on the night of 16-17 July 1918. They were Nicholas II, Alexandra, their five children and four servants.
DNA studies have identified all of them. Nine lie in Saint Petersburg, reburied in 1998. Alexei and Maria were identified in 2008. They still await burial.
Two records on this page stay disputed. One is who in the Bolshevik leadership ordered the killing. The other is the burial of the last two children. For the dynasty that ended here, see the Romanov dynasty hub.
Sources checked for this page
- Britannica, "Nicholas II: Abdication and death"
- History.com, "Romanov family executed"
- History.com, "The Romanov family bodies: discovery and cover-up"
- Rogaev et al., "Genomic identification in the historical case of the Nicholas II royal family", PNAS, 2009 (PubMed)
- BBC News, "Romanovs laid to rest", 1998
- BBC News, "Tsar's lost children identified", 2008
- Presidential Library (Russia), "Unknown facts of the execution of the Romanov family"
Questions people also ask
When did the Romanov execution happen?
On the night of 16-17 July 1918, in the basement of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg.
Who ordered the Romanov execution?
The Ural Regional Soviet decided on and carried out the killing. Whether the Bolshevik leadership in Moscow, including Lenin, ordered it in advance or approved it after the fact is disputed, because no written order from Lenin has been found.
Where are the Romanovs buried?
Nicholas II, Alexandra, three of their daughters and four attendants were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg on 17 July 1998. The remains of Alexei and his sister Maria, identified in 2008, have not been buried.
Who carried out the Romanov execution?
A squad led by Yakov Yurovsky, the commandant of the Ipatiev House and a member of the Bolshevik secret police.