Original subtitles

July the 17th, 1918, Ekaterinburg, Russia.

At two in the morning, an imperial family waits in a dimly lit cellar with

doctor and three servants.

They are prisoners, expecting to be moved.

Suddenly, armed men burst in and open fire.

Why have the Tsar of all the Russians and his family been massacred.

July 1918, the Patiev House, Ekaterinburg.

This is the latest prison for Russia's deposed Tsar and his family.

For more than a year, they have been moved around his former empire as it

collapses into civil war.

The new communist government has determined that forces loyal to the Tsar

not rescue him and use him as a figurehead to overthrow its new regime.

Finally, at Ekaterinburg, about 500 miles west of Moscow, it seems that this

might be about to happen.

Anti -communist white Russian troops are closing in.

Some Bolsheviks argue that the royal family is becoming too dangerous to be

alive.

November 1st, 1894, St. Petersburg.

The bitter road which will lead to this crisis begins as Nicholas II becomes

Tsar.

Within weeks, he marries the strong -willed Princess Alexandra of Hesse

-Darmstadt. The couple have four daughters.

The Grand Duchess is Maria, Olga, Tatyana, Anastasia,

and finally, in 1904, her son, the Tsarevich Alexei.

Tragically, he turns out to be haemophiliac.

The royal children live an idyllic existence.

Playing with carefully selected courtiers, and totally cocooned from the

increasingly difficult political situation that confronts their father.

For Nicholas is weak and indecisive, and frequently dominated by his wife.

Both are convinced of his right to be an absolute ruler, but the number of

people who question this is growing rapidly.

For more than 300 years, the Romanovs have ruled without any constraints.

There is no council or parliament.

All ministers are responsible to the Tsar alone.

And his rule is secured by the largest army in the world and a huge secret

police apparatus.

The autocracy of the Tsar is also supported by the Russian Orthodox

which regards him as divinely appointed.

But Russia is beginning to develop industry, and a middle class which

greater freedom.

By 1904, rising unrest prompts the Tsar to try to divert popular attention by

provoking a war with Japan.

But when the Imperial fleet sails halfway round the world from European

confront the Japanese, it is annihilated.

at the Battle of Tsuchima.

News of this humiliating defeat leads to open rebellion.

Workers in St. Petersburg and Moscow hold protest meetings and strikes.

January 22, 1905, St. Petersburg.

On Bloody Sunday, Several hundred peaceful protesters are shot down in

the Tsar's Winter Palace.

Order is only restored when the Tsar agrees to allow a Duma, or elected

parliament.

But this is soon sidelined, and massive repression resumes.

Among those who flee abroad is Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

the Marxist leader who will one day prove the Tsar's nemesis.

He goes to London and becomes the nucleus of revolutionaries intent on

overthrowing the Romanovs.

August the 1st, 1914, Vienna.

The last act in the downfall of the Romanovs begins.

as Austria -Hungary declares war on Serbia following the assassination of

Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife.

An insignificant local incident in the Balkans then spirals inexorably into a

world war.

Russia mobilizes in support of its fellow Serbian Slavs, prompting Austria

-Hungary's ally Germany to declare war on Russia.

Russia's mobilization of its vast forces is unexpectedly quick.

Within a week, two armies are thrusting into Prussia, the vulnerable eastern

province of Germany.

But they are both outmaneuvered and utterly defeated by the German generals

von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff at the Battle of Tannenberg.

Then, in early summer 1915, a massive German and Austro -Hungarian offensive

occupies Russian -controlled Poland.

September 5, 1915, Petrograd, formerly St. Petersburg.

Following these debacle, the Tsar takes personal command of the army and leaves

the capital for a headquarters nearer the front.

Unfortunately, his wife is left in Petrograd under the malign influence of

evil monk, Rasputin, and this further antagonizes the country.

But the military disasters continue, and there is growing discontent caused by

the defeat and increasing hardships and food shortages at home.

The winter of 1916 is bitter.

and food supplies to most of the major cities break down.

Early in March 1917, crowds queuing for food start rioting.

March the 10th, 1917, Petrograd.

Workers go on strike, marching through the streets with banners saying, Down

with the war.

From his headquarters near the front, Nicholas demands that the disturbances

put down by force, but yet again the Tsar is completely out of touch with

reality.

March the 12th, 1917, Petrograd.

Troops refuse to fire on the demonstrators and then mutiny and join

The Duma sets up a provisional government which demands the abdication

Tsar.

March the 15th, 1917, Pskov.

In a railway siding on the way back to Petrograd, Nicholas abdicates.

and control passes to the provisional government increasingly dominated by the

charismatic Social Democrat Alexander Kerensky.

When the news of the downfall of the Tsar reaches him, Vladimir Lenin is in

Switzerland.

Knowing that he is implacably opposed to Russia continuing to fight, the Germans

arrange for Lenin to be secretly transported in a sealed train back to

homeland via neutral Sweden and Finland.

On April the 16th, Lenin gets back to the Finland station in Petrograd.

He immediately begins undermining the parties trying to establish a liberal

democratic government by promising peace, land and bread.

While these political maneuverings are going on, the Tsar and his family are

placed under house arrest at the summer palace at Tsarskoe Selo, near Petrograd.

At first, the provisional government tries to continue fighting the Germans.

But yet another unsuccessful offensive in June 1917 leads to another army

and political chaos.

Ostensibly to keep the royal family safe, it's moved 1400 miles east to the

remote town of Tobolsk, beyond the Urals in Siberia.

Conditions are fairly relaxed.

The Tsar cycles in the ground.

And two of the princesses pose with their guards after their heads have been

shaved following an attack of measles.

Meanwhile, Popular hatred of the war causes a collapse in support for the

provisional government.

And the Bolsheviks achieve majorities in the elections for local governing

bodies, the Soviets, in Petrograd and Moscow.

Announcing that the time is now ripe for a takeover of power, Lenin makes his

move.

November 7th, 1917, Petrograd.

The firing of a gun on the cruiser Aurora signals an armed uprising.

Bolshevik Red Guard seize key points in the city and then occupy the Winter

Palace where the provisional government is meeting.

Kerensky flees abroad and Lenin seizes power.

As a symbolic break with the previous regime, the Bolsheviks moved their

to Moscow.

But in reality, they control little of the country and now provide a focus for

all parties which oppose the dictatorship of the proletariat, whether

they wish to see the Tsar restored.

The immediate effect of this upheaval on the imperial prisoners in Tobolsk is

that conditions become stricter and there is talk of putting the Tsar on

In March 1918, the Bolsheviks deliver on their promise to bring peace.

Leon Trotsky negotiates the Treaty of Brest -Litovsk with the Germans.

The price paid is considerable.

Poland and the Ukraine are ceded to Germany, and imperial troops advance to

occupy them.

The Bolsheviks are now faced with civil war.

as white Russian opponents of their regime begin to advance on Moscow and

Petrograd.

Russia's former allies are quick to send forces to help the whites.

British and French troops arrive in the northern port of Murmansk and at the

Black Sea port, while Japanese and US

forces move into Vladivostok and the far eastern regions.

Soon there is widespread but sporadic fighting with the Bolsheviks pinned in

area based on Moscow and Petrograd, but stretching east to the Europe.

It is against this chaotic background that the Romanov family is moved with a

few servants in April 1918 to a Bolshevik stronghold, Ekaterinburg, some

miles east of Moscow on the Trans -Siberian Railway.

In Ekaterinburg, they are imprisoned in a substantial mansion known as the

Hypatia House, after its former owner.

For added security, the local Bolsheviks put a wooden palisade around the house.

They also give it an ominous new name, the House of Special Purpose.

In this time of chaos in Russia, One of the few professional armed forces still

left after the collapse of the old Imperial Army is a corps of some 60 ,000

Czechs.

They had been recruited by the Russians to fight for Czech independence against

Austria -Hungary.

And following the peace of Brest -Litovsk, the Bolsheviks had promised

passage back to their homeland, but the long way round.

so as to avoid the Germans, via the Trans -Siberian railway to Vladivostok

then a sea voyage to Europe.

But as the Czech legion is travelling eastwards along the Trans -Siberian, the

Bolsheviks renege on their promise and begin trying to disarm and arrest them.

The Czechs promptly team up with the local white Russian forces, about to

and start to fight their way back along the Trans -Siberian.

By the beginning of July, their advance units are beginning to approach

Ekaterinburg.

A decision is made that the Romanovs must not be allowed to fall into their

hands.

July the 4th, 1918, Ekaterinburg.

Yakov Yurovsky, a former shoemaker who had become an ardent Bolshevik, A member

of their newly formed secret police, the Cheka, takes charge of the Apatiev

house.

Eight days later, the leader of the Bolsheviks in the Ekaterinburg area is

called to Moscow.

Whether he is specifically instructed by Lenin to execute the Romanovs, or

whether he is simply told to make sure they don't fall into white Russian

is not known.

All that is sure is that a fatal decision has been taken, and the

the killing of Nicholas II and his family has begun.

July 16th, 1918.

The Patieff House, Ekaterinburg.

It is a routine day for the imprisoned Romanovs.

Some of them are seen relaxing in the grounds.

But in the early hours of the next morning, shots are heard coming from the

house.

And later that day, the British Consul General in Moscow receives a telephone

call from the Soviet Foreign Office telling him that the Tsar has been

July 18, 1918, Moscow.

The assassination of the Tsar is confirmed by a communique from the

Soviet news agency.

This states that the Tsar has been shot and that the wife and son of Nicholas

have been sent to a safe place.

July 25, 1918, Ekaterinburg.

White Russian forces capture the town.

An immediate investigation into the fate of the Romanovs is begun.

In the Apatios house, a cellar is found to have 27 bullet holes in the walls,

some with the bullets still embedded in them.

The floor has been washed, as if to remove bloodstains.

The inhabitants of a village 13 miles from the town report strange activities

a Red Army squad early on the morning of July the 17th.

The investigators go to a deserted mineshaft nearby, called the Four

There they find some charred clothing and a handbag, together with some

jewellery and a pair of false teeth, which are identified as belonging to the

Tsar's doctor, Yevgeny Botkin.

This investigation concludes that the Tsar and some other members of his

entourage have been killed at the Apatiev house, but that the rest of the

family... has been spirited away.

There are reports of a sealed train leaving Ekaterinburg for Perm, about 200

miles to the northwest.

Have the rest of the family been on board?

Surprisingly, this is not what the white leadership wants to hear.

Most are ambitious to defeat the Bolsheviks and take control of Russia.

A martyred imperial family will be a fine rallying point and proof of the

depravity of their enemies.

Searching for a missing family will be a distraction.

So another investigation is ordered. More burnt clothing and bones are found

the mine, and a coded telegram is discovered at the Ekaterinburg telegraph

office, apparently sent to the Kremlin by the head of the local Soviet.

It reads, The entire family suffered the same fate as its head.

Officially, the family will perish in evacuation.

Although some doubt is cast on its authenticity, the telegram is taken as

decisive proof that all the imperial family has been murdered and their

disposed of either by burning or acid.

The Bolsheviks are only too happy to let the matter rest, so this becomes the

official story of the fate of the Tsarist family for the next 70 years.

But in 1989, as the Soviet Union begins to collapse, a vital document is

released from the Soviet State Archives.

It is the secret report written by Yakov Yurovsky in 1920 and then buried in the

vault. This finally reveals what really happened.

July 16, 1918, the Apatiev House.

During the evening, Yurovsky selects ten men of the local militia and tells them

that the Roman officer to be executed that night in the cellar below the

A truck will be coming at midnight to take the bodies away, but the family

not be taken to the killing room until it has arrived.

At 11 in the evening, Yurovsky gathers the murder squad again and distributes

pistols and ammunition.

The room is small, and there would not be space to use rifles.

It is not until well after midnight that the truck finally arrives.

Yurovsky goes upstairs to wake the Romanovs and their servants.

He tells them that they are being moved to a place of greater safety because

there is fighting in the tower.

The prisoners finish dressing just before two in the morning.

Yurovsky leads them down into the cellar to a small empty room at the back.

The eleven crowd in, the Tsar and the Tsarina.

Their four daughters and son, their doctor, Yevgeny Botkin, lady -in

Anna Dimidova, cook, Ivan Karitonov, and footman, Alexei Tup.

The Tsar asks for chairs and two of them.

The Tsarina takes one and his son the other.

Yurovsky then leaves them alone.

At 2 .30, Yurovsky comes back in.

followed by the ten militiamen.

Yurovsky hurriedly tells the Tsar that because attempts are being made to

them, he and his family are to be executed.

The Tsar does not understand and says, What? What?

as Yurovsky shoots him and then the Tsarevich Alexei.

The militia then open fire chaotically and the prisoners begin to run around

screaming. The bullets seem to be bouncing off the bodies of the

They are finished off with bayonets.

But Tsarevich Alexei is still moving, so he is killed with three more shots.

The bodies are taken out to the truck, which then drives off, apparently to

them at a disused mine north of the town.

When the truck reaches the mine, the bodies are stripped so that the clothes

be burned.

It is then discovered that the princesses had diamonds thrown into

bodices, which was why the bullets had appeared to bounce off them.

The mine turns out to be too waterlogged, so the bodies are then

into the forest.

When the truck becomes bogged down, a pit is hastily dug by the road.

Most of the bodies are thrown into this and covered with acid.

An attempt is made to burn those of Alexei and one of the daughters beside

pit.

Then the grave is filled with rubble, covered over with railway sleepers, and

then earth.

In July 1991, the grave is located, under railway sleepers, just as Yurovsky

stated.

Inside are the badly crushed remains of nine bodies.

Those of Alexei and one of the daughters, either Maria or Anastasia,

missing.

When DNA samples are matched with surviving relatives of the Romanovs,

be little doubt that most of the missing family has been found.

And this is backed up when computer reconstructions are used to match the

with photographs of the Tsar and his family.

The remains of the last Tsar of Russia and his family are finally reburied in

St. Petersburg Cathedral in 1995.

And then in 2007, two more bodies are found near the pit, almost certainly the

two missing children.

It has taken almost 90 years to discover the true facts about the assassination

of Tsar Nicholas II and the gruesome murder of his family.

Amid the chaos of the Russian Civil War, the Tsar was too powerful as an

imperial figurehead for Lenin to allow him to live.

But the rest of the slaughter was a cruel and unnecessary tragedy.