Wednesday saw the sun come out and we arrived in Ekaterinburg where the Romanov Saga came to a terrible and bloody conclusion.     To make sense of what happens the following chronology may help…………

Downfall of Romanovs

9 Jan 1905           Bloody Sunday – Troops open fire on workers outside Winter Palace.

October 1905      General Strike led by Leon Trotsky

1906                      Elections Held – Duma formed

Tsar disbands Duma

1907                      Duma reinstated

Tsar disbands Duma again

1914 to 1918       First World War

1916                     Rasputin Murdered

February 1917   February Revolution

March 1917        Tsar Nicholas ll Abdicates

Royal Family Arrested

House Arrest at Tsarskoe Selo

August 1917       Transferred to Tobolsk in Siberia

October 1917     October Revolution

April 1918          Lenin returns to Petrograd (St Petersburg)

Nicholas, Alexandra & Maria Transported to Ekaterinburg

24 May 1918      Family reunited at Ipatyev House in Ekaterinburg

17 July 1918       Romanov family & servants massacred in basement of Ipatyev House

Bodies Dumped into Four Brothers Mine – Ganyna Yama – Site #1

18 July 1918       Bodies relocated and reburied in Forest – Site #2

1918 to 1922      Russian Civil War

1924                    Lenin Dies

1928                    Stalin announces first 5-year plan

1932 & 1933      Great Famine

1937 & 1938      Stalin’s Purges  – The Great Terror

1941 to 1945     Great Patriotic War (WWll)

1953                   Death of Stalin

1956                   Premier Khrushchev denounces Stalinism

1976                   Bones discovered in Forest

Sept 1977         Ipatyev House Demolished – directed by Boris Yeltsin

1991                  Boris Yeltsin as President – Fall of Communism

Remains finally excavated (excl: Alexei & Maria) – Site #2

1994                  Remains identified via DNA & Dental records

1998                  Remains formally buried in St Petersburg (excl: Alexei & Maria)

16 Aug 2000    Romanov Family Canonised as Martyrs

Sept 2000         Construction begins of Church on Blood on site of Ipatyev House

Oct 2000           Ganyna Yama Monastery founded – Construction commences

16 July 2003    Consecration of Church on Blood

2007                 Remains of Alexei & Maria unearthed – Site #3

2008                 Identifications completed

2017                 Remains of Alexei & Maria in State Archives in Moscow

Much controversy continues …………………

Russian Orthodox Church refuses to acknowledge authenticity of Sites # 2 & 3.   Church also refuses to confirm that the remains buried in St Petersburg are Romanovs !!    Apparently their “investigation” continues………………..

I am going to post this now while wi-fi holds up – Photos to follow……….