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……….