page_title: Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia
section_title: Death
hierarchical_section_title: Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia / Death
caption_attribution_description: English: Alexis Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, and his sister, Grand Duchess Tatiana in the Park at Tsarskoe Selo. Photograph shows the prince and princess sitting (with shovels) in the foreground, Russian soldiers in the background. Alexei Nikolaevich and Tataiana Nikolaevna under House Arrest and strict Surveillance at the Edge of the Palace Grounds (Tsarskoe Selo, 1917) - Pierre Gilliard, The Last Days of the Romanovs, Fotomuseum
context_page_description: Alexei Nikolaevich of the House of Romanov, was the last Tsesarevich and heir apparent to the throne of the Russian Empire. He was the youngest child and only son of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. He was born with haemophilia, which his parents tried treating with the methods of faith healer Grigori Rasputin.
  After the February Revolution of 1917, he and his family were sent into internal exile in Tobolsk, Siberia. Soon after the Bolsheviks took power, he and his entire family were murdered, together with three retainers. This was ordered during the Russian Civil War by the Bolshevik government. Rumors persisted that he and a sister had survived until the 2007 discovery of his and one of his sisters' remains. On 17 July 1998, the eightieth anniversary of the execution, his parents and three sisters, along with their faithful retainers, were formally interred in the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul. Alexei and his sister Maria are still not buried. The family was canonized as passion bearers by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000.
context_section_description: The Tsesarevich was less than a month shy of his fourteenth birthday when he was murdered on 17 July 1918 in the cellar room of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg (which may also be spelled as: Ekaterinburg).  The killings were carried out by forces of the Bolshevik secret police under Yakov Yurovsky. According to one account of the execution, the family was told to get up and get dressed in the middle of the night because they were going to be moved. Nicholas II carried Alexei to the cellar room. His mother asked for chairs to be brought so that she and Alexei could sit down. When the family and their servants were settled, Yurovsky announced that they were to be executed. The firing squad first killed Nicholas, the Tsarina, and the two male servants. Alexei remained sitting in the chair, "terrified," before the assassins turned on him and shot at him repeatedly. The boy remained alive and the killers tried to stab him multiple times with bayonets. "Nothing seemed to work," wrote Yurovsky later. "Though injured, he continued to live." Unbeknownst to the killing squad, the Tsarevich's torso was protected by a shirt wrapped in precious gems that he wore beneath his tunic. Finally Yurovsky fired two shots into the boy's head, and he fell silent.
  For decades (until all the bodies were found and identified, see below) conspiracy theorists suggested that one or more of the family somehow survived the slaughter. Several people claimed to be surviving members of the Romanov family following the assassinations. People who have pretended to be the Tsarevich include: Alexei Poutziato, Joseph Veres, Heino Tammet, Michael Goleniewski and Vassili Filatov. However, scientists considered it extremely unlikely that he escaped death, due to his lifelong hemophilia.
caption: Tsesarevich Alexei in his army uniform with sister Tatiana in 1917.
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