Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, his wife Tsaritsa Alexandra, their four daughters and son, a portrait of the Russian imperial family in 'An Ambassador's Memoirs' by Maurice Paléologue, the last French Ambassador to the Russian Court.
The Imperial Family
"When all were assembled, Yurovsky reentered the room, followed by his entire Cheka squad carrying revolvers. He stepped forward and declared quickly, 'Your relations have tried to save you. They have failed, and we must now shoot you.'Nicholas, his arm still around Alexis, began to rise from his chair to protect his wife and son. He had just time to say 'What . . . ?' before Yurovsky pointed his revolver at the Tsar's head and fired. Nicholas died instantly. At this signal, the entire squad of executioners began to shoot. Alexandra had time only to raise her hand and make the sign of the cross before she too was killed by a single bullet. Olga, Tatiana, and Marie, standing behind their mother, were hit and died quickly. . . .The room, filled with the smoke and stench of gunpowder, became suddenly quiet. Blood was running in streams from the bodies on the floor. Then there was a movement and a low groan. Alexis, lying on the floor still in the arms of the Tsar, feebly moved his hand to clutch his father's coat. Savagely, one of the executioners kicked the Tsarevich in the head with his heavy boot. Yurovsky stepped up and fired two shots into the boy's ear. Just at that moment, Anastasia, who had only fainted, regained consciousness and screamed. With bayonets and rifle butts, the entire band turned on her. In a moment, she too lay still. It was ended."
The execution of former Russian Tsar Nicholas II and his family, early in the morning of July 17, 1918 in Ekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains. The immediate decision had been made by the Presidium of the Divisional Council of Deputies of Workmen, Peasants, and Red Guards of the Urals on the grounds that Czech soldiers and a White Guard plot threatened the carry off the Imperial family. The decision was endorsed by the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of all the Russias on July 18. It would be a year before the Bolsheviks would admit that the entire family, not just Nicholas, had been executed.
Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie by Robert K. Massie, page 517, copyright © 1967, renewed 1995 by Robert K. Massie, publisher: Random House, publication date: 2011
1918-07-17, 1918, July, Nicholas, Tsar Nicholas, Nicholas and Alexandra, Romanoff, Romanov, Russian Imperial Family
