I first became acquainted with the Romanovs (as historical figures, not the actual Romanovs) reading in middle school about Russian History. Later, someone turned me on to Massie’s Nicholas and Alexandra
That account does not describe a detail or two mentioned elsewhere, including the apparent fact that the Czar and his wife were shot but the daughters were killed with bayonets. I’m sure this is controversial, and the details are probably not all that important for the moment.
Anyway, after the removal of the primary iconic figures for the Czarists, the Revolution lived happily ever after.
Oh, but wait … not so fast.
For many years, rumors persisted that one or more of the Czar’s family had escaped assassination. You may remember various books, “documentaries,” movies, and so on in which one or more of these individuals survives. At least one person held the claim for many years that she was the Czar’s daughter, Anastasia. The most famous of these claims was made by a woman named Anna Anderson. Anderson died and was cremated in 1984, but subsequent analysis of her DNA .. on tissues stored at a hospital where she had received a medical procedure of some sort … showed that she was not one of th Romanov girls.
But still, when the Romanov grave was eventually located and excavated, the information about that coming to light in 1991, two individuals were clearly missing. One would have been the young boy, Alexei, and the other one of the girls.
During the summer of 2007, it was reported that a second grave site had been located by an amateur archaeologist, Sergei Plotnikov. The grave included the remains of two individuals who seemed to have the necessary characteristics to have been Alexei and whichever of the girls was missing from the other grave.
Then, almost one year later, in May 2008, it was reported by Russian officials that DNA evidence linked these two individuals to the Romanov family. From a report in the New York Times:
Now an official says DNA tests have solved the mystery by identifying bone shards found in a forest as those of Aleksei and his sister Grand Duchess Maria.
…
Researchers unearthed the bone shards last summer in a forest near Yekaterinburg, where the royal family was killed, and enlisted laboratories in Russia and the United States to conduct DNA tests.
Eduard Rossel, governor of the region 900 miles east of Moscow, said Wednesday that tests done by an American laboratory had identified the shards as those of Aleksei and Maria.
“This has confirmed that indeed it is the children,” he said. “We have now found the entire family.”
Mr. Rossel did not specify the laboratory, but a genetic research team working at the University of Massachusetts Medical School has been involved in the process.
Now, we have a paper coming out at this very moment in PLoS ONE: Mystery Solved: The Identification of the Two Missing Romanov Children Using DNA Analysis.
Initially, it was not clear from the report what the connection might be between the reports last year and the current paper. So I contacted the authors and found out that there is a connection, though it seems a bit complicated. The present paper includes members of a large international team that has worked on the forensics in this complicated case, and this paper is the “first full detailed, forensic accounting of the the Romanov family remains.” And it is quite a nice piece of work.
In this case two labs were involved, working semi-independently to replicate each other’s work. Each lab successfully extracted mitochondrial DNA. Also, both labs were able to amplify low levels of nuclear DNA to get a full Y-chromosomal profile from one of the bones in the sample, confirming that individuals to be a male. The Y chromosome profile from this bone sample matched a similar profile obtained from a tooth of the Czar, confirmed by matching up with a living Romanov cousin. In addition, the labs developed a 16 marker autosomal profile for each of the individuals from both of the graves. These results clearly demonstrate that this was a family group.
Going even farther the study reports the link between the DNA sampled form the grave and DNA sampled from a shirt bloodied with the Czar’s precious bodily fluids during an assassination attempt in 1891.
And so, the mystery is concluded. More or less.
Coble MD, Loreille OM, Wadhams MJ, Edson SM, Maynard K, et al. (2009). Mystery Solved: The Identification of the Two Missing Romanov Children Using DNA Analysis PLoS ONE, 4 (3)
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I am named after one of them. (You all know me by my ‘nickname’).
The mystery is not solved until DNA analysis clears me from being one of them.
There was a segment about the two lost children on the National Geographic Channel a few months ago. This news is hardly current, and it was already proven on the show.
Kat, this is the first peer viewed actual scientific report on this topic, so it is quite current. As i discuss in the body of the post, the results came out in the press prior to this date by about a year.
The National Geographic presentation was entitled “Finding Anastasia”. The work was done at 2 locations, but in my opinion the definitive work came from Dr. Coble’s group at AFDIL in Rockville Maryland. The remains, particularly from the second grave had been burned and treated with acid in an attempt 90 years ago to destroy the evidence. Recovering DNA profiles from these fragments required an extraordinary effort that few in the world could have completed successfully.
Cool study, and I just had the Russian Revolution in AP Euro, so it is a nice supplement.
Oh, and you forgot Rasputin :(, he is the weirdest guy in the entire story, his eyes are really creepy…
I could never forget Rasputin! But he was not killed in this event. His killing is a whole ‘nuther story. And in many ways, much much creepier….
“Rasputin” 🙂
Of course, they leave out the stabbing, the chains and the drowning. This also isn’t the version I know best, but who can resist the disco?
Technicaly, Nikolai Romanov was not a Tsar at the moment of his execution since he had abdicated the throne about ~1 year before that.
And Nikolai absolutely deserved his execution.
Though his children and wife most certainly did not.
He abdicated, yes, and people tend to forget that. I believe he passed his mantle on to his brother, who then abdicated (very soon after). This made Alexei the Czar.
Se houvese uma ligeira suspeita que Alexei filho do Czar, morou no Brasil e constituiu filhos, seria possÃvel um exame de DNA para constatar tal suspeita?
Sim, seria possÃvel, mas tatiana morreram na Rússia como uma criança.
I know my father was part of the royal family of Russia, I would like to know how I could get a DNA test. HE was smuggled out of Russia in 1918, he was of royal blood. My sister and I were protected with bodyguards our whole lives my father was alive. He tryed to tell us on his death bed, but he spoke in Russian, and we did not understand him. I only wish this because my sister and I feel like one half of us is missing, and we loved our father with all our hearts. We were his only family. Please help us !
olga (or sameone in her famyl) has got a noble girl baby.she sent her rasputins relatives in the wine basket (under the botles) They were take her bulgaria and they were give her a turkish family(bektashi religions((she did not make,join rutiels all her lifelong).the turkish family grove her.one day she maried and her husband and their 6 sun,2 douther migration turkey and she died in turkey. she reaplayed again and again “I am gallers princess”all her lifelong
I bless you
Na verdade, Alexie filho do Czar, morou no Brasil constituiu filhos, essa é a mais pura das verdades.
romanovs has got a noble girl baby.they sent the baby to rasputins relatives in the wine basket (under the botles) They were take her bulgaria and they were give her a turkish family(bektashi religions((she did not make,join rutiels all her lifelong).the turkish family grove her.one day she maried and her husband and their 6 suns,2 douthers went in turkey 1953 and she died in turkey. she said again and again “I am gallers princess”all her lifelong may be feodravna may be one of the OTMA members was mother ofthe baby who can belive but god knows
I bless you
Nadia, Did you get the information you need regarding a dna test?
DNA TEST AUTOSOMAL STR’s in WEB
http://mariaromanov.net46.net
MARIE MARTI IS MARIE ROMANOVA
Mr. Laden, the abdication did not include Alexei in the line of succession at all. When Nicholas abdicated, he abdicated in favor of his younger brother, Michael. Michael, in turn, abdicated in favor of the Russian people.
Atually, Nicholas abdicated in favor of his son, Alexei. So Alexei was tzar because whatever the tzar says goes. But then he changed his mind and abdicated in favor of his brother, but his brother refused to take the role until certain things happened which never happened, so he was never tzar. That means that Alexei was stuck with the job even if no one was really thinking that at the time.
I recently visited the church where the entire family was buried. My husband and I were so intrigued by the Romanov family that we’ve been reading whatever books we can find on them since we’ve returned home; even some fun conspiracy theories. How far was the family grave to where the 2 children were found?