The Suspicious Deaths of the Romanovs

Profile: Alexei Romanov

Date of birth: 12 August 1904

Date of death: 17th July 1918 (aged 13)

Location of death: Yekaterinburg, Russia

Cause of death: Murder, by the Bolsheviks

Titles: Tsesarevich

Father: Tsar Nicholas II

Mother: Empress Alexandra

Siblings: Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia

Personality traits: thoughtful, imaginative, philosophical, intelligent, shy, spoilt, active but cautious, slightly mischievous, compassionate, easily attached, kind-hearted, capable, independent

During the revolution: When the family was held at Tobolsk Alexei commonly complained of being bored and often took to writing in a journal. His thoughts, like his sisters', turned towards religion, but he was fortunate in that the guards allowed him to befriend a couple of local boys during his time imprisoned.

However, even with the support of friends and family, Alexei became reckless to the point of injuring himself on purpose. One day the young boy sled down the stairs of the prison-house, and haemorrhaged so violently that he could not move with his parents to Yekaterinburg. The guards allowed his condition to stabilise before moving him to his final home, but he still spent the remainder of his days in a wheelchair.

He was only thirteen.

On that final night in the Ipatiev House, Alexei's one remaining friend was sent away from the house for his own safety, leaving Alexei feeling more alone and lost than ever. In that cellar Alexei and his mother were granted one small kindness: as their physical health had deteriorated quite significantly, both were given chairs for their executions.

What the guards didn't know was that Alexei, as well as his sisters, had diamonds sewn into his clothes. So the poor young boy was sat there, unable to move, as he watched his father, then his mother, and then two loyal servants and friends of the family, die right beside him. As the assassins turned their gunfire on him, he stared wide-eyed like a deer in the headlights, but he wouldn't die. The head executioner, Yurovsky himself, was horrified at Alexei's seeming refusal to collapse. In the end, more out of frustration than pity, Yurovsky claimed to have shot Alexei twice in the head.

There are several men over the years who have claimed to be the Tsesarevich: Vassili Filatov, Michael Goleniewsk, Joseph Veres, Alexei Poutziato, and Heino Tammet to name a few.

Sadly, of all of the Romanovs, Alexei is the least likely to have survived. He had no potential romantic interest to save him, no adult friend to help him, and any attempts to escape would have been fraught with difficulties simply due to his haemophilia. All it would have taken would have been an awkward fall, a bad graze or an irritation of a previous injury to incapacitate him. As it was, by the time he reached Yekaterinburg he was already stuck in a chair. This would have made any chance of escape even more desperate, even more complicated.

This poor frail prince likely died, terrified.