It was on this day in 1918 that Their Imperial Majesties Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra, their children and family doctor were brutally murdered by the Bolshevik captors on orders from the communist dictator Vladimir Lenin. This was one of the most unspeakable crimes in history and is made all the more painful by virtue of the fact that, unlike other royal martyrs, we have a great deal of information about every family member, we have photos of them and even a few moving pictures. We are able to more greatly feel like we know them. They also endured their suffering and death as a family. There simply are not words for me to express what an unspeakable horror this was and is one of the few historical events that never fails to make me emotional. May all of them rest in peace.
Their Imperial Majesties are now canonised along with the God-annointed Tsarevich and Tsarevnas. By their prayers may Russia repent of republicanisma nd Bolshevism and restore the Romanov dynasty and the monarchy.
ReplyDeleteAmen! Let Russia be once more "Holy Russia".
ReplyDeleteHoly Royal Martyrs of Russia pray for us!
ReplyDeleteThey did not die in vain. There will come a day when there is a Tsar in Russia. That is the day Holy Russia will be reborn. The ringing of Church bells shall sound once again through out the Russian land. And cossacks will proudly ride through the countryside. All men who consider themselves patriots must march forward proudly under the Tsarist Flag. And let there rallying cry be that of their ancestors. For Faith,Tsar and Motherland !
ReplyDeleteThis was indeed an unspeakable outrage. What more can one say?
ReplyDeleteI am in agreement with all here and also add my prayers for such a restoration. The Romanov Murders were an Atrocity that was completely uncalled for, especially given hat the Reds held the Power then already, and only harmed the Immortal Fabric of Mother Russia.
ReplyDeleteAs with the Violence of the other Revolution recently Celebrated in once Devout France, the age of Enlightenment and Freedom brought by Republicanism was, in reality, the loss of Freedom and Morality, and began the long march to Ruin. May both be Restored.
Heck, may all of Europe then the world be Restored, and let Russia lead the way in Light and Promise.
I cannot say more. For the reasons mentioned above this atrocity just seems to effect me more than others. I simply do not have the words to fully express my feelings on the subject.
ReplyDeleteMad Monarchist, perhaps a more complete picture of thes brutal (and they were brutal) murders can help.
ReplyDeleteTo begin with, it was the Russian Civil War, and the Whites (which was basically an alliance of everyone who wasn't bolshevik) were approachin Ekaterinberg, where the Imperial Family was being kept at Ipatiev House.
Secretly, a communist officer had written to the Emperor, in French, posing as a rescuer and asking for a way to rescue His Majesty (His Majesty replied by saying a window was unlocked, as I recall). The communist officer then used this as "incriminating evidence" against the Emperor, and sent it to the Ural Soviet so that they could approve an execution sentence.
Therefore, unlike previous revolutions, where the monarch, if being executed, was at least tried openly, the Emperor (and his entire family) were sentenced without ever seeing the evidence against them (trumped up as it was), and without being able to answer their accusers. Therefore, we have an unprecedented miscarriage of justice.
Then, there came the actual execution. The Ural Soviet was known for being very extreme, and as such, had no qualms about ordering the execution. However, the entire thing was botched. Not only did the daughters apparently survive the hail of bullets (and I have even heard the Alexei too was alive), but they had to be bayonetted to death.
Therefore, we see a cruel death inflicted upon people who have already been denied natural justice (salt in the wound).
And finally, we have the way the bodies were treated. The bolsheviks had a little problem of disposing the bodies, because if there were evidence, it could be a rallying cry for loyalists over the country, especially if it were known that the entire family had been killed (the murders weren't officially acknowledged in their entirety until several years after, and then used as a badge of pride - a grave insult). Thus, they threw acid on the bodies to prevent identification, tried to cremate them, and then buried them in a mass grave with no markers, and not even a coffin.
That was just insult to injury that they weren't even treated to even a modest burial in a marked grave.
I still remember catching a glimpse of a movie (possibly Dr Zhavago) where an aristocrat, upon coming home to find his property "confiscated in the name of the people" and boarded up, grabbed a shovel (I believe), and charged to break off the boards crying "I'm one of the people too!"
The inconsistency, arrogance, and injustice of it all leaves me with a cold rage. I can only regard such people with contempt and pity.
Rest in peace, Blessed Nicholas, Alexandra, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexei. May angels bear you to God's Kingdom and Peace.
I think that was Dr Zhivago. I've had the conversation before about the threat of the approaching White forces, and that does underline the immense symbolic importance of the Tsar and the guilt the communists knew of their regime. However, I cannot get over the fact that the Romanovs were utterly helpless, they were completely within the power of their captors and then of course there were the children who were total innocents of any real or imagine crime or mistake. They did have a quicker end than the poor little Dauphin of France (though as you say it was ugly, none were killed instantly and the officer in charge finished them off with a pistol to the head) but I think it stands out a little more than what happened in France because it was more recent and we have so much more "media" for lack of a better word about them all. I cannot comprehend anyone being capable of such an atrocity it was absolutely - satanic.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem more tragic then, and it seems so very odd that all the Revolutions have osme connection tp July. The 4th of July is when the Declaration of Independance was SIgned in America, and Celibrated as Independance Day, Bastille Day in France Commemorates the beginning of their Revolution, and the Assassination of the Ryal Family under Pretence happened shortly after.
ReplyDeleteIs July the Month of Sorrows then? It is more Tragic still that tis month is named to Honour Julius Caeser, his most excellent Majesty of the Romans. ( Though never actually Emperor.)
It is also an odd thing, for I was born in this month, in fact on the 4th of July.
I think that my Revolutionary Zeal is expected, and it is so very odd that I am a Reactionary.
I think you should sue Oliver Stone for a million dollars ;) July 4 is not *too* bad, it was fairly tame as far as revolutions go (not really a revolution at all to be technical about it). The rest of my countrymen may have abandoned me after WW1 but I still refuse to celebrate the 4th out of respect to defeated at Vicksburg and more significantly because the independence day of my country is March 2. July 4, 1776 changed nothing for this area which was a wild frontier of New Spain at the time.
ReplyDeleteYour mention of Julius Caesar makes me think again of how true it is that 'nice guys finish last'. If Julius Caesar had been fighting the American colonials or if he had been King of France or Czar of Russia things would likely have turned out quite differently, certainly in America where on several occasions it was only a lack of aggressiveness on the part of the British that allowed Washington to avoid disaster. Caesar would have crushed the rebels by any means necessary and slept soundly thereafter.
A note on the American revolution - while it didn't descend into total blood-letting, it wasn't as clean as most Americans might believe. To this day, not a dime has been paid to the Loyalists who were stripped of their properties and humiliated by the Continentals (I refuse to call them patriots).
ReplyDeleteTrue, the loyalists suffered greatly, the Indians who sided with the British even more. Property was confiscated, loyalists often jailed, assaulted, humiliated in public etc. All very terrible but a far cry from Madame l'Guillotine. My somewhat 'lighter' take though has less to do with the butcher's bill than with what was being attempted. There was no huge reaction against the existing social order, no social upheaval between the classes, no war on religion itself, no attempt to remake society as in France with a new calendar, renaming the months and setting a 10-day week and all of that sort of thing. The ruling elite before 1776 was still largely the ruling elite after. King George was still safe on his throne in London, he just lost a sizeable portion of his American colonies.
ReplyDeleteMay they rest in peace forever more...
ReplyDelete