Rare Last Photos Of The Romanovs

Tsar Nicholas II After His Abdication

Tsar Nicholas II is shown here in a field surrounded by soldiers after his forced abdication on March 15, 1917. He was the last Emperor of Russia, and his reign saw the fall of the Russian Empire from a great power of the world to economic and military collapse. Nicholas II earned the name Nicholas the Bloody for the events of the Khodynka Tragedy, Bloody Sunday, the violent suppression of the 1905 Revolution, his perceived responsibility for and defeat in the Japanese War, and the anti-Semitic pogroms common under his empire. The estimated 3.3 million Russians killed in World War I and the lack of food and supplies on the home front were ultimately the downfalls of the Romanov dynasty.

At Tsarskoye Selo Before Captivity

This photograph was taken at Tsarskoe Selo in 1916, about a year before the family would be held in captivity on the same grounds. Alexei sits between his mother Empress Alexandra, and father Tsar Nicholas II. Before Tsarskoe Selo was a prison for the Romanovs, the beautiful Alexander Palace and adjacent Alexander Park were a summer residence for the family. Visiting nobility would also stay in Tsarskoe Selo, which is located about fifteen miles south of the center of Saint Petersburg. After Bloody Sunday, Alexandra decided to make Alexander Palace the family’s permanent residence, since the Winter Palace was too dangerous.