107 years ago, the Romanov family, four faithful attendants, and their two beloved dogs, were shot and bayonetted to death in a small basement in Yekaterinburg.
A few weeks later, the children’s tutors discovered the scene of the murders. French language tutor Pierre Gilliard recalled in 1921: "I entered with intense emotion the room in which, perhaps, they had died. Its aspect was most sinister. Daylight came in through a window with iron bars across it. The walls and the floor bore marks of bullets and bayonet thrusts. It was quite obvious that a dreadful crime had been committed there, and that several people had been killed.”
Gilliard had tutored the Tsar’s children for over a decade, and was very fond of the five children. When he came to the basement, he asked himself: “And the children? Had they also been massacred? I could not believe it. The idea was too horrible. And yet everything seemed to prove that the victims had been numerous.”
Four faithful attendants were also murdered. Ivan Mikhailovich Kharitonov, 48, had been a cook to the Romanovs for over twenty years. Dr Yevgeny Sergeievich Botkin, 53, was the family’s physician and dedicated himself to treating Tsarina Alexandra’s chronic pain and Tsesarevich Alexei’s haemophilia attacks. Originally from Latvia, Aloise ‘Alexei’ Yegorovich Laurs Trupp, 62, had served as footman to the family for three decades. Anna Stepanovna Demidova, 40, was a lady’s maid, and was particularly fond of the young Grand Duchesses, who called her ‘Nyuta’.
Ortipo, the French bulldog owned by Grand Duchess Tatiana, and Jimmy, the tiny dog owned by Grand Duchess Anastasia, were also shot and bayonetted.
In 2000, the Romanov family, alongside their four loyal attendants, were canonised as martyrs.
SOURCES
📍Pierre Gilliard, ‘The Crime of Ekaterinburg’, Illustrated London News, 1 January 1921, courtesy of The British Library, The British Newspaper Archive [Accessed 17/07/2025]
Note: Whilst there is some debate as to whether Anastasia’s dog was called Jimmy or Jemmy, I have decided to use ‘Jimmy’, as this is closest to the spelling Alexandr
