Russian History

1689 Peter the Great • Brought Western

ideas and culture to Russia. He even traveled thru western Europe and met with European leaders in disguise to experience their culture

1762 Catherine the Great• She cared about the

Russian people and built schools, hospitals, and granted them some religious freedom.

1894 Nicholas II• Crowned czar after his

father’s death.• He was forced to set up a

Duma (similar to Parliament)

• Last czar of Russia

1905 Bloody Sunday•Sunday, after church in January 1905 a group of protestors (many women and children) proceeded to the Winter Palace to demand from the Czar food and better working conditions. Upon reaching the entrance of the Palace the peasants were met by the czars’ police and decided to meander for awhile The police began to open fire on the crowd. When everything was over hundreds of people were dead (many women and children) and hundreds injured.

1914 Russia WW1On July 28, 1914 Russia was drawn into WW1 due to it’s alliance with Serbia.

1917 Czar abdicates throne •WW1 was not going well for the Russian people. Millions of soldiers were dying in battle on the Eastern Front. • Food shortages and fuel shortages were making the people angry•In March the people began to riot, but this time the police joined them instead of shooting them•The Czar is forced to give up his throne and flee with his family.

1917 Vladimir Lenin takes control• Germany helped him to

return to Russia• Nov. 1917 Lenin and his

followers (Bolsheviks) took over control of the government

• He died in 1924

1917 Russia leaves WW1 Lenin signed a peace agreement with Germany and Russia left WW1.

1917 Soviet Russia created

Lenin created a communist government

1924 Joseph Stalin• Took over after Lenin

died.• Dictator (absolute

power)• Sent millions of

Russians to Siberia, executed them

• 1939 signed agreement with Germany to not fight

• 1941 Germans invaded Russia WW2

• Died 1952

Rasputin the Mad Monk! and the Royal family

The last of the Czar’s- Royal Family of Russia

Execution of the Romanoff's • The family moved to a basement

room where they would be safer.• Told to line up for a family “photo

shoot” to prove to the Russian people that they were still being held by the Bolsheviks

• Executioners brought in from another room, each had his own target.

• The executioners fired into their victims, took bayonets to them, and stomped on the fallen bodies.

• The Czar’s wife and daughters took several bullets because of the jewels she had sewn into their clothes.

• The bodies were then loaded onto a truck, so the bodies could be disposed of in the nearby woods.

The Story Continues….• A short way through a clearing,

toward a cluster of birch trees, the killers deposited their victims' bodies, which had been mutilated, burned, and doused with acid to remove their identify.

• It would be 73 more years, in 1991, before their remains would be located and the announcement would ring out:

• The grave of the last Russian czar, Nicholas II, and his family had been found.

• But the story does not end there……..

• Eleven people in all lost their lives on the night of

• July 16, 1918. • The victims of the murder were:• Nicholas II – the Tsar• Alexandra – Nicholas' wife• Olga – the oldest she was 22• Tatiana – age 21• Maria – age 18• Anastasia – the youngest daughter at 17• Alexei – the son, 13 years of age at his death• Botkin – the family doctor• Trupp – Nicholas valet• Demidova – a maid• Kharitonov – the cook• family dog

• Eleven people were killed on Lenin's orders.

• But only nine sets of remains were dug up in the woods and authenticated using DNA.

• The remains of the czar's son, Alexei, and one daughter, whose identity was not absolutely clear, were missing.

• Did their bones lie elsewhere, or could it be that they had escaped execution, as rumored for so long?

• Only in the past few months have these questions, dating from the Russian Revolution, been answered.

• In the woods away from the road, about 70 yards from the first burial site, is a slightly elevated area among the trees.

• It is there that the remains of the bodies of Alexei, 13, and his sister, Maria, were found.

Finally in 2007………….