Alexei Nikolayevich Romanov

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Aleksei Nikolayevich Romanov (Алексе́й Никола́евич; August 12, 1904 - July 17, 1918) was the last Tsarevich of the Russian Empire. He was the fifth child and only son born from the marriage of Nicholas II and Alejandra Fyodorovna. His official title was His Imperial Highness of him, Tsarevich and Grand Duke of Russia . After the Russian Revolution of 1917, he and his family were assassinated on July 17, 1918 in Yekaterinburg.

Childhood

Alekséi (also known as Alejo due to the Spanish version of his name) was born on August 12, 1904 in the Peterhof Palace. His long-awaited birth greatly delighted his parents, who longed for the arrival of an heir to the imperial throne. His sisters were the grand duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia.

Days after he was born, on September 3, 1904, he was baptized in the Peterhof chapel. His main godparents were his grandmother, Dowager Empress Maria Fyodorovna; his great-uncle, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich; his sister Olga his; Christian IX of Denmark; Edward VII of the United Kingdom; and William II of Germany. In addition, since Russia was at war with Japan, all soldiers in the Russian army and navy were made honorary godparents. Countess Sophie Buxhoeveden narrated about the ceremony:

The baby lay on a pillow sprouted in gold, hung on the Princess's shoulders by a large gold band. It was covered with the heavy mantle of gold brocade, lined in armor, used by the heir of the crown. The mantle was held on the one hand by Prince Aleksandr Serguéievich Dolgorúkov, the great Marshal of the Court, and on the other by Count [Paul] Benckendorff, appointed by custom and wise caution. The baby cried out loud, as any normal baby would, when old Father Yanishev plunged him into the source. His four small sisters, with short dresses of Corte, watched with their eyes open the ceremony, Olga Nikoláievna, then nine, was in the important position of one of the godmothers. According to Russian custom, the Emperor and the Empress were not present at baptism, but immediately after the ceremony, the emperor went to the church. Both he and the empress always confessed to feel very nervous these times, for fear that the princess would fall, or that Father Yánishev, who was very old, could leave the baby in the background.

He was a great-grandson on his maternal line of Queen Victoria. There is still speculation as to whether the Tsarevich suffered from hemophilia or porphyria, a disease inherited from George III that causes a blood disorder (haemorrhagic, hemolytic anemia) similar to hemophilia, although evidence of other affected Queen Victoria descendants, have led us to think that hemophilia was the disease he suffered from, and that it caused some changes in European history, since his mother tried to alleviate his suffering by consulting Rasputin, who became the Tsarevich's main healer, and who asserted this situation for his later influences.

Because of this disease, every time he had an accident or a blow, the event became an ordeal for his parents and the long convalescences that followed conditioned his rather lonely childhood, since his mother did not like to let him play with other children for fear that they might hurt you. As his parents, probably due to his condition, spoiled him, he was at first a naughty boy but as he grew older and began to understand his situation, he became more thoughtful. There are indications that in his later years, he sought to hurt himself on purpose.

Life

Alekséi Nikoláyevich in 1916.

He was heir to the throne from his birth until 1917. In March of that year, when the February Revolution occurred, his father abdicated in his favor, but he immediately retracted and resigned in favor of his brother Michael IV of Russia, since that Alexei was not given more than six years to live due to his illness. In August 1917, he was exiled with his parents and sisters to Tobolsk, Siberia, and in the spring of the following year to Yekaterinburg. They were all assassinated by the Bolsheviks in the early morning of July 17, 1918 in the Ipatiev House. The young man was sitting on the tsar's knee when he was executed, and after being discovered alive, he was finished off with a shot to the head by his father's executioner, Yakov Yurovski.

The Zar and Alekséi cutting wood in Tobolsk, during his captivity (1918).

She would have turned fourteen on August 12 and died on July 17. At the time of the execution, the Tsarevich was disabled by a blow to his right knee, which caused him to spend his last days in bed.

Exhumation

After the dissolution of the USSR, the burial place of the imperial family came to light. So in 1991 the bodies were exhumed, but the remains were missing two of the eleven corpses that made up the royal family along with the other servants killed that night. After a thorough scientific study, it was discovered that the bodies were those of Alexei and Anastasia or Maria (his sisters). The tsarevich, along with the rest of the family, was canonized as a martyr by the Orthodox Church in 2000. In 2007, after secret documents from the former USSR were declassified, which allowed their discovery, the discovery was announced, in a forest near Yekaterinburg, from the bodies of Alexei and Maria, which, after DNA tests were carried out, were found to really belong to the Tsar's children. They were buried along with their parents and sisters in the Cathedral of St. Peter's Fortress and Saint Paul.

Awards

In his capacity as tsarevich and despite his short life, Alekséi received various decorations, awarded by various foreign governments, which follow in their form of graphic representation below these lines. The Russian decorations are arranged in order of priority within the hierarchy of the same in the empire. Note that with the awarding of the Order of Saint Andrew, the highest in the Empire, the Orders of Saint Alexander Nevski, the White Eagle, Saint Anne and Saint Stanislaus were also granted.