Chapter 23, Student Web Activities, Glencoe World History, Glencoe, 2003

Chapter 23: War and Revolution, 1914–1919
"The Last of the Romanovs"

Introduction
In July 1918, Bolshevik revolutionaries executed the last ruler of the Russian Empire, Nicholas II, along with his family. The execution of took place far from Moscow and St. Petersburg in distant Yekaterinburg in Siberia. The remains of these last Romanovs, the dynasty that had ruled Russia for centuries, were then scattered in burial sites in nearby forests. On July 17, 1998, almost exactly 80 years later, the remains of the tsar and his family were buried in a ceremony in St. Petersburg.

Title: The End of Imperial Rule
Destination Website: Death of a dynasty

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Directions

Read the July 1998 article, "Death of a dynasty," at the destination website. Take notes as you read. (Before your read the article, it is a good idea to briefly review Section 3 of Chapter 16 in your textbook.)

After you have read the Website article, answer the following questions.

After you have read the material, answer the following questions.

1. Did the tsar’s execution family occur because the people demanded it, because local officials and jailors decided to kill them, or because the heads of the new Communist state ordered the execution? Explain your reasoning.

2. Why were the bones discovered in 1991 shipped to Great Britain for DNA analysis?

3. What negative chain-of-events does journalist Robert Massie say resulted from the Romanovs’ execution?

4. In the Russian Orthodox Church, the bones of martyrs are found in many churches? How is this connected to the church’s interest in the Romanovs’ grave?

5. In this Web article, different words are used to refer to the death of the tsar and his family: execution, murder and massacre. What does each term suggest the reporter believes about the event and the new Communist state?