On July 11, 1613, sixteen-year-old Mikhail Romanov was crowned Tsar of All Russia. So began the Romanov dynasty, which continued unbroken until July 16, 1918, when Nicholas II and his family were executed. Interestingly, Mikhail, the first Romanov, was found at the Ipatiev Monastery in Siberia where he'd taken refuge with his mother, and the last Romanov, Nicholas II, was murdered in the Ipatiev house located in the Siberian town of Yekaterinburg. A strange, circular journey that took the Romanov family from the heights of absolute power to the depths of total destruction.

During the 305 years of Romanov rule, an assortment of men and women held the throne. They ranged from the incompetent, like Peter III (1762) and Paul I (1796-1801), to the dynamic, like Peter the Great (1682-1695) and Catherine the Great (1762-1796). Tragedy seemed the family's constant companion. Ivan VI (1740-1741) spent his life in solitary confinement. Peter II (1727-1730) was beaten to death. Paul I (1796-1801) was strangled. Alexander II (1855-1881) bombed. Nicholas II (1894-1917) shot. But there was likewise unparalleled accomplishment as Russia was led from an isolated, agricultural state dependent solely on serfdom for its existence to an industrial, world power.

The dynasty fell on March 15,1917 when Nicholas II, facing a internal revolution that he could not stop and an external world war he could not win, signed his abdication. On March 22, 1917 Nicholas joined his wife, Alexandra, son, Alexei, and four daughters (Maria, Olga, Tatiana, and Anastasia) and together they were confined in the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo. The Provisional Government attempted to obtain asylum for the family in England. But King George V, Nicholas II's cousin, fearing a backlash from the English people, refused the request. The Provisional Government, fearing for the Tsar's safety, then moved the family west to Tobolsk, in Siberia. The family stayed there eight months, during which time the Provisional Government was overthrown by Lenin and the Bolsheviks in a bloodless coup that came to known as the October Revolution.

The family was then moved farther west, deeper into Siberia, to Yekaterinburg. There, they were surrounded by Red Bolsheviks and guarded by radical anti-Tsarists. The local Ural Soviet and the Central Moscow Committee, led by Lenin, finally made the decision to eliminate the entire family. On July 16, 1918 they were awakened in the middle of the night, taken to a basement room, and shot. Their bodies were eventually buried in a muddy roadway, beneath railroad ties, where they remained until 1979.

That was when a retired geologist, Alexander Avdonin, and a Russian filmmaker, Geli Ryabov, deduced where the burial site was located. But it was not until 1991 that the bones were exhumed. It took another three years to positively identify the remains through DNA analysis, and something shocking was learned. Only nine skeletons were in the grave. There should have been eleven. Two of Nicholas II's children were not there. Russian experts who examined the bones concluded, from photographic superimposition, that daughter, Maria, and son, Alexei, were missing. An American expert analyzed dental and bone specimens and independently determined the missing to be son, Alexei, and daughter, Anastasia. The debate over who was right raged for years and has, to this day, never been resolved. The only point that all agree upon is that the remains of two imperial children have never been found.

Even in death, the Romanovs generated controversy. While pathologists debated over their findings, the cities of Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg fought bitterly over where their final burial would occur. Tsars for centuries had been laid to rest in the cathedral at St. Petersburg, but Yekaterinburg argued that the family had died in Siberia and should be buried there as well. While these debates ensued, the bones of Nicholas II and his family languished on laboratory shelves, awaiting a decision. Finally, a Russian commission chose St. Petersburg and on July 16, 1998, the imperial family was entombed, with royal pomp and circumstance, alongside their ancestors. They were buried togther. Which is fitting, since all observers agree that in life they were a close, loving family.

And in death, so shall they remain.