100 years ago today a boy was murdered

100 years ago today, Czar Nicholas II and his entire family were executed in a bloody basement room.

Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik leader, ordered the murders. The tragedy of this murdered family paled in comparison to the tens of millions murders throughout communist history. Nicholas and his family were just the start decades of carnage because of the Communist Party.

Nicholas was incompetent at best. He was an inept demagogue. He was vain, isolated, and relatively stupid.

Romanovs also killed many people during their 300 year reign. Certainly I am not excusing the brutality of Russian life.

Nevertheless, the backstory was a personal family tragedy. They had five children and the youngest was the only boy.

He was born with hemophilia because of his mother, one of Queen Victoria‘s granddaughters.

The royal houses of Europe were ripe with first cousins marrying first cousins. Hemophilia was the result.

This personal tragedy was kept secret because of political implications.

As Nicholas and Alexandra cared for their son, they became even more isolated and out of touch. They tried everything. In a vain attempt to save their toddler’s life, they met the "mad monk" Rasputin.

Alexandra was convinced that he would save their son’s life. In the midst of this, World War I started.

As an aside, the three rulers at the start of the war were first cousins: Kaiser Wilhelm, King George of Great Britain, and Czar Nicholas. Cousins often fight at Thanksgiving, but these people had armies!


Nicholas was always incompetent as ruler. But leading his troops during the war was even worse. Indecisive and arrogant, Nicholas finally had to abdicate.

Unfortunately the damage was done. When Nicholas was leading his troops into defeat for years, Alexandra tried to govern. In reality, her sounding board was Rasputin. He was the puppet behind the throne. There were riots and famine. It got worse over time.

In this awful power vacuum, Lenin swooped in (fronted by Nicholas’s first cousin - yet enemy - Kaiser Wilhelm) and took control of the whole country.

 I have always been a Russian history buff. Hundred years ago today, a small family was murdered in basement.

It was a personal yet a political tragedy.

I often wonder about that little boy. He was murdered when he was 14 years old, shot in the head first, shot multiple times and then bayoneted.

My son is 13.

If Alexei Romanov had not been born with hemophilia, perhaps the whole world would’ve been different.

Perhaps. Idle speculation.