Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich

Life events

1. Born — 1904

   Alexei Nikolaevich was born on 12 August 1904 (O.S. 30 July) at Peterhof Palace, St. Petersburg Governorate, the youngest of five children and only son of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna; his birth was met with public rejoicing across the empire as the first male heir after four daughters.

2. Baptized — 1904

   He was christened on 3 September 1904 in the chapel at Peterhof Palace; principal godparents were his paternal grandmother Empress Maria Feodorovna and his great-uncle Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, with King Edward VII and Kaiser Wilhelm II among the wider circle of honorary sponsors.

3. Other — 1912

   In October 1912 at Spała (then in Russian Poland), a hematoma in his upper thigh ruptured during a carriage ride, triggering a hemorrhage so severe that a medical bulletin announcing his impending death was published on 10 October; Alexei received the last sacraments on 8 October before unexpectedly recovering.

4. Other — 1915

   From 1915, when Nicholas II assumed personal command of the Russian Army, Alexei joined his father at Stavka (army headquarters in Mogilev) for extended periods, ate soldiers' black bread alongside the troops, and was promoted to the rank of lance corporal in 1916.

5. Imprisoned — 1917

   Following the February Revolution of 1917 and Nicholas II's abdication, the imperial family was placed under arrest and sent into internal exile at Tobolsk, Siberia; while confined there Alexei recorded in his diary that he was 'bored' and begged God to have 'mercy' on him.

6. Exiled — 1918

   In April 1918 the Bolsheviks transferred his parents and sister Maria to Yekaterinburg; a hemorrhage caused by a coughing fit — documented in Alexandra's diary entries from 30 March onward — prevented Alexei from traveling immediately, and he arrived weeks later confined to a wheelchair.

7. Martyred — 1918

   On 17 July 1918, Alexei was killed in the cellar of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg by Bolshevik secret police under Yakov Yurovsky, aged 13, together with his parents, four sisters, and four retainers; initial shots and bayonet stabs were deflected by gems sewn into his clothing, and Yurovsky finally fired two shots to his head.

8. Other — 2000

   The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad canonized Alexei and the entire imperial family as holy martyrs in 1981; the Russian Orthodox Church then canonized them as passion bearers (страстотерпцы, strastoterptsy) at the Jubilee Council in 2000.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Genetic analysis published in 2009 confirmed Alexei suffered from hemophilia B, an X-linked hereditary condition inherited through his mother Alexandra, who carried it via her maternal grandmother Queen Victoria — the so-called 'royal disease' of intermarried European dynasties. (certain)
• Alexei's partial remains were discovered on 23 August 2007 at a secondary bonfire site near Yekaterinburg; DNA testing published in March 2009 confirmed the bones as his and those of Grand Duchess Maria, completing the identification of the entire Romanov family. (certain)
• During the Ipatiev House execution, Alexei's torso was protected by a shirt wrapped in precious gems worn beneath his tunic; the improvised armor deflected bullets and bayonets until Yurovsky fired two shots to his head. (likely)
• During the near-fatal Spała crisis of October 1912, Rasputin sent a telegram from afar stating 'The little one will not die'; Alexei's temperature dropped within days and court physician Feodorov confirmed the recovery was 'wholly inexplicable, from a medical point of view.' (plausible)
• A diary recording Alexei's daily activities for January and February 1917, kept by his tutors in both French and English, is preserved in the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University within the Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna Papers. (certain)