Ekaterinburg, July 17, 1918. In the infamous "Ipatiev House" (also known as the House of Special Purpose), a building that stood out for its elegance amid the surrounding industrial landscape and was hidden from view by tall wooden palisades, a man was awakened by uniformed men and, along with his family, was ordered to prepare quickly. The man with a thick beard and light blue eyes, dressed in his finest clothes. Then, with all the love a father could have, he woke his son and carried him out of the room in his arms, as the boy suffered from hemophilia. The two were Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarevich Alexei—or rather, the former Tsar and former Tsarevich—since Nicholas had abdicated a year earlier in an attempt to prevent the events of the October Revolution of 1917-18 from spiraling further out of control.  

From that moment on, he and his family had been treated progressively worse until they found themselves, on the night of July 17, 1918, in the Ipatiev House—victims of their captors’ cruelty and completely isolated from the rest of Russia. Once the former imperial family — Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, Alexei, and his sisters — was ready, Yakov Yurovsky, the house commander, used the excuse that the Romanovs' safety was at risk due to the approaching Mensheviks. He ordered them to take their luggage and led them to a cold basement, claiming that they would soon be transferred to another safe house. Nicholas, issuing what would be his last command, requested two chairs: one for himself (as Alexei sat on his lap) and another for his wife. The daughters and two servants stood around them.  

Yurovsky instructed them to pose, under the pretense of taking a photograph before their departure—an explanation that seemed credible, as Nicholas II had a passion for photography. However, instead of capturing an image, Yurovsky read out the death sentence issued by the Petrograd Soviet against the Tsar and his family. In disbelief, Nicholas could only utter, "What? What?" before he was the first to be struck by gunfire, collapsing to the ground. His family soon followed, some finished off with bayonets.  

Thus ended the 300-year reign of the Romanov dynasty.