After Tsar Nicholas II and his family were executed by Bolshevik revolutionaries early on the morning of July 17, 1918, a collection of the royal family's personal photographs was smuggled out of Russia. The albums offer a haunting glimpse into the life of a family destined for tragedy.
(All photos courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.)
(Originally published on March 13, 2017)
(All photos courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.)
(Originally published on March 13, 2017)
![Tsar Nicholas II and his son Aleksei sawing wood while in captivity. They were killed a few months later. The diary of a senior Soviet leader recalls that Vladimir Lenin made the decision to have the Romanovs executed, after concluding "we shouldn't leave the [anti-Bolshevik forces] a living emblem to rally around, especially under the present difficult circumstances."](https://gdb.rferl.org/DB6A49EC-9B35-4AA6-8252-6F43B69656D3_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
