It took twenty minutes to kill the Romanovs. So many bullets had been fired on Tsar Nicholas II, that the room filled up with smoke and the gunmen couldn't see the rest of the family. The children—the Grand Duchesses Olga, Anastasia, Tatiana, Maria and the young Tsarevich Alexei—had diamonds sewed into their clothes that caused the bullets to ricochet. The firing squad instead tried to finish the survivors off with bayonets. They even shot the dogs, though one, a spaniel named Joy, escaped, and was found days later in the woods by a British soldier. Joy ended his days in comfort in England, and is buried by Windsor castle, a fitting end for the sole surviving member of the Russian royal family.
Read Full Article »