| Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich Of Russia |
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His Imperial Highness Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia () ( August 12 , 1904 – July 17 , 1918 ), of the House of Romanov , was Tsesarevich of Russia and was the youngest child of Tsar Nicholas II Of Russia and Alexandra Fyodorovna . Also called '''Alyosha''' (Алёша) and '''Lyoshka''' (Лёшка) affectionately. LIFE ACCOUNT He was the youngest of five children, and the only boy. His older sisters were Grand Duchesses Olga , Tatiana , Maria and Anastasia . Alexei was reportedly closest to Anastasia out of all of his sisters. Alexei was christened at Peterhof on 24 August 1904 . His godparents were The Prince Of Wales , The Emperor Of Germany , and The Dowager Empress Of Russia . He inherited Haemophilia from his mother Alexandra, a condition which could be traced back to her maternal grandmother Queen Victoria . He was a month shy of his fourteenth birthday when he was executed on July 17 , 1918 in the cellar room of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg . The execution was carried out by forces of the Bolshevik secret police under Yakov Yurovsky . His body was missing, along with that of one his sisters, Marie, when the bodies were found. The missing bodies are thought to have been cremated instead of buried, although any reasons for cremation of some of the bodies are unknown. In 2000 , Alexei and his family were Canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church . HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE The significance of Alexei is threefold. Firstly, Alexei was the heir to the throne despite being the fifth and last child of Nicholas II and Alexandra. Women had been almost completely barred from the succession by Paul I ( 1754 - 1801 , ruled 1796 - 1801 ), in revenge upon his mother, Catherine II ('the Great'). Alexei was named after Alexis I Of Russia , who ruled from 1645 to 1676 , known as 'the quiet' and father of Peter The Great . In the first draft of Tsar Nicholas II's 1917 abdication, the intention was that the twelve year old Alexei would ascend to the throne under a regency. However, due to Nicholas' wish that Alexei should not be separated from the family, and in view of his crippling illness, the final draft included the abdication both of father and son in favour of Nicholas' younger brother Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich Of Russia , which Michael was unwilling to accept. Secondly, Alexei's Haemophilia was integral to the rise of Grigori Rasputin . One of the many things Rasputin did that unintentionally facilitated the fall of the Romanovs was to tell the Tsar that the war would be won once he (Czar Nicholas II) took command of the Russian Army. Following this advice was a serious mistake as the Tsar had no military experience. The tsaritsa, Empress Alexandra, a deeply religious woman, came to rely upon Grigori Rasputin and believe in his ability to help Alexei where conventional doctors had failed. This theme is explored in Robert K. Massie's ''" Nicholas And Alexandra "''. It is not too far-fetched to see that if Alexei had not suffered so terribly, Rasputin could never have gained such influence over Russian politics during the World War I , which at the very least hastened the collapse of Romanov rule. Lastly, caring for Alexei seriously diverted the attention of his father, Nicholas II, and the rest of the Romanovs from the business of war and government, which may have further compromised their control of the state and contributed to the Russian Revolution . EXTERNAL LINKS
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