Ekaterinburg

This is the story of some of the most shocking murders of the 20th century - murders that changed the lives of millions of people, both inside Russia and beyond, and set their stamp on a violent century, initiating a new and cynical era of state-orchestrated terror, repression and genocide.

Ekaterinburg - The Last Days of the Romanovs focuses on the last 13 days in the lives of the Russian Imperial family: the Tsar and Tsarita, Nicholas and Alexandra, and their five children, Olga, Tatiana, Mariya, Anastasia and Alexey. It puts these last days of their incarceration at the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg under the microscope, from July 4th 1918 to the night of their savage murders on July 14, in a blaze of gunfire in a basement room.

Although a wealth of books has fanned the flame of the reading public's love affair with the Romanovs, many have over-romanticised the story, and there has been a plethora of conspiracy theories and false Anastasias as well as coffee-table accounts full of iconic photographs of Imperial Russia's courtly splendour. In contrast, Ekaterinburg - based on new evidence that has become available since the fall of communism - strips away the romanticism and focuses on the family imprisoned at the Ipatiev House, capturing its oppressive atmosphere and portraying a family group caught up in extraordinary events. As a counterpoint, the narrative cross-cuts to the wider dynamic of the Ekaterinburg Bolsheviks who plot the deaths, and the chain of command back to Moscow and Lenin himself. Wider European dimensions add context to the family's lives during those last days, and outline the impotence of European monarchies in intervening on the Romanovs' behalf.