I thought y'all might be interested in a paper I did on this for college. You're also welcome to use this thread for further discussion about the event. I've attached the paper file as well, so that you have access to my many citations.
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THE COST OF CHANGE

"In view of the advance of the enemy on Ekaterinburg and the Cheka’s discovery of a significant White Guard plot having as its purpose the abduction of the former tsar and his family stop the documents are in our hands, by resolution of the Reg[ional] Soviet Presidium Nicholas Romanov has been shot stop his family has been evacuated to a safe place." So ran the telegram sent to Moscow to inform the Executive Committee of the execution of Tsar Nicholas II. Further developments, however, have shown that the tsar was not the only one executed on that fateful morning in Ipatiev House, but his entire family with him. Nicholas II was not the first monarch to lose his life at the hands of his people, nor was his family following him to his death unprecedented. While the reasoning behind the tsar’s death was understandable, though not excusable, one cannot conduct a thorough study of the events without asking two questions: why did the tsar’s family have to face execution with him, and why was the family’s execution subsequently covered up? Due to the civil war raging throughout Russia at that time, the Bolsheviks saw the execution of the entire imperial family and the subsequent cover-up as necessary not only to weaken the White cause, but also to prevent the occupation of war-torn Russia by a superior, foreign force.
March 2, 1917 changed Russia forever as Nicholas II, the last tsar, abdicated, leading to his family’s arrest and imprisonment. The Tsar’s unwillingness to let go of any of his absolute sovereignty and make concessions with the increasingly discontented populace had precipitated his downfall and “abdication was the only acceptable solution.” Nicholas himself believed his abdication was best for his country, confiding in his diary: “For the sake of Russia, and to keep the armies in the field, I decided to take this step.” Power passed to the Provisional Government, headed by Kerensky, and by March 21 the Romanovs had been placed under arrest in Alexander Palace. For eighteen days in April, the tsar and tsarina were interrogated, and Alexander Palace was searched as Kerensky looked for evidence of treasonous activities. For a time, Britain entertained ideas of giving the family asylum, since Alexandra was George V’s cousin. Due to the Tsarista’s German heritage, however, and the current anti-German feeling in Britain, nothing came of their good intentions. Instead, the Provisional Government sent the family to Siberian Tobolsk in August. Three months later, the communist Bolsheviks seized control of the Russian government. Trotsky, the Commissar of War, began planning an elaborate show trial for the Tsar and Tsaritsa. Attempts to rescue the imperial family escalated, and in April 1918 Moscow sent for Nicholas, with the intention of carrying out the trial. When the Ekaterinburg Bolsheviks found out, however, they demanded the Romanovs be handed over to them. At the end of the month, Nicholas, Alexandra, and Maria were moved to Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg, which was ominously termed the House of Special Purpose. Alexandra wrote to Olga, Tatiana, and Anastasia, instructing them to “dispose of the medicines as agreed,” causing the girls to sew the royal family’s many jewels into their clothing. Three weeks after their parents were moved, the three girls and Alexei joined them in Ekaterinburg.
The move to Ekaterinburg marked the beginning of the end for the Romanovs, placing them in the hands of radical Bolsheviks who bayed for their blood, which ultimately resulted in their death. The guards at Ipatiev House were originally proletarian Bolsheviks, but July saw a group of Cheka, or secret police, under the command of Yakov Yurovsky take over. According to Captain Paul Bulygin, the imperial family “beg[a]n to realize their end was at hand.” Between May 20 and July 14, Father Storozhev, the local Orthodox priest, noted the attitudes of the Romanovs changed from optimism to sorrow and nervousness. Only two days later, the family was executed by order of the Executive Committee. At one-thirty in the morning of July 16, the family was woken and told to dress so they could be moved to a safer location. They were taken down to Ipatiev’s cellar. Alexandra demanded chairs, which were brought for Nicholas, Alexei, and herself. The executioner’s personal account states, “I said to Nicholas approximately this: His royal and close relatives inside the country and abroad were trying to save him, but the Soviet of Workers' Deputies resolved to shoot them.” Yurovsky immediately shot Nicholas, and the guards with him began shooting haphazardly. According to Yurovsky, when he was finally able to stop the barrage of bullets they found Olga, Tatiana, Anastasia, and Alexei still alive. Yurovsky immediately shot Alexei, killing him, but bullets were unable to kill the three Grand Duchesses, and even bayonets would not penetrate their clothing. The executioners finally resorted to shooting them in the head. As Yurovsky later discovered, they had encountered difficulty in killing the women because “the[y] . . . had diamond armor [sewn] into their under bodices.” The “medicines” had prolonged their lives. The bodies were then, with difficulty and over a number of nights, taken to a swamp. According to Yurovsky’s account, Alexei’s body and that of a servant were burned, while the rest of the Romanovs were simply placed in the grave and doused with sulfuric acid before being buried. The first remains would not be found until 1991.
The execution of the Romanovs begs the question: why was Nicholas II executed when he was, and why did his whole family have to be killed with him? Since the spring of 1918, the Bolshevik Red armies had been facing a threat from the White Czech legion, and they began to fear the Whites would rescue the Imperial family. Ironically, these hopeful rescuers sealed the fate of the tsar and his family. The Czechs were “probably the greatest threat at the time,” since they provided “much-needed military muscle” to the Whites. In May, the Czech legion began to advance on Ekaterinburg, and by July the Bolsheviks saw the fall of the city as a very distinct possibility. They were “well aware that the approaching White armies intended to free Nicholas and his family.” On July 13, the Czech legion, claiming to be a “new power in Russia and Siberia,” was only 350 miles away from Moscow, and by the next day, forces were en-route from the Ekaterinburg area to head off the White and Czech forces. As the Czechs continued to advance, messages were sent to the Imperial family promising rescue. “The hour of liberation is at hand, and the days of the usurpers are numbered,” one message said. By the night of the fourteenth, the front lines sent Yurovsky news that the Whites could not be delayed much longer and “Ekaterinburg had another few days at best.” Another report was received on the day following, warning that the Red detachments were rapidly retreating before the Czechs. This report claimed Ekaterinburg would fall within three days. A week later, the Whites took over Ekaterinburg. Their desire to free the Romanovs, however, was foiled, for the Imperial family had been executed shortly following the last report from the front.
Primary source evidence and the opinions of historians uniformly agree that the advance of the White Czech legion and fear of the release of the Romanovs, should Ekaterinburg fall, were the major causes for the execution of the Tsar and his whole family. Early in July, the Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets decided that, as long as Ekaterinburg remained under the Bolsheviks, the Romanovs were not to be executed. If, however, the Whites succeeded, “the Bolsheviks did not intend to let the Romanovs fall into friendly hands.” Around the same time, the Regional Soviet of the Urals, fearing the Romanovs would escape, voted to execute the Romanovs. The motion passed unanimously. Yurovsky testified that when he took over command of Ipatiev House, “the question already stood about liquidating the Romanov family, since the Czechoslovaks and the Cossacks were closing in on the Urals, closer and closer to Ekaterinburg.” According to W. Bruce Lincoln, Trotsky wanted to carry out an elaborate show trial, but “Lenin had warned there might not be enough time to arrange it because of the speed with which the Whites were advancing.” As the Whites drew closer to Ekaterinburg, the Regional Soviet, “lest their captives be liberated . . . decided . . . to carry out the execution without waiting for the formality of a staged trial.” The fear of the family’s release was what necessitated, in the Bolsheviks’ eyes, not only the execution of the Tsar, but of his entire family. Lincoln claims: “It is certain that, in mid-July, the local Bolsheviks sent [Yurovsky] orders to execute all of his prisoners to prevent them from falling into the hands of the advancing monarchists.” As Sverdlov, Lenin’s confidante, told Trotsky, “Ilyich [Lenin] believed that we shouldn’t leave the Whites a live banner to rally round, especially under the present difficult circumstances.” Peter Voikov, then Regional Commissar of Supplies, stated the Bolsheviks’ fears plainly: “In Moscow, as with us in the Ural region, they were afraid of a plot to rescue the Tsarevich, the Tsarina and the Grand Duchesses after Nicholas’s death and then to make the Tsarina regent.” Trotsky saw the need to execute the Tsar’s family as far greater than just neutralizing monarchist plots. Later in his life, he confided to his diary, “The execution of the Tsar’s family was needed . . . to frighten, horrify, and dishearten the enemy.”
Though the Bolsheviks considered the execution of the entire Romanov family necessary, they were not initially willing to broadcast their action to the world. The Ural Soviet’s official announcement only touted the execution of Nicholas: “The decision of the Presidium of the Divisional Council was carried out on the night of 16-17 July. Romanov’s family has been transferred from Ekaterinburg to a place of greater safety.” Beloborodov’s coded telegram to Moscow, however, starkly shows the deception planned by the Bolsheviks: “Inform Sverdlov whole family suffered same fate as head officially family will perish during evacuation.” Moscow’s own official statement mirrored that of the Ural Soviet, saying: “the Presidium of the Ural Regional Council decided to shoot the ex-Tsar, Nicholas Romanov. This decision was carried out on 16 July. The wife and son of Romanov have been sent to a place of security.” According to Helen Rappaport, the fate of the Grand Duchesses was left “deliberately ambiguous.” In Ekaterinburg, Goloshchekin, a member of the Ural Soviet, informed the citizens “‘Nicholas the Bloody’ ha[s] been shot and his family taken to another place.” Through these announcements, the Bolsheviks successfully, at least for a time, hid the truth of what had happened in Ipatiev House.
The Bolsheviks’ deception naturally raises the question: why, if the Bolsheviks considered the execution of the entire Imperial family so crucial, were they so careful to hide the truth? If other countries had known the whole royal family was dead, serious repercussions would have ensued, threatening the existence of the fledgling Soviet Union. During the early days of the Romanovs' imprisonment, various countries had tried to offer, or at least considered offering, the family asylum. While Britain’s attempts failed, Kaiser Wilhem II, Alexandra’s cousin, sought to bring them to Germany. The Tsar and Tsaritsa, however, rejected the German offer. The Kaiser would not give up, “considering kidnapping the ex-Tsar and his family and bringing them to Germany . . . whether he [would] or not.” Mirbach, the German ambassador in Russia, informed the Russian government of Germany’s expectation that “the German princesses w[ould] be treated with all possible consideration, and . . . threats against their lives w[ould] not be permitted.” When Mirbach was later assassinated by former supporters of Lenin, Germany demanded to be allowed to send a battalion of troops to Moscow in defense of the German embassy. The Soviets refused and “by way of compromise and compensation . . . promise[d] to spare the life of the Tsaritsa, because she was a German Princess, and of the Tsarevich, as being inseparable from his mother.” For this reason, Moscow did not judge publishing the news of the death of the entire Imperial family to be expedient “and went out of the way to make it clearly understood that the ex-Empress and Alexis were alive, and safe.” The Soviets reassured Germany that, while the Tsar was dead, safe passage might be able to be arranged for the Tsaritsa and Grand Duchesses. According to Bulygin, this official announcement given by Moscow “put an end once and for all to any talk about German battalions entering Moscow.” Rappaport claims, “With the Germans now occupying vast swathes of their territory and threatening their precarious hold on power, it was essential that the Bolsheviks continue to prevaricate.” The deceit regarding the deaths of the entire imperial family was therefore necessary to avoid military repercussions from Germany at a time when Russia was militarily weak and embroiled in civil war.
The execution of the Imperial family was seen as necessary by the fledgling Bolshevik government in order to weaken their opposition, and the cover-up of their action was important to prevent invasion. In the eyes of the Bolsheviks, the Romanovs were a last vestige of the old ways, a barrier to the security of their new government. They were changing Russian politics and would not brook any opposition, or even any threat of it. The final destruction of the Romanovs and their dynasty was the cost that had to be paid for the establishment of a new order. The change from monarchy to communism required blood.