DNA ends mystery of czar’s kin

Los Angeles Times

The most enduring and romantic legend of the Russian Revolution — that two children of Czar Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra, survived the slaughter that killed the rest of their family — may finally be put to rest with the positive identification of bone fragments from a lonely Russian grave.

The czar and his family were gunned down and stabbed by members of the Red Guard early on the morning of July 17, 1918, but persistent rumors have maintained that two of the children, the Grand Duchess Anastasia and her brother Alexi, survived.

Those hopes were bolstered with the 1991 revelation that nine bodies of Romanov family members and servants had been found in a Yekaterinberg grave but that a son and daughter were still missing.

Now, newly analyzed DNA evidence from a second, nearby grave discovered in 2007 proves that the bones are from the final two children.

A report on the analysis was published online Tuesday in the journal PLoS One.

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