On March 5, 1995, nearly 80 years after their deaths, the burial site of Russia's final Tsar, Nicholas II, along with his family, was unearthed in a forest close to St. Petersburg. For a nation long haunted by unanswered questions, this moment was nothing short of transformative — proof that even decades-old mysteries could finally be laid to rest.
It had been three years since amateur archaeologist Alexander Avdonin stumbled upon human remains near Sverdlovsk. Those remains were carefully excavated and dispatched to multiple laboratories for DNA testing. Scientists from Russia, Britain, and the United States ultimately confirmed the identities: Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, and three of their daughters. Also recovered were the bodies of four non-family members who had perished alongside them. Still missing, though, were the remains of one daughter, Anastasia, and their son, Alexei.
Announced by investigators working with the Russian government, the identification of the Romanov graves stood as both a tribute to their relentless determination and a symbolic closing chapter of the Soviet era. The prevailing belief was that Bolshevik forces had executed the family during the Russian Revolution, concealing their remains ever afterward — making verification impossible until this breakthrough. On July 17, 1998, the family was formally laid to rest at St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg. Though initially hesitant, Russian President Boris Yeltsin attended the ceremony alongside numerous politicians and ambassadors, remarking on its deep historical weight: "For many years, we kept quiet about this monstrous crime, but the truth has to be spoken." In 2000, the family was canonized.
Then, in July 2007, a historian working near Yekaterinburg came across the bones of a boy and a young woman. The following April, with the imperial family's case reopened, those bones were exhumed and subjected to testing. DNA analysis delivered irrefutable confirmation that the remains belonged to the two missing Romanov children, Anastasia and Alexei. Yet even with this conclusive proof in hand, Alexei and Anastasia have not been reunited with the rest of their family in St. Petersburg, owing to skepticism from the Orthodox Church.