Nicholas and Alexandra - Fact Vs. Fiction

Fact Vs. Fiction

Some elements of the movie take creative license:

• Stolypin's assassination is portrayed accurately, but actually took place in 1911; he is shown attending the Tercentenary, which occurred in 1913.

• The party at which Rasputin is poisoned is based on evidence left by Prince Felix Yusupov. Rasputin is seen surviving the poisoning and numerous gunshot wounds, but there is evidence to suggest that Rasputin died from drowning after his body was pushed under the ice of the River Neva.

• The Tsarina Alexandra's German heritage is blamed for some of the family's unpopularity, but Alexandra was never really popular with the Russian people; her German background particularly burdened her during World War I when Russia was at war with Germany.

• When the Romanovs are executed, not a word is spoken to them prior to their death. Historical accounts indicate that an execution order was read to them beforehand.

• The house where the Romanovs were imprisoned in Tobolsk is depicted as very austere, when in fact they were housed in the former governor's mansion in great comfort. It was only in Yekaterinburg that their living conditions became much worse.

• Only Nicholas, Alexandra and Marie arrived together at the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg; Olga, Alexei, Tatiana and Anastasia arrived later due to Alexei's illness in Tobolsk.

• The Romanov family was executed together with four faithful servants: doctor Eugene Botkin, chambermaid Anna Demidova, cook Ivan Kharitonov, and footman Alexei Trupp. However, in the film only the family and the doctor are finally executed; the other characters do not appear in the film.

• There is no evidence that the scene with Grand Duchess Tatiana exposing herself to a Bolshevik soldier ever occurred.

• Alexander Kerensky informed Nicholas in summer 1917 that the United Kingdom would not accept him and the royal family as refugees. Britain did not wish to accept the Romanovs as they were seen as bloody tyrants; King George V in particular feared for his own throne if his Russian cousins came to Britain. When it was made public that the Romanovs would be sent abroad, the public outcry against it was so overwhelming that the provisional government decided to keep them as prisoners, as its own future was on shaky ground. It is claimed MI6 had proposed an idea of a covert extraction of the Tsar and his family, but this is considered speculation as no such a mission could be accomplished.