Haunting last picture before execution of the boy born to be Russia’s tsar

This image shows heir Alexei on his river trip to death, aged 13 and nine months old, around eight weeks before he was murdered with the rest of his family by a Bolshevik execution squad.

The museum - part of a new trail for tourists and royal enthusiasts  following the route of the Romanovs in exile after Nikolai’s abdication in 1917 - has confirmed this image is the last known photograph of the Tsarevich.

It was taken as he left the historic Siberian town of Tobolsk where the family were held in the so-called Governor’s House from August 2017.

In April, Nikolai, his former empress Alexandra and one of their daughters, Maria, moved to Yekaterinburg. 

Alexei, a haemophiliac, had been ill, and he remained in Tobolsk in their care of his three other sisters, Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia, and 26 servants. 

They left by riverboat on 20 May 1918, two months before they would be killed. 

The picture was taken on board the riverboat called Rus.

Tsarevich Alexei pctured with sisters in Tobolsk, Siberia, and on his own during 2017-2018 exile; last picture shows the house where Romanov family stayed during their exile in Tobolsk. Pictures: Tobolsk History Museum, Vesti Rossiya

Alexei health had caused acute concern to the royal family before the revolution, contributing to their obsession with ‘crazed’ monk Gregory Rasputin who was seen as a healer. 

As Nikolai’s sole male heir, Alexei was born to inherit from his father the following formidable and colourful titles as an absolute ruler: Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias, Moscow, Kiev, Vladimir, Novgorod; Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan, Tsar of Poland, Tsar of Siberia, Tsar of Chersonese Taurian, Tsar of Georgia; Lord of Pskov and Grand Prince of Smolensk, Lithuania, Volhynia, Podolia, Finland; Prince of Estland, Livland, Courland, Semigalia, Samogitia, Belostok, Karelia, Tver, Yugorsky land, Perm, Vyatka, Bolgar and others; Lord and Grand Prince of Nizhny Nogorod, Chernigov, Ryazan, Polotsk, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Belozersk, Udorsky land, Obdorsk, Kondia, Vitebsk, Mstislav, and all of the northern countries Master; and Lord of Iberia, Kartli, and Kabardia lands and Armenian provinces; hereditary Sovereign and ruler of the Circassian and Mountainous Princes and of others; Lord of Turkestan; Heir of Norway; Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Stormarn, Dithmarschen, and Oldenburg, and others, and others, and others.

It was not to be, of course. 

The execution site of Romanov family inside the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg; Tsarevich Alexei pictured with favourite spaniel Joy, sisters, and mother Alexandra. Pictures: Tobolsk History Museum

The new Tobolsk museum The Imperial Route project, which charts the Romanov family’s stay or transfer after Nikolai’s abdication through  St Petersburg , Moscow,  Tyumen, Perm, Tobolsk and Yekaterinburg. 

The museum is in the old Governor’s House with 13 rooms preserved as well as possible from a century ago. 

Items have been gifted by the descendants of Briton Charles Gibbes, Alexei’s tutor, who went with the family into exile before finding his way out of the revolution maelstrom via China. 

Pictures below show reconstruction and picture of Alexei's room in the house in Tobolsk, Alexei with a cat and his favourite spaniel Joy, and Alexei with tutor Charles Gibbes