Political Unrest

The Romanov family. (nydailynews.com)

All was not well in Russia either. As Maria and her family lived in lavish palaces, enjoyed their yachts, and lived the good life, the people of Russia were struggling with political unrest, food shortages, and economic downturns. Add to the mix the enigmatic Rasputin, the odd mystic that Tsarina Alexandra relied on to cure her son’s hemophilia, and the Russian people grew more and more disgruntled. They blamed the royal family, particularly Tsar Nicholas, for the problems of Russia, and probably rightly so. 

Arresting the Romanovs

The Russian Revolution of 1917. (historyextra.com)

In the spring of 1917, the Russian Revolution broke out. Tsar Nicholas II and the entire royal family were arrested and imprisoned. At first, they were simply kept locked in their palace, but they were later moved to a location in Siberia. Maria and her siblings were aware of their imprisonment, but there is no indication that they feared for their lives. 

The Execution

The Romanov children were sentenced to die along with their parents. (pinterest.com)

With the Russian government overthrown and a new regime in place, the execution of the royal family was ordered. Late in the evening of July 16, 1918, the guards woke the Romanov family and told them they needed to come downstairs. Nicholas and Alexandra complied, assuming they were being moved to another location. The family was left alone in a basement room for about thirty minutes, then a group of guards entered the room. The family was instructed to sit close together, in two rows. Everyone assumed they were going to have their photograph taken. Instead, one of the guards read aloud the order of execution and before the family even had time to comprehend what was happening, the guards opened fire. Nicholas, Alexandra, and two of their servants were killed immediately. Maria and her sisters had sewn their valuable jewels into their corsets to keep them from being taken. Now, the bullets bounced off the gems, making the Romanov daughters hard to kill. Maria tried to sneak out through a locked door but caught the attention of one of the guards. By this time, the room was filled with smoke and haze. The walls and floor were splattered in blood. It was hard to see and even harder to determine who was alive and who was dead. 

Did Anyone Survive?

Rumors swirled that Maria or Anastasia may have escaped the execution. (pinterest.com)

Once the smoke cleared, the guards returned to the room. There, they discovered that Maria and Anastasia were both alive. The bullets had bounced off their jewel-lined corsets. One of the guards later reported that he had to shoot Maria and Anastasia in the heads. It must have been just a glancing wound because both girls reportedly woke up screaming as the bodies were being removed from the cellar. The guard stated that he beat Maria about the head and face with the butt of his rifle until she fell silent. In the years following the assassinations, rumors swirled that one or more members of the family survived, thanks to a change of heart by one of the guards who secreted them away. The majority of the rumors focused on Anastasia as the likely survivor, but Maria was also rumored to have survived. 

Conspiracy Theories

Several people claim that their grandmothers were actually Maria. (facebook.com)

From accounts of the execution and its aftermath, we know that there were large chunks of time in which the bodies of the royal family were left unguarded. There were also several guards who had watched over the family during their months of imprisonment, grown fond of the daughters, and who did not take part in the executions. There certainly was an opportunity for a sympathetic guard to move a wounded princess without being detected. Years later, a man named Alex Brimeyer claimed to be the grandson of Princess Maria. In another rumor, a priest deposited two young women named Maria and Anastasia at a convent deep in the Ural Mountains where they lived the rest of their lives as nuns. In a book released in 2004, Gabriel Louis Duval wrote that his grandmother was really Maria. 

Bodies Found

The original black and white version of the colorized image at the start of this article. (myocn.net)

The mass grave where the Romanov family and their servants were said to have been buried was finally excavated in 1991. The body count was off. There were two less bodies in the grave than there were supposed to be, adding more fuel to the survival conspiracy rumors. Later, two more bodies were discovered a short distance away. DNA analysis proved that there were the members of the Romanov family, although there is still some confusion. The skull that is thought to belong to Maria does not have a bullet hole in it even though a guard claims to have shot her in the head. It is a sad end to the short life of Princess Maria and her family. Just 19 years old, the pretty young girl had done nothing to warrant her execution except to be born into Russia’s royal family. 

The image at the top of this post was colorized by Mads Madsen, a lover of historical images who is based in Denmark. You can see more of his work on his Flickr page.