He would die before his 14th birthday on August 12, 1918.
He had not walked since April- after he severely injured himself sledding down the stairs in the Governor's Mansion in Tobolsk. In a way, that sled ride changed the trajectory of the Romanov family's lives...Had he been able to walk, they would have traveled together- -perhaps they might have somehow missed being seized by the Ural Soviet...probably not, though...but there had been the possibility of eh journey to Moscow for a trail of the Tsar...THAT might have spared the family.
As it was, Alexei who is often pictured as a little boy in a sailor suit, was actually a tall handsome adolescent- with fine features and an intelligent gaze. Had he lived, he appears to have inherited his mother's height- he would have been taller than his short father....Most poignant of all- he was quoted:"I do not fear dying;l fear what they will do to us."
He did die- horrible- a slow death, an irony given that he had been protected all his life because any injury could be fatal- his hemophilia aside, he survived terrible bludgeoning and stabbings, shots to his torso and had to be "finished off" by Yurovsky with 2 bullets into his head.
He would die before his 14th birthday on August 12, 1918.
He had not walked since April- after he severely injured himself sledding down the stairs in the Governor's Mansion in Tobolsk. In a way, that sled ride changed the trajectory of the Romanov family's lives...Had he been able to walk, they would have traveled together- -perhaps they might have somehow missed being seized by the Ural Soviet...probably not, though...but there had been the possibility of eh journey to Moscow for a trail of the Tsar...THAT might have spared the family.
As it was, Alexei who is often pictured as a little boy in a sailor suit, was actually a tall handsome adolescent- with fine features and an intelligent gaze. Had he lived, he appears to have inherited his mother's height- he would have been taller than his short father....Most poignant of all- he was quoted:"I do not fear dying;l fear what they will do to us."
He did die- horrible- a slow death, an irony given that he had been protected all his life because any injury could be fatal- his hemophilia aside, he survived terrible bludgeoning and stabbings, shots to his torso and had to be "finished off" by Yurovsky with 2 bullets into his head.