On the night of July 16-17, 1918 — some eight months after the Bolshevik Revolution — Russia’s 300-year-old Romanov Dynasty met its ignominious demise in the basement of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

Already having been forced by the Revolution to abdicate, Tsar Nicholas II was sent into exile with his family, where they were held captive by members of Vladimir Lenin’s Bolshevik party. On the night of July 16-17, they were taken to the basement of the large house on the bizarre pretext of having their photographs taken. But the “shots” in store for them were not pictures; they were bullets. Nicholas, the Tsarina Aleksandra, their son and four daughters, and their few loyal servants were simply mowed down — without trial, without explanation, without any opportunity to defend themselves.

The full history of events leading up to that horrific night and the seven decades of communism that followed is well documented, and makes fascinating reading for even the most stubborn non-students of history. The three centuries of the Romanovs’ reign were filled with more murders, uprisings, palace coups, underhanded double-dealing, extravagance, jealousy, hatred, and lust than an entire library of graphic novels could ever conjure.

And it all came to a screeching halt in a hail of gunfire, in a dingy basement, in the middle of the night.

But I am not here today to offer a lengthy history lesson. Rather, I see this anniversary as a cautionary tale, reminding autocratic rulers everywhere of how tyrants eventually meet their ends — not always by violent death, but at the very least in disgrace.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/16/26