After Tsar Nicholas II abdicated in 19 17, Russia quickly plunged into civil war. The Bolsheviks (commonly known as the Red Army) and the Nicholas II family (some of them are important members of the European royal family) held many negotiations to release the Romanov family. The white army loyal to the tsar and absolutism advanced to Yekaterinburg, so the Red Army was in an unstable situation. The Red Army knew that Yekaterinburg would fall into the hands of the better-equipped White Army. When the White Army arrived in Yekaterinburg, the Tsar family had completely disappeared. The most widely accepted statement is that the Tsar family was murdered. This is the conclusion drawn by Nikolas Sokolov, an investigator of the White Army, based on the fact that the belongings of the Tsar's family were left in a mine ventilation hole in гаинаяма.

In 1989, a record named "Yurovski's Notes" was found, which Yurovsky reported to the top of the Bolshevik Party after the execution of the Tsar Nicholas II family. Edvard Lashchinski described many details in The Last Tsar published by 1992. According to this statement, Tsar Nicholas II's family was awakened on the night of the execution and asked to dress neatly. When asked why they asked for this, the guards replied that it was for their safety, so they had to move Nicholas II's family to a new place to prevent the White Army from being violently attacked when it arrived in Yekaterinburg. Dressed up, the Tsar's family, several servants and students of Potkin Medical College who took care of them gathered in a small room in the basement of Ipatti's husband's house to wait. At Queen Alexandra's request, she and Alexei were allowed to sit in the chairs prepared by the guards. A few minutes later, Yurovski led the firing squad into the room. Without any hesitation, Yurovski immediately told the tsar that their family had been ordered to be executed. Nicholas II had just turned to say "what" to his family when a bullet had been shot at his head. Queen Alexandra and Olga, the eldest daughter, tried to draw a cross by hand, but they were both hit in the head by the earliest bullet, and they were both killed on the spot. Other royal attendants were also shot in a short time, except the Queen's maid Anna Demidova, who was not killed by the initial bullet. She struggled to protect herself with the little pillow she brought into the basement, because the pillow was full of precious jewels. However, she was pushed to the wall of the room and finally stabbed to death.

Yurovski's notes further mentioned that the small room was full of smoke because many weapons fired in a short time. After the smoke gradually dispersed, they found that some bullets fired by the executioner bounced off the bras of two or three female archduchesses. When the executioner came forward to look at it, they found that it was because they sewed the jewels and diamonds from the family crown into the lining of the corset in order to escape the attention of the prisoners. So these corsets are a bit like bulletproof armor. According to Yurovsky, anastasia and Maria curled up on the ground and leaned against the wall to protect their heads until they were shot. However, another guard, Peter Aimakov, told his wife that Anna Stasija was later killed by a bayonet. Yurovski also wrote: When the body was carried out, one or several girls cried, so they were hit on the back of the head with a stick.