At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Romanov family are at the heart of Russian life. Tsar Nicholas has been on the throne since 1894, married to a German-born princess, Tsarina Alexandra, and with five beautiful children, Olga, Tatiana, Anastasia, Marie and Alexei, they are seen as the perfect royal family. But by 1917, they are overthrown in a Bolshevik coup amidst the Russian revolution, taken prisoner and brutally executed by a communist firing squad. For more than ninety years the whereabouts of their bodies was unknown until a team of archaeologists uncovered a grave in some dense forest near Ekaterinburg. In 1991, after DNA testing and a sample retrieved from Prince Andrew, a relative of the Romanovs, scientists confirmed the authenticity of the bones. Aside from this important breakthrough, it was also discovered that two of the bodies were missing from the grave, fuelling the already common speculation that two of them may have survived, namely Alexis and Anastasia who amassed numerous impersonators over the years adding to the mystery already surrounding the tragedy.

• Struan Rodger