Alexei Nikolaevich (Russian: ÐлекÑеÌй ÐиколаÌевиÑ) (12 August 1904 [O.S. 30 July] â 17 July 1918) of the House of Romanov, was the last Tsesarevichand heir apparent to the throne of the Russian Empire. He was the youngest child and only son of Czar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. He was born with haemophilia, which was treated by the faith healer Grigori Rasputin.
After the February Revolution of 1917, he and his family were sent into internal exile in Tobolsk, Siberia. Soon after the Bolsheviks took power, he was executed alongside his parents, four sisters, and three retainers during the Russian Civil War by order of the Bolshevik government, though rumors that he had survived persisted until the 2007 discovery of his and one of his sisters’ remains. On 17 July 1998, the eightieth anniversary of the execution, his parents and three sisters, along with their faithful retainers, were formally interred in the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul. Alexei and his sister Maria are still not buried. The family were canonized as passion bearers by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000.
He is sometimes known to Russian legitimists as Alexei II, as they do not recognize the abdication of his father in favor of his uncle Grand Duke Michael as lawful; however, legitimists also do not recognise the abdication because it was not published by the Imperial Senate, as required by law.