When History Stops Time On the night of July 16 to 17, 1918, the fate of the Romanovs came to an end in the basement of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. After Nicholas II’s abdication in 1917, the former tsar, his wife Alexandra, and their five children were moved from one residence to another before being confined in this house turned into a prison. As the White armies drew closer, the Bolsheviks feared the imperial family might be freed. Yakov Yurovsky, head of the guard, received the order