What Russian leader and his family were murdered in July 1918?

The Russian leader and his family murdered in July 1918 were Czar Nicholas II and the Romanovs.

Nicholas II was Russia’s last emperor. After the February Revolution of 1917, he abdicated and was held with Empress Alexandra and their five children—Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei.

On the night of July 16–17, 1918, Bolshevik guards executed the family at the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. Four members of their household, including their physician and a cook, were also killed. The decision was made as anti-Bolshevik forces approached the city, raising fears that the former monarch might be rescued.

A common mix-up is calling the event simply Nicholas II’s execution. The entire immediate family was killed, although early Soviet announcements obscured what had happened to Alexandra and the children. Their remains were identified decades later, and the Russian Orthodox Church canonized the family in 2000.