Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia

In 1906, Alexei and his family went on a cruise to Finland.

In the middle of the night, the 2-year-old Alexei commanded the ship's band to wake up and play for him.

Instead of punishing Alexei, Nicholas joked "that's the way to bring up an autocrat!"

Nicholas called Alexei "Alexei the Terrible."

Alexei loved to attend army inspections with his father.

When he was 3, he wore a miniature army uniform and played with a toy wooden rifle.

From birth, he had the title of "Hetman of all the Cossacks."

He wore a miniature uniform of a sailor of the Russian navy, and he had his own Cossack uniform with a fur cap, boots, and dagger.

He ended his daily prayers with "Hurrah!"

instead of "amen".

When asked why, he replied that the soldiers on parade always said "Hurrah!"

when his father finished speaking, so he should greet his Heavenly Father in the same way.

Before he understood the nature of his disease, he said that he wanted to be a warrior-tsar and lead armies as his ancestors had.

After the February Revolution of 1917, the Romanovs were sent into internal exile in Tobolsk, Siberia.

After the October Revolution, the family was initially to be tried in a court of law, before the intensification of the Russian Civil War made execution increasingly favorable in the eyes of the Soviet government.

Alexei Nikolaevich (Алексе́й Никола́евич) (12 August [O.S. 30 July] 1904 – 17 July 1918) was the last Tsesarevich (heir apparent to the throne of the Russian Empire).

He was the youngest child and only son of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

He was born with haemophilia, which his parents tried treating with the methods of peasant faith healer Grigori Rasputin.

With White Army soldiers rapidly approaching, the Ural Regional Soviet ordered the murder of Alexei, the rest of his family, and four remaining retainers on 17 July 1918.

Rumors persisted for decades that Alexei had escaped his execution, with multiple impostors claiming his identity.

On 17 July 1998, the 80th anniversary of their execution, Alexei's parents, three of his sisters, and the four retainers, were formally interred in the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul, while Alexei's and Maria's (or Anastasia's) bones remain in Russian state archives.

The Romanov family was canonized as passion bearers by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000.

Alexei is sometimes known to Russian legitimists as Alexei II after his ancestor Alexis of Russia, as until his death they do not recognize the abdication of his father in favor of his uncle Grand Duke Michael as lawful.

Alexei was a handsome boy, and he bore a striking resemblance to his mother.

His tutor Pierre Gilliard described the 18-month-old Alexei as "one of the handsomest babies one could imagine, with his lovely fair curls and his great blue-grey eyes under their fringe of long curling lashes".

A few years later, Gilliard described Alexei as tall for his age, with "a long, finely chiseled face, delicate features, auburn hair with a coppery glint, and large grey-blue eyes like his mother".

Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden, his mother's lady-in-waiting, reflected that "he was a pretty child, tall for his age, with regular features, splendid dark blue eyes with a spark of mischief in them, brown hair, and an upright figure".

Alexei was proud of and enjoyed his position as Tsarevich.

Buxhoeveden reflected that "he knew and felt that he was the Tsarevich, and from babyhood mechanically took his place in front of his elder sisters".

He liked being kissed on the hand by the officers and "didn't miss his chance to boast about it and give himself airs in front of his sisters".

He enjoyed jumping in front of the guards at the front of the Alexander Palace, who would immediately salute him as he walked past.

Nicholas forbade the guards to salute Alexei unless another member of the family accompanied him.

Alexei was embarrassed "when the salute failed him", which "marked his first taste of discipline".

On one occasion, he ordered all of the Finnish officers on various ships to stand before him on the deck of the Standart.

He began commanding them, but the Finnish officers did not understand Russian and stood in confusion until an aide informed them that Alexei wanted to hear them say, "We wish you health, your Imperial Highness."

When he was told that a group of officers had arrived to call on him, the 6-year-old Alexei told his sisters, "Now girls, run away. I am busy. Someone has just called to see me on business."

Also at 6, he walked into his father's study and saw the Foreign Minister Alexander Izvolsky waiting to see Nicholas.

Izvolsky remained sitting, and Alexei screamed, "When the heir to the Russian Throne enters a room, people must get up!"

Alexei's parents indulged his tantrums and mischievous behavior, and they rarely punished him.

Alexei's remains, along with those of his sister Maria (or Anastasia), were ultimately discovered in a secondary grave near the rest of the Romanov family in 2007.