What do you think happened to Michael's body?

[Belochka]

I have found, in THE GRAND DUKE'S WOMAN by Pauline Gray that there apparently were several  persons claiming to be Michael in the early 20's.  None were taken seriously, apparenntly, though.

You have reminded me that a few did stupidly try to impersonate Grand Duke Mikhail. It is inexplicable that they would have contemplated for one second that Madame Brassova would have gladly accepted their ruse.

Margarita

[Alixz]

Perhaps they were hoping for the "Somersby" effect.  Perhaps they thought that Madame Brassova would accept them and they would then be able to claim the "fortune" and she would help them in order to be able to share it.

I am surprised though that after 1952, someone didn't come forward.  At that time both she and her son George were dead.  But I guess that since Michael would have been about 74 at that time, it would have been hard to find someone interested enough to try.

[Amanda_Misha]

Perhaps one of the obstacles to pretend to be Michael it was to create a convincing history of as it escaped of being assassinated 

[Andrei Beanov]

I thought that 'locals' found the bodies and buried them , a young lad marked a tree near the location.

[Lady Macduff]

http://www.searchfoundationinc.org/Michael.html

Apparently there is going to be further searching this summer.

[TimM]

It would be nice if his remains could be found and buried with the rest of his family in St. Petersburg.

[Lady Macduff]

And Anastasia and Alexei too.

[Jen_94]

Agreed. It certainly would be, Tim.

[JamesAPrattIII]

I have a few more tidbits of information:
Zhuzhgov and Markov were using browning automatic pistols. Kolpashcikov reported his pistol jamming which meaning it was most likely a semi auto possibly a browning. Myasnikov also carried a browning. I would say the brownings were either Model 1900s or 1910s most likely the former in 32acp/7.65mm or 380 auto/ 9mm kurz calibers. They mention them jamming do to homemade ammo. It looks like their handloads were not all that well made. In the book "In Wars dark Shadow" mentions revolutionaries who got hold of firearms sometimes needed ammunition so workers from munitions factories smuggled out the components and reloaded the ammo for them. If you want to see how its done go to youtube and type in reloading and you will find videos on how it is done.

Myasnikov was a "combatant" as they were called during the 1905-1907 revolutionary period. While in jail he became somewhat mentaly unbalanced. I would say that the other 4 were also "combatants" during this period which is a polite term for criminal/terrorist/revolutionary. Note the Urals was a hotbed of Bolo revolutionary activity during the 1905 revolution.

[Kalafrana]

Depending on the type of ammunition, making it at home is not that difficult. In the days when it was still legal in Britain for private citizens to have pistols, my ex-husband had a Smith & wesson .455 revolver for target shooting. The ammunition was no longer produced, so he used to make his own. This involved saving the spent cases and refilling them with propellant, melting lead over the gas cooker and pouring it into moulds, then fitting everything together in a vice. It seemed to work all right - certainly he never complained of problems with the ammunition!

Ann

[JamesAPrattIII]

I must point out that reloading for a semi-automatic firearm is a little more difficult than others. The reloaded round has to feed from a magazine and eject when fired. There wasn't a whole lot of reloading information back then so if you put too little powder in the case it wouldn't eject after firing and if you put too much in it sometimes won't eject either. Also reloading for smaller calibers like the 32acp/7.65mm and 380 auto/9mmkurz is more difficult than a 455 caliber because they are smaller which means they have to be made to tighter tolerances in order to fit.