On January 15, 1919, in Berlin, Freikorps volunteers killed Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, leaders of the newly formed Communist Party of Germany. Luxemburg's body was thrown into the Landwehr Canal. The Bolsheviks were waiting for a world revolution primarily from Germany, so the death of its leaders was a heavy blow and a reason for revenge.

However, the revenge was not taken on the Germans. Since the summer of 1918, hostages had been held in the Peter and Paul Fortress: Grand Dukes Pavel Alexandrovich, Dmitry Konstantinovich, Nikolai and Georgy Mikhailovich. At the end of January 1919, they were shot by the fortress wall. The execution was officially presented as a response to the murder of the German communists, although the Romanovs had no relation to the events in Berlin.

The fates of the victims show how senseless the retribution was. Nikolai Mikhailovich was a well-known historian, chairman of the Russian Historical Society, and was considered a liberal. Maxim Gorky petitioned for him, but unsuccessfully. Pavel Alexandrovich, uncle of Nicholas II, was seriously ill, and according to reports, he was carried to the execution site on a stretcher. Gorky managed to secure the release of only one of the prisoners, Prince Gavriil Konstantinovich: he had been released earlier for treatment and soon emigrated.
The bodies of the executed were thrown into a common grave, the exact location of which has never been established. In 1999, the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia rehabilitated the executed as victims of political repression.

This episode speaks volumes about the nature of the 'Red Terror.' People became pawns in the ideological struggle: for the death in Berlin, blood was paid in Petrograd.