Murder of Last Tsar Marked 90 Years Later
By Galina Stolyarova
Staff Writer
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Prince Dimitry Romanov (second from left) attends a commemoration service for the last Russian tsar Nicholas II and his family, murdered 90 years ago. |
Russia on Thursday marked the 90th anniversary of the murder of the last tsar, Nicholas II, and his family, a day after investigators announced that DNA analysis has finally identified the remains of the tsar’s heir, Alexei, and his sister Maria. Prince Dimitry Romanov, a great-great-grandson of Tsar Nicholas I, was in St. Petersburg this week to attend a service Thursday at the Peter and Paul Cathedral commemorating the anniversary of the execution of his ancestors by Bolsheviks in 1918. “We live abroad, yet we feel we belong to Russia,” Romanov told reporters in Russian on Wednesday. “After the downfall of Communism it became possible to visit Russia, and I come here every year.” Romanov’s visits are prompted by much more than a tragic family connection and nostalgia for the old Russia. Romanov has found a place for himself in the country and a noble mission. In the eyes of many, the pre-Revolutionary traditions of charity and sponsorship, in which the Imperial Romanovs played an important part, have not yet been revived. However Dimitry Romanov runs a charitable foundation that helps disabled people in Russia, and other CIS countries, with programs for blind and deaf children. The foundation was set up in 1992 in Paris, when seven representatives of the former royal family gathered to discuss their attitude to changes in Russia. “It would be shameful to make demands on Russia,” Romanov said. “The country lost so much during World War II. So we decided to help in a non-political way.” “The Romanovs are not interested in politics; neither do we seek any power or the throne,” said Ivan Artsishevsky, the Representative of Romanov family in the Russian Federation and head of the State Protocol Service in St. Petersburg. “They love Russia and care for the country in a way that only deserves respect.” Dimitry Romanov welcomed this week’s announcement of the results of the genetic tests which established that remains discovered near the royal family’s execution sight near Yekaterinburg belong to Maria and Alexei, two children of Nicholas II whose bodies had not been found along with the remains of the other Romanovs during 1991 excavations. “It is crucially important that we now have these official results which give us 100-percent certainty,” he said. “A credible scientific method of identification has been used and we have to trust it. If ten or fifteen years from now more sophisticated research establishes that the bones do not belong to the Romanovs, well, we will have to accept it.” Although details of the forthcoming burial of Grand Duchess Maria and Crown Prince Alexei have not yet been discussed on an official level, Romanov said the family believes that the two children of Nicholas II should be buried alongside the rest of the family at the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Earlier this summer, Eduard Rossel, the governor of the Sverdlovsk region, suggested the remains should be buried in the area where they were discovered. Romanov said his family disagrees. “Of course, it would be only natural for members of a family to be buried and rest in peace together,” he said. Artsishevsky said that preparations for the burial of Maria and Alexei may take several years. “For the reburial of Empress Maria Fyodorovna [in Sept. 2006], a state commission created specifically for this purpose by the president took a year to prepare the ceremony,” he said. Dimitry Romanov, who escorted the remains of the last tsar’s family from Yekaterinburg in 1997, recalls that time as the most traumatic and sad event in his life. While the burial of Nicholas II and his family in 1998 was an international event, the story was very personal dimension for living Romanovs. “The memory of holding a box in my arms with the remains of Nicholas II still gives me shivers,” Romanov said. “My father never came to Russia; neither did he discuss the Bolshevik massacre of our ancestors with me,” he said. “He sought to protect my emotions, and such conversations would have obviously and quite understandably been tortuous for him. But the truth about this crime is something all of us Russians need to know.” Under the Communists, a distorted image of Nicholas II was presented to students in Soviet schools and universities, and he was an unpopular — even despised — historical figure. Today Russian people are becoming increasingly sympathetic to the country’s last tsar. In a poll to select the most significant Russian historical figure currently being held by Rossia television, Nicholas II is in the lead, ahead of Soviet dictator and mass murderer Joseph Stalin, who ranks second. See related story on page V of All About Town.
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