Russia to Investigate If Last Tsar Was Shot in 'Ritual Killing'

[angelburst29]

Members of a church commission investigating the 1918 shooting of Tsar Nicholas II and his family claim that the last tsar of Russia was murdered in a ritual killing.

Russia to Investigate If Last Tsar Was Shot in 'Ritual Killing' Nov 28, 2017
https://themoscowtimes.com/news/Russia-investigate-last-royal-family-shot-ritual-killing-59724

Nicholas II, the last emperor of Russia, was put under house arrest after renouncing the throne in 1917. He was shot together with his wife and five children on July 17, 1918, in the cellar of a merchant’s house in Yekaterinburg.

Russian investigators reopened the probe into the century-old murder in 2015, even though the Bolsheviks believed to have shot the Romanov family were no longer living.

At a conference on the topic this week, a Russian Orthodox bishop widely rumored to be President Vladimir Putin’s spiritual advisor suggested that the shooting of the tsar and his family was a ritual killing.

The theory is supported by many members of the church commission examining the evidence behind the murder, Father Tikhon Shekunov was cited by the state-run TASS news agency as saying Monday.

Marina Molodtsova, a senior investigator at Russia’s Investigative Committee, told the conference Monday that 34 forensic examinations had been commissioned in the past two decades to identify the remains found near Yekaterinburg.

“A psychological and historical evaluation will be carried out to see if it could have been a ritual killing,” Molodtsova said.

Russian investigators on Wednesday exhumed the remains of Russia's last tsar and his wife, who were slaughtered by the Bolsheviks in 1918 together with their children and servants, after reopening the investigation into the century-old murder.

Russia's Last Tsar Exhumed as Murder Case Reopened Sep 23, 2015
https://themoscowtimes.com/news/russias-last-tsar-exhumed-as-murder-case-reopened-49792

The Investigative Committee said in a statement Wednesday it was reopening the probe in order to confirm the identity of remains believed to belong to two of the royal children: the Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolayevna.

A previous investigation concluded that the remains were indeed those of Maria and Alexei, but a working group set up at the instigation of the Russian Orthodox Church insisted that further tests be carried out, the statement said.

On Wednesday, the bodies of Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra were exhumed at the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg and samples taken from them, Interfax reported.

Investigators also took samples from a blood-soaked coat that Tsar Alexander II — Nicholas' grandfather — was wearing when he was fatally injured by a terrorist's bomb in 1881, Interfax reported.

They are also seeking access to the remains of the empress' sister, Grand Duchess Elisabeth of Russia, the Investigative Committee statement said, adding that her remains are in Israel and have never been examined by Russian investigators.

The remains of Maria and Alexei were planned to be buried with those of the rest of the family on Oct. 18, TASS news agency reported earlier this month. But the Russian Orthodox Church protested, saying additional research was needed.

Nicholas and Alexandra were killed together with their five children, four servants and family dog in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks in 1918, the year after revolution ended their rule.

The remains of all the members of the royal family except for Alexei and Maria were found in woods outside Yekaterinburg in 1979. A criminal investigation into the murder of the tsar and his family was opened in 1993, but in 1998 the investigation was closed on the grounds that all the suspects were already dead. That same year, the remains of Nicholas, Alexandra and their other three daughters were finally laid to rest at the Peter and Paul Fortress.

In 2007 the remains of Alexei and Maria were discovered close to the first burial spot.

 

[CdeSouza]

When I took European history in high school, one thing they omitted was how closely related all the European royal families were at the outbreak of WW I, and that Queen Victoria and the Czar had been cousins. Always thought that was odd. As was the timing of when they changed their surname to 'Windsor'.

 

[caballero reyes]

In one of the sessions with the Cs. this matter has already been dealt with.

Here, the transcendent is who were those who appropriated the enormous fortune of the Romanov dynasty.

 

[James The Sixth]

When I took European history in high school, one thing they omitted was how closely related all the European royal families were at the outbreak of WW I, and that Queen Victoria and the Czar had been cousins. Always thought that was odd. As was the timing of when they changed their surname to 'Windsor'.

Queen Victoria and Tsar Nicholas II were only distantly related. By virtue of their descent from King George II of Great Britain, they were third cousins twice removed. (Victoria was George II's great-great-granddaughter, while Nicholas was his great-great-great-great-grandson.)

The Tsarina, however, Nicholas's wife Alexandra, was Victoria's granddaughter.

Regarding the change of name of the current British royal house to Windsor in 1917, it is always presented as having being done at the suggestion of George V. The PR spin is that he wanted his family to identify more closely with his subjects in their struggle against the Germans, and so decided to expunge all German names from the family. (It wasn't just his own immediate family, it went down through all the relatives. e.g. the name Battenburg was changed to Mountbatten for instance).

None of that is true. The name change was forced on George V by the government, who thought it inappropriate that the King and Royal Family should have a German name at a time when tens of thousands of young British men were being slaughtered on Europe's battlefields in a war essentially started by the king's first cousin!

George V was apoplectic with rage when he was told of the Government's plans, but he had no choice but to comply.

 

[angelburst29]

A monument dedicated to the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II will be unveiled in New York City on Tuesday on the centennial anniversary of his death in 1918, the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) metropolitan Hilarion (Kapral) told Sputnik.

17.07.2018 - Monument to Russian Tsar Nicholas 11 to be Unveiled in New York City
Monument to Russian Tsar Nicholas II to Be Unveiled in New York City

"There will be an opening and blessing ceremony in commemoration of the centennial anniversary of the slaying of the Tsar’s family in Yekaterinburg in 1918," Hilarion said.

Nicholas II, his wife Tsarina Alexandra and their children — Crown Prince Alexei, Great Princesses Tatiana, Olga, Maria and Anastasia — and their servants — doctor Yevgeniy Botkin, maid Anna Demidova, chief Ivan Kharitonov and footman Alexei Trupp were killed by Bolshevik troops in Yekaterinburg on July 17, 1918.

Hilarion explaiend the monument to Nicholas II was donated by Russian sculptor Yevgeniy Korolev and will be installed at the ROCOR Synod in Manhattan near the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Sign.

Representatives of the Russian consulate in New York City and the Russian mission to the United Nations as well as the administrator of the patriarchal parishes in the United States Bishop John of Naro-Fominsk have all been invited to the unveiling ceremony, Hilarion said.

The metropolitan also noted that the blessing ceremony will be followed by a divine liturgy in commemoration of the tragic anniversary.

"All parishes of the ROCOR will conduct commemorative services on Monday and Tuesday," Hilarion said.

Moreover, the metropolitan pointed out that many people can now learn the history of the Romanovs by reading their correspondence and other relevant sources, and view the royal family as believers who exemplified Christian virtues.

"They understood that they likely will be killed because of their faith and the fact of they were royals. They took that [fate] as God’s will," Hilarion said.

ROCOR canonized the Romanovs in 1981 and the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow followed suit in 2000.


22.05.2018 - Diary of Last Russian Tsar's Final Days Published in US
Diary of Last Russian Tsar's Final Days Published in US

The publication of the book, titled "The Romanovs Under House Arrest: From the 1917 Diary of a Palace Priest," coincides with two anniversaries, including the 150th year since the birth of Nicholas II on May 18, and one century since the last tsar and his family were massacred by the Bolsheviks on July 17.

The English-language version of a diary written by the priest who heard the confession of the last Russian Tsar and his family has been published in the United States, the rector of the Russian Saint John the Baptist cathedral in Washington, Father Victor Potapov, told Sputnik.

This diary, written by the priest Afanasy Belyaev, who heard their confessions when they were arrested by the Provisional government in 1917, is important for historic accuracy," Potapov said on Monday. "It can show Americans the spiritual character of Nicholas II and his family."

The priest who spiritually prepared the Romanovs for their martyrs’ death, he added, shows their mood and how they accepted their sufferings without any complaints. The rector said he hoped the book can change the opinion of those in the West who still perceive the Romanovs as cruel autocrats.

"In reality Tsar Nicholas and his family were very warm people who took the Orthodox faith very serious," he said. "Every bit of information on the Romanovs is very important for believers because each document shows us that they were indeed who the church claims they were."

The Romanov family was canonized as martyred saints by the Russian Orthodox Church outside of Russia in 1981 and then by the Moscow Patriarchate in 2000, Potapov noted.

The book has been published by the Russian Orthodox Holy Trinity monastery in Jordanville, New York which is tightly linked to Saint John the Baptist Cathedral in Washington, DC.

One of the parishioners, Evgeniy Vernigora, obtained the diary manuscript from famous Russian historian Alexander Bokhanov and brought it to the West. Protodeacon Leonid Michailitschenko translated it into English and another parishioner, Marilyn Swezey, renowned researcher of the life of Nicholas II, edited the book in which Victor Potapov wrote the preface.

Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, their five children and other aides and servants were killed by the Bolsheviks on July 17, 1918. Their bodies had been secretly buried in a hole near Yekaterinburg and found several decades later.


Back-dated 17.07.2013 - The Family of Tsar Nicholas 11: From the Khodynka Tragedy to Execution - Archive Footage
The Family of Tsar Nicholas II: From the Khodynka Tragedy to Execution. Archive Footage
(3:07 min.)

 

[angelburst29]

The monument to the slain children of the last Russian Emperor, Nicholas II, at the male monastery in Ganina Yama in Yekaterinburg. © Sputnik / Pavel Lisitsyn

1 Nov, 2018 - ‘Romanovs are role models’: Kremlin hosts conference marking royal family martyrdom anniversary
‘Romanovs are role models’: Kremlin hosts conference marking royal family martyrdom anniversary

The faith, resilience and patriotism of the Romanovs offers an example to all modern Russians, participants were told at a conference in Moscow, held to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the killing of Russia’s royal family.

The descendants of Russia’s last emperor, officials from Moscow and other regions of Russia, Orthodox clerics and historians came to the State Kremlin Palace on Thursday for the annual readings, dedicated to Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna and other members of the Russian royal family, who were executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918.

The murder of the Romanovs “is a sad event for us but, actually, it evokes a lot of things – the deeds that those people achieved; about how firm their faith was and about how bravely they acted in any circumstances, and preserved their Christian faith,” the Tver and Kashin Metropolitan Savva told the gathering.

The royal family are “a role model for us all. We all should love our Fatherland, maintain and strengthen our faith” like they did, the Metropolitan urged, adding that more general knowledge of the royal martyrs should be expanded and promoted among the population.

Olga Kulikovskaya-Romanova, the widow of Nicholas II’s nephew, stressed that the place in history of Grand Duchess Elizabeth “fully deserves” the attention that it’s now receiving.

“She’s done a lot for history. She’s done a lot for Russia,” Kulikovskaya-Romanova said. The Grand Duchess was the sister of the Empress and the wife of Moscow governor Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, engaging in a lot of charity work and largely contributing to the changing look of the city. After her husband was killed by a terrorist bomb in 1905, she opened the Convent of Saints Martha and Mary and became a nun.

Moscow government minister Vladimir Chernikov said that the charity work, which is currently being carried out under the banner of Elizabeth Feodorovna, not only helps many people but also improves the atmosphere in the capital.
The Grand Duchess refused to leave Russia after the 1917 Revolution, was detained and later murdered along with 17 members of the Romanov family.

The last Russian Emperor, his wife and five children were killed by a group of Bolsheviks on the night of 16–17 July, 1918 outside the city of Yekaterinburg, in the Ural Mountains. Elizabeth Feodorovna met her end not far from the nearby town of Alpayevsk the next day. She was thrown into an abandoned mine together with several other bearers of the Romanov name.

Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna was declared a martyr and saint by the Russian Orthodox Church back in 1992, eight years before the canonization of Nicholas II and his family.