Dear Language Enthusiast,
Welcome to Russian
Monthly, the Internet newsletter from
Transparent Language. This month, we will
examine a topic with which many are
familiar-- the assassination of Czar
Nicholas II and his family in July 1918.
This event has been shrouded in mystery:
What really happened? Did one of the family
members escape? Was Anna Anderson really a
Romanov?
Still today, the tragic death of the
Romanovs generates heated discussions,
confirming our desire to know more. We hope
you will find this newsletter informative
and interesting, and that it, perhaps,
will spark your interest and imagination.
Sincerely,
Transparent Language
www.transparent.com
In English:
On July 16, 1918, in the town of Yekaterinburg, Czar
Nicholas II and his whole family were executed in the
Ipatiev House. Besides the czar, his wife, four
daughters and his son, royal servants and the family
doctor were also killed.
Over the course of many years, everything connected
to the Romanovs’ murder was wrapped in mystery.
However, even now, more than eighty years later,
there are unanswered questions about the death
of the royal family. The situation is aggravated
by the fact that, every now and then, new events
take place that dispute whatever was declared
irrefutable earlier.
For a long time, the Romanovs’ death was not discussed in
Russia. It was assumed that it should be forgotten. In
1977, Boris Yeltsin, one of the leaders of the
Communist Party in Yekaterinburg at the time, ordered the
destruction of the Ipatiev house. Some time after, the
place of the burial of the royal family was found in a
nearby forest. This discovery was only made public in 1989.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, the facts that were
hidden earlier were revealed. Much of the story of the
Romanovs’ death was clarified. It turned out that, at
first, the bodies were temporarily placed in a
mine not far from the Ipatiev house. Later, they were
supposed to be transferred to a different, deeper mine.
On the way there, one of the trucks used for the
transport broke down; the other one was stuck in a
mud puddle. As a result, the Romanovs and their servants
were buried in a shallow grave in some Ural forest.
When the remains were found, it was necessary to prove
that they really belonged to the last royal family.
Taking into consideration the importance of the
results, it was clear that the opinion of scientists
from only one country would not be sufficient. After
numerous analyses and DNA tests conducted in Russia,
Great Britain, and the United States, it was proven that
the discovered remains belonged to Nicholas, his wife,
three daughters and royal servants. Two bodies were
missing from the grave. One was the body of Alexei
and the other one belonged to either Anastasia or
Marie. From the notes of commandant Yurovsky, the
head of the operation, it was known that two
bodies were burned. One was really Alexei but the
other one was the body of one of the servants.
This implies that the body of one daughter
was never found.
Of course this fact resulted in many hypotheses. Some
asserted that the princess escaped, others that she
was buried separately. There was a woman named Anna
Anderson who appeared in Europe. Many believed her to
be Anastasia. Her story is as complicated as the story
of the royal family’s death. There are tests supporting the
notion that Anna Anderson is a part of the Romanov dynasty.
Other tests refute this with one hundred percent assurance.
The first step to ending this sad epic was the decision
to bury the remains that were officially declared royal.
This decision caused another controversy. Some thought
that the Romanovs should join their ancestors in the
Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul in St. Petersburg.
Others felt that all the remains, royal and not, should
be committed to the same grave somewhere in Yekaterinburg.
The decision was made in favor of St. Petersburg. On
July 17, 1998, the day after the 80th anniversary
of the execution, the Romanovs were buried as members
of a royal dynasty deserved. However, the day was
darkened by the fact that the leaders of the
Russian Orthodox Church refused to accept the remains and
participate in the burial ceremony.
It has been almost two years, and it seemed that the
story of the Romanovs’ death had exhausted itself.
However, the following event shows that this is not
true. On May 31, 2000, at the location of Ipatiev
house, new human remains were discovered. The first
thing that would enter the mind of anyone who was
familiar with the story described above would be
that the remains belong to Alexei and one of his sisters.
Analyses did not prove this assumption. The remains
turned out to be much older than expected. In any
case, this episode confirms that the hope of
finding "real" or "missing" remains is still alive,
and the discussions around the tragic death of
Romanovs are still heated.
Written and translated by Natasha
Starosselskaia.
Sources:
www.Gazeta.ru: "New remains in the Ipatiev house", from
June 2, 2000
www.Gazeta.ru: The remains found in Yekatiringburg could
be "royal", from June 1, 2000
"Banality in the face of doom: Notes from the Czar's
last days", New York Times, 07/12/98, Vol. 147 Issue
51216, Section 4 p 7
"Russia finds no peace in burying its last Czar", New
York Times, 07/16/98, Vol. 147 Issue 51220, p A28
"Romanovs' remains", World Press Review, Feb 98, Vol.
45 Issue 2, p 19
"A royal funeral", New York Times, 10/14/95, Vol. 145
Issue 50214, p18
"Dead Romanovs identified by PCR", Nature, 2/10/94,
Vol. 367 Issue 6463, p 580
Peter Kurth " Tsar: the Lost world of Nicholas and
Alexandra", Madison Press Books, Ontario, Canada,
Copyright 1995
