RPTs SAYS GRAVE OF ALEXANDER III MAY HAVE BEEN DESECRATED PREVIOUSLY
During work in the Romanov family vault in the Saints Peter and Paul Fortress it was discovered that the grave of Emperor Alexander III may have been opened previously: the headstone had been dismantled and reassembled, Bishop of Yegorevsk Tikhon (Shevkunov), the secretary of the patriarchal Council on Culture, stated at a press conference on Friday.
In the autumn, investigators renewed investigation of the case regarding the deaths of members of the Russian imperial House of Romanov, which was opened in 1993 in connection with the discovery of a mass grave in the outskirts of Ekaterinburg. In late September the exhumation of the remains of Nicholas II and Alexandra Fedorovna was conducted. Blood samples also were taken from the clothing of Emperor Alexander II. In October, Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Kirill addressed to the government a request to conduct a comparative genetic investigation of the remains of Nicholas II and his father, Emperor Alexander III. In the opinion of the Russian Orthodox Church, positive results of such an expert analysis will be irrefutable proof of the genuineness of the remains of Nicholas II and his family.
A working patriarchal commission was created previously, whose members were mainly clergymen, although they enlisted geneticists, anthropologists, historians, and criminologists. The task of the commission was to begin a study of a genetic comparison of the remains that were discovered with genetic materials from the sepulcher of Alexander III.
Bishop Tikhon said that all of the work has been conducted with complete transparency: everything has been recorded on video, 24-hours-per day, and photographed. Upon beginning work, participants in the investigation discovered that the emperor's grave may have been opened previously: the covering of the grave had been slid off apparently successfully, by all indications.
"We compiled a document based on the results of all of this. . . . We have not proved anything and we are not now claiming that the grave was completely penetrated, although we concede more than this. We are claiming only one thing: the headstone on the grave of Alexander III was dismantled and reassembled," the representative of the RPTs said.
In addition, the bishop said that there is some historical evidence that also may be an argument in favor of the opening of the grave.
"But even if the graves (in the Romanov family vault—ed.) were desecrated, we still will be able to get genetic material," the secretary of the patriarchal Council on Culture emphasized.
The last Russian emperor, Nicholas II, and his family were shot in the summer of 1918 in Ekaterinburg. Remains of nearly all victims were discovered in July 1991 and were buried in the summer of 1998 in the Peter-Paul cathedral of St. Petersburg. In 2000, the RPTs canonized Nicholas II and members of his family. In 2007, remains of young children of the emperor—Princess Maria and Tsarevich Alexis—were discovered. The government intends to rebury them in the Peter-Paul cathedral; they are now stored in the Russian State Archive. (tr. by PDS, posted 14 November 2015)
CHURCH'S SPECIAL POSITION ON "EKATERINBURG REMAINS" IS NOT OBSCURATISM AND NOT CAPRICE—BISHOP TIKHON
Church warns against accusing it of obscurantism in connection with this case
Interfax-Religiia, 13 November 2015
Specialists are planning a historical investigation on the issue of the remains ascribed to Nicholas II's children Tsarevich Alexis and Grand Princes Maria.
"Of course we are dealing with this in a most serious way, primarily as a historical investigation, and we are trying to understand how they (the remains of the tsar's children—IF) could have gotten there and how they could have been found, these 70 grams of bone fragments," declared the executive secretary of the patriarchal Council on Culture, Bishop of Yegorovsk Tikhon, on Friday at a press conference in Moscow.
"Naturally, genetic tests and anthropological, if they are possible (will be conducted—IF)," he added.
The bishop recalled that in its time the church was accused in connection with the case of the tsarist family "practically of obscurantism, of benightedness: everything is already known, genetic studies have had the last word, stop being capricious, even at government expense."
"They represent us as obscurantists and capricious people, who go contrary to clear and healthy public opinion. It is not necessary. If we are doing something, we have very, very serious arguments for this," the church's representative emphasized.
In July 1991, on the Old Koptiakov road near Ekaterinburg a grave was opened in which there were remains of nine persons. They belonged to members of the tsar's family: Nicholas II; his 46-year-old wife, Alexandra Fedorovna; their daughters 22-year-old Olga, 21-year-old Tatiana, 17-year-old Anastasia, as well as persons near to them, 53-year-old Evgeny Botkin, 40-year-old Anna Demidova, 62-year-old Aloizii Trupp, and 38-year-old Ivan Kharitonov.
After the grave was opened near Ekaterinburg, the remains of the members of the imperial family were interred in 1998 in the family vault of the Peter-Paul cathedral of St. Petersburg.
On 29 July 2007, during archaeological excavations south of the spot of the first grave, remains of two more persons were found. Many experts maintain that the remains belong to Tsarevich Alexis and his sister Maria. (tr. by PDS, posted 15 November 2015)
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