Russia rehabilitates last tsar

Russia rehabilitates last tsar

1.10.2008

RUSSIA`S Supreme Court today formally rehabilitated the country`s last tsar, Nicholas II, and declared his family were victims of Soviet repression.

The ruling officially negates any notion of culpability by the Romanov family, whose alleged crimes were a key justification for the Bolshevik revolution and the slaying of the tsar and his family 90 years ago.

"The presidium declared as groundless the repression of Tsar Nicholas II and his family and rehabilitated them," said Supreme Court spokesman Pavel Odintsov.

The decision was welcomed by the Orthodox Church and Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, a leading descendant of the tsar who spearheaded the campaign to rehabilitate Nicholas II.

"The grand duchess expressed her joy and satisfaction after the decision," her representative in Russia, Alexander Zakatov, said.

"Maria Vladimirovna is particularly pleased because she had always been convinced that this issue would be resolved in Russia," said Mr Zakatov, adding the decision "proves the rule of law in Russia."

A spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church said the "decision can only be welcomed," in a statement reported by Interfax news agency.

"Without question this decision will have important consequences for modern Russia because it strengthens the rule of law, restores historical continuity and 1000 years of state tradition," the spokesman Georgy Ryabykh was quoted as saying.

Other Romanovs have been rehabilitated as victims of Soviet political repression, but a similar measure was refused in February for the last tsar and his immediate family, whose remains are buried in Saint Petersburg.

Tsar Nicholas II, his German-born wife Alexandra and their five children were shot by Bolshevik police in the cellars of the Ipatiev house in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, where they were being held prisoner, on July 17, 1918, eight months after the Russian revolution.

The fate of the tsar and his family has been a political football in Russia since their remains were found in a forest near Yekaterinburg in the closing years of the Soviet Union.

They were canonised by the Russian Orthodox Church as martyrs in 2000 despite abundant evidence that "bloody Nicholas," as the Bolsheviks branded him, had been a leading contributor to the misfortunes that befell the country.

In late 2002, the duchess appealed to a Kremlin commission under President Vladimir Putin to rehabilitate and declare null and void the "crimes" of Romanovs.

Mr Putin`s successor, Dmitry Medvedev, who became Russia`s youngest leader since Nicholas II when inaugurated as president in May at the age of 42, is reported to be something of an admirer of the late tsar.

The Russian authorities have played along with moves to rehabilitate the Romanovs perhaps, observers believe, because the memory of their execution serves to tarnish the reputation of the Communist party, still the leading opposition group in Russian politics.

The anniversary of the tsar`s execution has become the occasion for religious processions throughout Russia.

This year on July 17, hundreds of monarchists turned out in Moscow to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the slaying of Nicholas II and his family.



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