Czar’s family plead for ‘closure’ with burials

Two children not interred with their parents

The descendants of the Russian imperial family have called on the Russian Orthodox Church to give them “closure,” allowing the bodies of two missing Romanov children to be laid to rest with their parents on the centenary of their murder.

Princess Olga, the greatniece of Czar Nicholas II and president of the Romanov Family Association, said the burial of the brother and sister, along with their three siblings and parents, would finally allow their family to “rest in peace” together.

The princess, who lives in the 13th-century Provender House in Kent, England, travelled with a dozen family members to St. Petersburg Tuesday to mark the 100th anniversary of the execution of the czar, czarina, their children and acquaintances, in a mystery that has absorbed the public for decades.

They arrived in Russia in the midst of a simmering debate with the Russian Orthodox Church about the bones of their ancestors, which were found in two unmarked graves and proven by extensive DNA testing.

Some in the church have refused to recognize the bodies of the two Romanov children, which are now held in a state vault while they are investigated by a commission of state and church officials. The family and experts had hoped the matter would be resolved by the time of the 100th anniversary of their deaths. A decision has been postponed until at least 2020.

Tuesday, the members of the Romanov Family Association attended two memorial services in St. Petersburg, visiting the Hermitage Museum, once the czar’s Winter Palace, and taking part in a liturgy dedicated to the 100th anniversary with Georgy Poltavchenko, the governor.

Princess Olga, speaking after the Russian services, told The Daily Telegraph the family now hoped for “closure.” She said: “What we really would like is to be able to bury them with their parents so the whole family can rest in peace. Then we can all move on.

“It would be nice to have a place that one can go and say a prayer for them all. That will be it then, really.”

The Church has said the remains must be tested further since the royal family are Orthodox saints, but it also appears to fear offending clergy, including a bishop close to Vladimir Putin, who believe the relics were destroyed in a Jewish conspiracy.

Other distant relatives of the czar Tuesday attended a memorial in Yekaterinburg, where the family were executed, and met with Russian Orthodox Church leadership.

On the exact anniversary of the 2.30 a.m. execution, more than 100,000 believers joined a 20-kilometre procession led by Patriarch Kirill from the execution site to the mine shaft where the remains were thrown.