Head of the Russian State Archive suggests to exhume remains of the tzar family to examine them again

Moscow, March 18, Interfax – All doubts about authenticity of Emperor Nicholas II’s family relics should be eliminated, director of the Russian State Archive Sergey Mironenko believes.

“We have to listen to church officials and exhume the relics buried in Sts Peter and Paul Cathedral and to do it in presence of church representatives and then it should be sealed up by church seals, and the Church should say whom of experts it confides in,” Mironenko said on air The Eternity and Time program at the Spas TV channel.

As to disclosed relics of Nicholas II’s children Alexey and Maria, the archive director says he “is categorically against burying the relics without participation of the Russian Orthodox Church.”

He also promised to publish in the Internet all the materials referring to the case on disclosure of tzar relics. “The Russian State Archive has its own website and there we will post all the documents discovered during the research,” Mironenko said.

Head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin on air the program said that the relics of the tzar family in Sts Peter and Paul Cathedral are covered with plates, which can be easily removed, though “it is always bad to disturb the remains.” According to him, their burial was forced.

“I remember rather tough pressure from Mr. Nemtsov and his office, but we won’t say any bad things about recently killed person,” the priest said.

The House of Romanov admits the possibility of exhuming tzar family remains in order to stop discussions about their authenticity.

“If the state considers it necessary, the Russian Imperial House won’t stand against further research on the question,” the House advocate German Lukianov told Interfax on Wednesday.

A grave with nine bodies was found on Staraya Koptyakovskaya Road near Yekaterinburg in July 1991. The remains were identified as those of Emperor Nicholas II, his 46-year-old wife Alexandra Fyodorovna, their daughters Olga, 22, Tatyana, 21, and Anastasia, 17, and their servants Yevgeny Botkin, 53, Anna Demidova, 40, Aloizy Trupp, 62, and Ivan Kharitonov, 48.

The remains of two more people were discovered during archaeological excavation works 70 kilometers south of the first grave on July 26, 2007. The remains have still not been buried, but numerous expert analyses indicate that the remains were most likely those of Crown Prince Alexey and his sister Maria.

The Investigative Committee said in January 2011 that it had completed an investigation into the death of Nicholas II, his family members and entourage and closed the criminal case.

The Russian Orthodox Church has still not recognized the remains interred in Peter and Paul Cathedral as those of Nicholas II and his family members and entourage, claiming that it was not convinced by the proof of their authenticity that was presented.

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