Russia Rehabilitates Executed Royals
Reuters / June 10, 1999
Russia rehabilitated four members of the czarist royal family on Wednesday, more than 80 years after they were shot by Bolsheviks, the general prosecutor's office said.
Pavel Romanov, a son of Czar Alexander II, was rehabilitated along with three other Romanov princes, it said. The four were executed in Russia's second city of St Petersburg on Jan. 24, 1919.
Russia's prosecutor's office maintains a department which is charged with clearing the names of those wrongfully imprisoned or killed during seven decades of Communist totalitarian rule.
An employee at the Administration for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression said the four princes' case was complicated by a lack of documentation on the orders for their execution.
But the employee was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass news agency the records showed the princes had not faced concrete charges or a proper criminal trial.
The Romanov dynasty, toppled in 1917, has become a somewhat awkward symbol for those hoping to build a new national identity in post-Soviet Russia.
Last summer the remains of the last czar, Nikolai II, were buried in St Petersburg, 80 years after he and his immediate family were murdered by Bolsheviks in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.
The Orthodox Church boycotted the burial ceremony, expressing doubt at the DNA evidence that the bones were genuine. President Boris Yeltsin announced only at the last minute that he would attend.