RUSSIA: FORENSIC SPECIALISTS PREPARE BONES OF RUSSIAN TSAR NICHOLAS II FOR BURIAL ON EVE OF FINAL JOURNEY HOME TO ST. PETERSBURG

Record ID: 647954

  • Title: RUSSIA: FORENSIC SPECIALISTS PREPARE BONES OF RUSSIAN TSAR NICHOLAS II FOR BURIAL ON EVE OF FINAL JOURNEY HOME TO ST. PETERSBURG
  • Date: 14th July 1998
  • Summary: YEKATERINBURG, RUSSIA (JULY 15, 1998) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS EXTERIOR OF YEKATERINBURG CITY MORGUE (3 SHOTS) 0.15 2. VARIOUS VIEWS OF FORENSIC EXPERTS PUTTING THE BONES ON A TABLE/ ASSEMBLING SKELETON (6 SHOTS) 1.03 3. SLV/CU BONES BEING PUT INTO COFFIN (2 SHOTS) 1.23 4. SLV ROW OF COFFINS 1.27 ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA (FILE) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) (MONOCHROME) 5. SV/SCU TSAR NICHOLAS II AND WIFE ALEXANDRA AT STATE CEREMONY (2 SHOTS) 1.37 6. SLV TSAR NICHOLAS II INSPECTING TROOPS 1.43 7. SLV TSAR NICHOLAS AND THREE DAUGHTERS WALKING DOWN STEPS AND GETTING INTO CARRIAGE (2 SHOTS) 1.53 8. CU PHOTO OF ROMANOV ROYAL FAMILY 2.00 YEKATERINBURG, RUSSIA (JULY 15, 1998) ) (RTR - NO ACCESS RUSSIA) 9. WS OFFICIALS AT THE SIGNING CEREMONY FOR THE TRANSFER OF THE BONES TO THE BURIAL COMMISSION 2.05 10. SV/ZOOM OUT OFFICIALS SIGNING PAPERS (2 SHOTS) 2.29 11. CLOSE UP OF PLAQUE ON COFFIN 2.35 12. WS SOLDIERS NEXT TO COFFINS 2.39 13. SV OFFICIALS SHAKE HANDS AT END OF CEREMONY 2.50 ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA (JULY 15, 1998) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 14. WIDESHOT PETROPAVLOVSKI FORTRESS,VARIOUS OF BELLS RINGING (4 SHOTS) 3.11 15. VARIOUS INTERIOR/ROYAL GRAVES/GRAVES BEING PREPARED (4 SHOTS) 3.35 ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA (JULY 14, 1998) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 16. WS/CU ST.PETERSBURG GOVERNOR VLADIMIR YAKOVLEV SAYING "WE WANT TO SHOW THE WORLD THAT WE ARE READY TO REPENT. WE ARE READY FOR PEACEFUL LIFE AND COEXISTENCE. OUR HISTORIC FUTURE WILL BE DIFFERENT AND MORE PEACEFUL." (RUSSIAN) (3 SHOTS) 4.00 17. LV ALEXANDROVSKI PALACE, WHERE ALEXANDER WAS KEPT AFTER ABDICATION. 4.05 18. PAN INTERIORS OF THE PALACE/ LIVING ROOM WITH CU PORTRAITS OF THE TSAR AND TSARINA (3 SHOTS) 4.18 19. PAN TSAR'S OFFICE 4.24 ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA (JULY 15, 1998) (RTV - ACCESS ALL), 20. SV MUSEUM OF WAX FIGURES/PETER THE GREAT WITH NIKOLAS 4.27 21. CLOSE-UP OF NIKOLAS 4.32 22. VARIOUS ROMANOV FAMILY MEMBER LAYING WREATH AT PESKARYOV CEMETERY (4 SHOTS) 5.00 PETERHOFF, RUSSIA (JULY 14, 1998) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 23. WS PETERHOFF PALACE WITH FOUNTAINS - SUMMRE PALACE OF THE ROMANOVS 5.05 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 29th July 1998 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ST PETERSBURG AND YEKATERINBURG, AND PETERHOFF, RUSSIA
  • City:
  • Country: Russia
  • Reuters ID: LVAC3WTYCTWSPH3K96V2BGWI8EJX
  • Story Text: Forensic specialists have been preparing the bones of Russian Tsar Nicholas II for burial on the eve of a final journey home to his imperial capital St Petersburg eight decades after he was executed.

    Forensic experts at the city morgue on Wednesday (July 15) gingerly removed the skulls and bones of Nicholas, his wife, three of their daughters and four staff and servants from under special glass cases and into nine hand-made oak coffins.

    The remains, dug up in 1991, will be reinforced with packing material to prevent shifting during transport and sealed before Thursday's ceremony at Yekaterinburg's Church of the Resurrection and the funeral in St Petersburg on Friday.

    What was intended as an act of reconciliation with a painful page of Russian history has degenerated into an orgy of political squabbling, with the Orthodox Church saying it is not completely convinced of the authenticity of the remains.

    This is despite several international forensic investigations which established a better than 99.99 percent chance they are those of the last emperor and his family.

    Regardless, high church officials are staying away from the ceremonies, as is President Boris Yeltsin, who is sending lower ranking officials in an effort to avoid more discord.

    Observers say the church, which on Tuesday said a priest would bless the burial of the remains as only a bunch of nameless bones, faces complex ecclesiastical issues in reserving its full support.

    The foreign-based Western branch of the church has already canonised Nicholas, meaning as a saint he cannot be buried but must be kept above the ground.The danger of a split in the national branch of the church also explains its ambivalence.

    In a ceremony at Yekaterinburg Morgue on Wednesday (July 15) local officials signed over the Romanov's remains to the Burial Commission.

    Nicholas and the others were executed on July 17, 1918, on the orders of Bolshevik authorities who feared his symbolic authority over "White" armies engaged in civil war with "Red" communist troops.

    The family had been moved thousands of kilometres to this distant outpost in the Ural mountains after Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin's 1917 revolution.

    Each of the victims was shot and thrown into a water-logged pit before the executioners dragged out their corpses.

    They soaked the bodies in sulphuric acid and set them on fire in an unsuccessful effort to destroy the evidence before tossing the blackened bones into a mass grave in a forest.

    The gruesome murders spelled the end of the Romanov dynasty which ruled Russia from feudal times to the 20th century.

    Officials in St.Petersburg are preparing to go ahead with a state funeral for the remains that are now in the possession of the Burial Commission.

    On Friday (July 17) the remains of Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna, and three of their five children will be placed in the Romanov family crypt of the Peter and Paul fortress in St.Petersburg.

    In the words of organizers, the state ceremony is to be subdued and dignified, a chance to face past atrocities and recall a nearly forgotten heritage.

    "We want to show the world that we are ready to repent, that we are ready for peaceful life and coexistence," said Petersburg regional governor Vladimir Yakovlev.

    But what was intended as a national act of reconciliation with a painful past has partly degenerated into renewed political squabbling, with the Orthodox Church saying it is not completely convinced of the authenticity of the remains, political spats about the location and costs of the burial, and pull-outs from the ceremony by President Yeltsin, and prominent members of the Romanov family branches.

    The controversy has been slammed in the Russian media as a national disgrace and overshadowed what could have been a rare moment of unity across the deeply divided, vast land of 150 million people.

    Nikolai Romanov, a Romanov family member who arrived in Petersburg for the ceremony and has said that others will eventually regret having not come, stresses that the funeral will at least allow the family to make a dignified parting with the once disgraced and deposed family members.
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