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Russia exhumes Romanov remains

September 24, 2015

Russian investigators have exhumed the remains of the Czar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra. Tests are to be performed as part of a new investigation into the murder of the Romanov family.

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Der letzte Zar Nikolaus II Russland mit Familie
Image: picture-alliance/dpa

An official told the Echo of Moscow radio station that the remains had been exhumed on Wednesday as part of a thorough reinvestigation of the notorious 1918 slayings of the last members of the Romanov dynasty.

"We have decided to start again from the very beginning and carry out renewed examinations," said leading investigator Vladimir Solovyov. The remains will be subject to genetic testing, he added.

The team were said to have taken samples from the last czar and czarina, having also taken material from the bloodstained uniform of the Nicholas' father, Alexander II - himself assassinated in 1881.

Russian officials are keen to ascertain that another set of remains, thought to belong to Nicholas' heir, Czarevich Alexei, and one of the czar and czarina's four girls, Maria.

The czar, along with his wife and five children and a group of family servants, were shot by Bolsheviks, apparently afraid that they might be rescued by White (pro-monarchy) forces. The bodies were thrown into a mineshaft, before being burned and hurriedly buried.

Doubts over 'holy' status

A mass grave was found in near Yekaterinburg in 1991, and the remains found there were officially identified in 1998 as belonging to the royal couple and three of their girls - determined to be the grand duchesses Anastasia, Olga and Tatiana. Those remains were buried in the former imperial capital, St Petersburg.

A second grave found in 2007 contained two more bodies, which investigators said they believed to be Alexei and Maria. However, the Russian Orthodox Church - which has canonized the last Romanovs - said it remained unconvinced, and the remains were stored at the Russian state archives.

In July, the church urged that the case be reopened ahead of the centenary of the murder, so that all the members of the family might be buried together. Positive proof would, however, lead to questions arising about why the bodies were separated from those of the other family members.

A high level task force has proposed that the burial should take place on October 18.

rc/bw (AFP, AP)