26 July 2012

INTERFAX: Religion. The House of Romanoff hopes that newly revealed evidence will help resolve the question of the authenticity of the “Ekaterinburg Remains”

INTERFAX: Religion. The House of Romanoff hopes that newly revealed evidence will help resolve the question of the authenticity of the “Ekaterinburg Remains”

New Evidence is discovered in Brussels among the materials of the White Guard investigator, Sokolov

Moscow, June 26. INTERFAX. The House of Romanoff will follow the lead of the Russian Orthodox Church on the question of the authenticity of the remains of the last Russian emperor, Nicholas II.

The Director of the Chancellery of the House of Romanoff, Alexander Zakatov, told INTERFAX on Thursday that the Head of the House, Grand Duchess Maria of Russia, will recognize the remains buried in the Ss. Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, if the Church declares them to be authentic.

The Church and the House of Romanoff have yet to recognize the authenticity of these remains, citing the lack of conclusive evidence.

On Thursday, it was announced that the Moscow Patriarchate might reconsider its position on the “Ekaterinburg Remains.”

Patriarch Kirill announced at a meeting of the Holy Synod in Kiev, that new and important information had come to him from New York (where the spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad is located), information that is connected to the facts surrounding the deaths of the Imperial Family. The patriarch said: “I believe that these facts might help us determine our position on many things, including the questions about the so-called “‘Ekaterinburg Remains.’”

“We know that some time ago, in Brussels, during the restoration work on the cathedral in memory of the Tsar-Martyr, important new evidence was uncovered, materials that had been assembled by the investigator Nikolai Sokolov (who, on instructions from Admiral A. Kolchak, led the investigation in 1919 into the murder of the Imperial Family),” Zakatov said.

Zakatov also said that “it is possible that these new materials will permit additional scientific analyses and thereby throw new light on certain aspects of the situation with the ‘Ekaterinburg Remains.’ Right now, it is still too early to talk about a complete change in view, but Grand Duchess Maria of Russia is in touch with Metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, who is keeping Her informed of developments.”

Members of the Imperial House are hopeful that a new investigation will “bring us to a more conclusive result than the one that was conducted in 1988.”

Until recently, the refusal of the Russian Orthodox Church to recognize the “Ekaterinburg Remains” as authentic was rooted in serious lingering doubts. “If these doubts can be resolved, then it is possible that the Church will change its position. In that case, the Head of the House of Romanoff would, in solidarity with the Church, also recognize the remains as authentic,” Zakatov stated.

According to Zakatov, during the reconstruction of the walls of the church in Brussels a lead cylinder was unearthed containing a note on the history of the physical evidence.

“The investigator Sokolov had at one point transferred the physical evidence for safekeeping to Prince A. A. Shirinskii-Shikhmatov. Then the prince’s son, Kirill, found it necessary to move the evidence again, this time to the Russian Orthodox Church, specifically to Metropolitan Seraphim (Luk’ianov). The physical evidence was for a time located in the Orthodox Church of the Sign in Paris, and then later was moved for preservation to the current church in Brussels,” Zakatov said.

According to Zakatov, the lead cylinder contained glass jars with soil from Ganina Yama, the place where the bodies of members of the Imperial Family and their servants were burned.

“The jars contain soil and clay, mixed with organic secretions that the bodies produced when they were being burned. This material will possibly allow for new genetic testing,” Zakatov explained.

For more information, see: http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=46637

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