Press Release Concerning the Official Visit of the Head of the Russian Imperial House, H.I.H. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, to Russia, 14-24 July 2008

On 14-24 July 2008, the Head of the Russian Imperial House, H.I.H. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, made an official visit to Russia. Her Imperial Highness arrived in Russia with the blessing of His Holiness, Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow and all Russia, in connection with the 90-th anniversary of the martyrific executions by the Communist regime of St.-Emperor Nicholas II, his family, other members of the House of Romanoff, and their faithful servants.

On 14 July 2008, the Grand Duchess arrived in Moscow from Madrid. On 15 July, she met with representatives of the press and gave several television and radio interviews. Afterwards, she attended a reception in her honor at the Pilgrim’s Center of the Moscow Patriarchate, arranged by the director of the Center, S. Iu. Zhitenev. After the reception, the head of the Russian Imperial House met with members of her Chancellery and received representatives of the Russian Nobility Association and numerous other social organizations. Then Her Imperial Highness met members of the Knight’s Council of the Imperial Military Order of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, including the chair, Major-General A. V. Kirilin, the secretary, O. V. Kuznetsov, and other members of the Order. New members were at that time awarded the devices of the Order, including Colonel-General V. P. Baranov, who was severely wounded during the terrorist attack in Groznyi on 9 May 2004.

On 16 July, the head of the Russian Imperial House flew from Sheremetevo-1 airport to Ekaterinburg. Unfortunately, for unknown reasons, the flight was delayed for several hours. Because of this, the Grand Duchess decided to go directly from the airport to the Church-on-the-Blood immediately on her arrival in Ekaterinburg. At the completion of the all-night vigil and after the procession of the Cross, Her Imperial Highness went to the church on the lower level, which is situated on the exact spot where the murders of the Royal Family took place, and then attended an intercessory prayer service (moleben) to the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers. After that, it being already very late at night, the Grand Duchess arrived at her hotel, where she stayed during the entire time of her visit to the Ekaterinburg Diocese.

On 17 July, the Grand Duchess visited the Ural Mountains University, which was founded by the Royal Passion-Bearer Nicholas II, where she acquainted herself with the academic programs, met and spoke with the chancellor, N. P. Kosarev, and with the faculty, and answered questions from members of the Russian and foreign press. Afterward, the Grand Duchess attended a reception given by His Eminence Archbishop Vikentii of Ekaterinburg and Verkhotur’e in honor of the Feast Day of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers. During the reception, the head of the House of Romanoff bestowed the devices of the Order of St. Anna on Archbishop Vikentii and on Archbishop Mark of Khabarovsk and the Amur, which had been awarded to them, with the blessing of Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow and All Russia, on 3/16 February 2008. At this same reception, the Grand Duchess awarded the medal “For Diligence and Service” to the head of the press service of the Ekaterinburg Diocese, B. V. Kosinskii, and to the People’s Artist, T. N. Voronin. In the evening, the Grand Duchess visited the New Tikhvin Convent and prayed before the holy relics and shared a meal with the sisters arranged by the abbess of the convent, Mother Domnika.

On 18 July, in the morning, Her Imperial Highness traveled to Alapaevsk, where she prayed at the monastery of the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, situated on the very site of the martyrdom of the Holy Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna and those who suffered death with her. Then, the Grand Duchess gave a welcoming address to the participants of the academic conference “Alapaevsk Golgotha,” after which she visited the monastery of the Holy Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna and Nun Barbara at the site where members of the royal family were held in confinement before their deaths. On the way back to Ekaterinburg, the Grand Duchess stopped and prayed at the crypt where the incorrupt bodies of the Alapaevsk martyrs were buried after having been retrieved from the mineshaft and before being taken out of Russia through the Far East. In the evening, in Ekaterinburg, the head of the Russian Imperial House met with the newly-elected marshal of the Russian Nobility Association, Prince G. G. Gagarin, with the minister of internal affairs of the Pridnestr Moldavian Republic, V. N. Krasnosel’skii, with a representative of the Russian inter-regional monarchist movement, Iu. V. Myshonkov, and with representatives of other organizations loyal to the Grand Duchess. She also gave an interview to the radio station “Voice of Russia [Golos Rossii].”

On 19 July, the Grand Duchess went to the monastery at Ganina Yama, where the executioners attempted to destroy the bodies of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers. The Grand Duchess bowed before the holy relics preserved in the monastery and venerated the Cross which once belonged to the All-Russian emperor, and the ring which once belonged to the Holy Passion-Bearer Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna. After the intercessory prayer service [moleben] to the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers, Her Imperial Highness bestowed the medal “For Diligence and Service” to the priest Igor Bachinin, the director of the Office of Public Relations of the Ekaterinburg Diocese, who accompanied her during the present and her previous visit to Ekaterinburg. The Grand Duchess left the monastery and went directly from there to the airport to fly back to Moscow.

In the course of her visit to the Ekaterinburg Diocese, Her Imperial Highness warmly spent time with many who had come for the Feast Day, including Metropolitan Sergei of Voronezh and Borisogleb; Bishop Justinian of Tiraspol; Bishop Michael of Geneva and Western Europe; clergy and lay pilgrims from Australia; with orthodox clergy from various diocese of Russia and the Russian Diaspora, with T. N. Kulikovskii, a relative of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearer Nicholas II (the son of Grand Duchess Olga Aleksandrovna from her morganatic second marriage with Colonel N. A. Kulokovskii); with O. N. Kulikovskaia, and with officials and representatives of civic and religious groups.

On 20 July, the head of the House of Romanoff traveled to Savvino-Storozhevskii Monastery. After attending an intercessory prayer service [moleben] served in the main church of the monastery by the abbot, Archimandrite Savva (Fateev), Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna presented to the monastery, in permanent trust, the icon of Christ’s Resurrection, painted on the occasion and celebration of the 300-th anniversary of the ascension to the throne of the House of Romanoff and presented to the Holy Royal Passion-Bearer Nicholas II by his faithful subjects. This icon (and the icon of the Holy Prophet Elijah, which the Grand Duchess presented, in permanent trust, to the Moscow Vysoko-Petrovskii Monastery on 22 July) was acquired by the famous philanthropist and chairman of the Club of Patrons and Philanthropists of Russia, E. M. Riapov, and was given by him to the heiress of the Tasr-Martyr Nicholas II, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna. The Grand Duchess venerated the relics of St. Savva Storozhevskii. After the trapeze [meal] at the monastery, Her Imperial Highness visited the Skete of St. Savva and then returned to Moscow. During the second half of the day, the Grand Duchess met with her Master of Heraldry and Director of Heraldry in Her Imperial Highness’s Chancellery, S. V. Dumin; with a delegation from the Russian Imperial Union-Order; with General A. A. Shumkov, who conveyed to Her Imperial Highness a religious gift from the well-known St. Petersburg philanthropist and knight of the Order of St. Anna (second class) V. N. Zhimirov; and with the journalist B. A. Korobov. In the evening, at the restaurant in the hotel “Danilovskaia,” a dinner was given in honor of Her Imperial Highness by the Russian Nobility Association. At the dinner were present the ambassador from Malta to Russia, M. Costa, and the chargé d’affairs of the Maltese diplomatic mission to Russia, N. Sukmandzhev. In the course of the conversations at dinner a number of topics were discussed including the possibility of Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna coming to Malta, where her grandmother, Empress Victoria Feodorovna, was born.

On 21 July, the head of the Russian Imperial House visited the Southeastern Administrative District of Moscow (IuVAO). The visit began with a reception in the Prefecture, during which the Prefect for the IuVAO, V. B. Zotov, outlined for Her Imperial Highness the civic improvements being taken in the district. There also took place the ceremony of bestowing by the Grand Duchess the devices of the Imperial Military Order of St. Nicholas on V. B. Zotov and his first deputy, M. N. Gribiniuchenko. Afterwards, the Grand Duchess visited the Museum of the History of Moscow in the country estate “Vlakhernskoe-Kuz’minki”; the Museum-Park “Liublino”; the M. A. Sholokhov Moscow Cossack Cadet School; the Moscow State Girls’ Boarding School; the Children’s Library No. 81; the I. Iarygin Palace of Sport, where she laid flowers at the monument to the pilots of the “Normandie-Niéman” Squadron and other foreign soldiers and officers who gave their lives in the fight against Fascism. In the evening, the Prefect for the IuVAO, V. B. Zotov, held a dinner in honor of the head of the Russian Imperial House, at which were present the chief administrators of the Prefecture, the Reverend Archpriest Anatolii Rodionov, who in 1995 participated in the translation from Coburg to St. Petersburg of the incorrupt remains of the Grand Duchess’s grandfather, Emperor-in-exile Kirill Vladimirovich and the remains of Empress Victoria Feodorovna; as well as representatives of cultural and civic organizations.

During her visit to the Southeastern Administrative District of Moscow, the grand Duchess met and spoke with the leadership of the Prefecture, with museum curators; with teacher at the Cadet school; and with veterans of the “Normandie-Niéman” Squadron, who gave Her Imperial Highness a picture they themselves made of the Church of the Icon of Our Lady “Assuage my Sorrows”.

On 22 July, the Grand Duchess went to the Vysoko-Petrovskii Monastery in Moscow. After attending an intercessory prayer service (moleben), served in the Church of St. Sergii Radonezh by the rector Archimandrite Ioann (Ekonomtsev), Her Imperial Highness presented, in eternal trust, to the monastery the icon of the Holy Prophet Elijah, “written” in honor of the coronation of the Holy Passion-Bearer Nicholas II and given to him by his faithful subjects in 1896. Afterwards, the Grand Duchess venerated the holy relics housed in the Church of St. Sergii Radonezh (a part of the relics of St. Sergii and St. Serafim, the miracle working icon of the Holy Great Martyr Panteleimon, the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, which had been in the monastery before the revolution, had been stolen during the time of the monastery’s closure and ruin, and had been returned to the monastery from abroad), and toured the grounds of the monastery, its churches and the graves of the Naryshkin boyars—relatives of the mother of Peter I, Tsaritsa Natalia Kirillovna. A Litiya service was served in the reconstructed monastery church in memory of Emperor Kirill Vladimirovich, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, Grand Duke Vladamir Kirillovich, and the Naryshkin boyars who are buried in the monastery cemetery. Afterwards, there was a concert of choir music and a monastic trapeze [meal]. After the trapeze, the head of the Russian Imperial House went to the offices of the Central Elections Commission where she met with its director, V. E. Churov and other members of the Commission. V. E. Churov familiarized the duchess with the recent improvements in electoral procedures. The two exchanged opinions on the similarities and differences between the prerevolutionary and current electoral systems and the significance of the reestablishment of historical traditions for the present-day and future of Russia. After visiting the Central Elections Commission the Grand Duchess paid a visit to the news agency “Interfax,” where she held a press conference for Russian and foreign reporters on her trip to Russia. In the evening, a dinner in honor of Her Imperial Highness was hosted by V. P. Vodolatskii, the deputy head of the Rostov District, member of the state Duma, and Ataman of the Don Cossacks. Before the dinner, the Grand Duchess bestowed the devices of the Imperial Military Order of St. Nicholas the Wonder Worker (first class) on V. P. Vodolatskii and S. M. Gribiniuchenko, and also the second and third classes upon those newly elevated to the Order.

On 23 July, Her Imperial Highness visited the Center for Folk Arts “Izmailovo” and held a final meeting with members of her Chancellery. On the same day the head of the Russian Imperial house, H. I. H. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, met at the airport with delegations from the group “For Faith and Fatherland” and several charity organizations, then departed for Madrid. 

A. N. Zakatov
Director of H. I. H.’s Chancellery