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Russian court 'rehabilitates' last tsar

01.10.2008

MOSCOW (AFP) - A Russian court Wednesday formally rehabilitated the country's last tsar, Nicholas II, as a victim of Soviet repression in a symbolic gesture long demanded by relatives, a court spokesman said. "The presidium declared as groundless the repression of Tsar Nicholas II and his family and rehabilitated them," said Pavel Odintsov of the Russian Supreme Court.A leading descendant of the tsar, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, has for several years been seeking the rehabilitation of Nicholas II, who was executed after the Bolshevik revolution. The decision officially negates any notion of culpability by the Romanovs, the last ruling Russian royal family. Their alleged crimes were a key justification for the Soviet communist system that governed Russia for most of the 20th century.

Other Romanovs have been rehabilitated as victims of Soviet political repression, but a similar measure was refused in February for the last tsar and his immediate family, whose remains are buried in Saint Petersburg.Nicholas II, his wife and five children were murdered by Bolsheviks in the early hours of July 17, 1918 in Yekaterinburg, where they had been held prisoner. They were canonised as Orthodox martyrs in 2000. In late 2002, the duchess appealed to a commission under then-president Vladimir Putin to rehabilitate and declare null and void the "crimes" of Romanovs.

Putin's successor, Dmitry Medvedev, who became Russia's youngest leader since Nicholas II when inaugurated as president in May at the age of 42, is reported to be something of an admirer of the late tsar. Hundreds of monarchists turned out in Moscow on July 17 this year to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the slaying of Nicholas II and his family.

Source: Yahoo

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