Nicholas Ii Czar

International experts will examine nine skeletons that may be the remains of the last Russian czar and his family, who were assassinated in 1918. According to Russian television, authorities in the Siberian city of Sverdlovsk announced Thursday that "the supposed burial place of the Russian emperor's family" was opened on July 12. "Nine skeletons were found there. International experts will take part in the examination of the remains," the television said.

Russians lit candles and chanted prayers for Czar Nicholas II and his murdered family Friday as the anniversary of their assassination was marked for the first time with official approval. In the former imperial capital, St. Petersburg, 600 members of Orden, the Russian Imperial Union that seeks to restore the monarchy, held a memorial service on the steps of Kazan Cathedral. Some carried black, gold and white czarist flags, while others held portraits of the czar and his German-born wife.

The Russian Orthodox Church is planning to build a shrine to the "martyrs" of the Bolshevik Revolution on the site where Nicholas II, Russia's last czar, was executed by the Communists in 1918. Nikolai P. Kalinin, warden of St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Sverdlovsk, said Tuesday that a large chapel will be built and regular services held to honor Nicholas, his family and servants, and other "martyrs unjustly executed" in the past seven decades of Communist rule.

Scientists have determined that two skeletons unearthed in a Siberian city are those of murdered Czar Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra, solving a 74-year-old mystery, a researcher said Monday. The remains of the czar and czarina were among nine skeletons dug up last summer from a pit in Yekaterinburg, said researcher Alexander Blokhin. A third skeleton was identified as that of the Romanov family doctor, Sergei Botkin, he said.

A small makeshift cross in a birch forest near this Urals village points to the end of one of Europe's great mysteries. Here, in a small marshy clearing, lies a mass grave with nine bodies, believed to be those of Russia's last czar, Nicholas II; his wife, Alexandra; three of his four daughters and four servants--massacred by a Bolshevik execution squad in the heat of the Communist revolution 73 years ago.

The pretender to the Russian throne celebrated his 74th birthday Friday with a wish to return to his ancestral land, whether as the possible first czar since the 1917 revolution or simply as an adviser. "Czardom in some form could be a good solution. I have got information that it could be possible. It could act as a balancing factor," said Grand Duke Vladimir Kirilovich Romanov during a birthday reception at Haiko Manor, near the town of Porvoo, where he was born.

Scientists have determined that two skeletons unearthed in a Siberian city are those of murdered Czar Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra, solving a 74-year-old mystery, a researcher said Monday. The remains of the czar and czarina were among nine skeletons dug up last summer from a pit in Yekaterinburg, said researcher Alexander Blokhin. A third skeleton was identified as that of the Romanov family doctor, Sergei Botkin, he said.

Russians lit candles and chanted prayers for Czar Nicholas II and his murdered family Friday as the anniversary of their assassination was marked for the first time with official approval. In the former imperial capital, St. Petersburg, 600 members of Orden, the Russian Imperial Union that seeks to restore the monarchy, held a memorial service on the steps of Kazan Cathedral. Some carried black, gold and white czarist flags, while others held portraits of the czar and his German-born wife.

A small makeshift cross in a birch forest near this Urals village points to the end of one of Europe's great mysteries. Here, in a small marshy clearing, lies a mass grave with nine bodies, believed to be those of Russia's last czar, Nicholas II; his wife, Alexandra; three of his four daughters and four servants--massacred by a Bolshevik execution squad in the heat of the Communist revolution 73 years ago.

The pretender to the Russian throne celebrated his 74th birthday Friday with a wish to return to his ancestral land, whether as the possible first czar since the 1917 revolution or simply as an adviser. "Czardom in some form could be a good solution. I have got information that it could be possible. It could act as a balancing factor," said Grand Duke Vladimir Kirilovich Romanov during a birthday reception at Haiko Manor, near the town of Porvoo, where he was born.

International experts will examine nine skeletons that may be the remains of the last Russian czar and his family, who were assassinated in 1918. According to Russian television, authorities in the Siberian city of Sverdlovsk announced Thursday that "the supposed burial place of the Russian emperor's family" was opened on July 12. "Nine skeletons were found there. International experts will take part in the examination of the remains," the television said.

The Russian Orthodox Church is planning to build a shrine to the "martyrs" of the Bolshevik Revolution on the site where Nicholas II, Russia's last czar, was executed by the Communists in 1918. Nikolai P. Kalinin, warden of St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Sverdlovsk, said Tuesday that a large chapel will be built and regular services held to honor Nicholas, his family and servants, and other "martyrs unjustly executed" in the past seven decades of Communist rule.