Russia reopens probe into 1918 imperial family murder case

Russia’s Investigative Committee has reopened the investigation into the 1918 murder of the Tsarist Empire’s last ruling royal family, the Romanovs. The aim of the investigation is to verify the identities of the remains using previously unavailable evidence.

The investigation will include further testing of what are believed to be the remains of Crown Prince Alexei Romanov and his sister, Grand Duchess Maria—both children of Russia’s last Tsar, Nicholas II. The remains will be tested against those of their aunt, Grand Duchess Yelizaveta Fyodorovna, as well as against bloodstains on the uniform of their great-grandfather Emperor Alexander II, who was killed in a bombing by radicals in St Petersburg in 1881.

According to the Investigative Committee, as a part of the investigation, the bodies of Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna would be exhumed from their tomb in St Petersburg’s Peter and Paul Cathedral.

In addition, the tasks of the investigation include studying archival materials found after 2011, connected to the “white guard” investigation conducted in 1918-1924, as well as studying the fate of physical evidence connected to this criminal case. The leadership of the Investigative Committee has decided to renew the preliminary investigation for conducting the studies and investigative actions listed here.

Tsar Nicholas II was the last ruler of the Russian Empire. He was forced to abdicate in 1917. He was imprisoned by the Bolsheviks and executed in 1918 along with his wife Alexandra, his daughters, Anastasia, Tatiana, Olga, and Maria, and his son, Alexei. The family’s doctor and three servants were killed with them.

For many years, the family’s burial site remained unknown. In 1979, near the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, an amateur archeologist accidentally stumbled upon the remains of Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, three of their four daughters, and the four non-family members killed with them. The remains were excavated only in 1998 and were officially identified using DNA testing as those of Nicholas II and his family (excluding one of his daughters and Alexei).

The bodies of Maria and Alexei were discovered in 2007, also near Yekaterinburg, by a group of amateur historians. DNA tests confirmed the findings. Their remains will be buried in Peter and Paul Fortress on October 18, 2015.

In 2008, Russia’s Supreme Court ruled that Nicholas II and his family were victims of political persecution and should be rehabilitated.

The Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg’s Peter and Paul Fortress is the burial place of most Russian tsars. The remains of Nicholas II and his family were reburied there in 1998, on the 80th anniversary of their deaths.