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Monarchy still
best, Romanov heiress tells Russians
Russians should not rule out the benefits of returning to a
monarchical system, a leading descendant of tsar Nicholas II said on Thursday
while marking her ancestor's killing 90 years ago.
"Concerning monarchy, it's for the Russian people to
decide themselves if this option suits them," said Grand Duchess Maria
Vladimirovna, who on the basis of her ancestral line claims to be Nicholas's
heir.
"It gives a nation something eternal they can rely
on.... Forgive me, as head of the imperial house I couldn't think otherwise,
but it's our people who should choose for themselves," she told reporters.
The duchess was attending commemorations in Yekaterinburg,
where Nicholas, his wife and their five children were killed on the night of
July 16-17, 1918, sealing the fall of an ancient dynasty and its replacement by
the Soviet Union.
Currently resident in Madrid, she said she would like to
return to live in Russia but such a decision would have to be supported from
within the country.
"It's important that there be the right circumstances,
some kind of status.
"The imperial house has to know that the government and
all the Russian people really want us to live here and could provide us with
some help," said Maria Vladimirovna, who wore a necklace bearing a symbol
of the imperial house.
The duchess has been waging a long court battle to get the
murdered Romanovs officially "rehabilitated," without which, she
believes, they formally retain the Soviet slur of "enemies of the
people."
She said that in addition to Nicholas and his immediate
family, 17 other Romanovs were murdered by the Bolsheviks, of whom four had
been granted official rehabilitation.
The duchess has also campaigned for the names of some
geographical features she finds inappropriate to be changed, including a Moscow
metro station named after Pyotr Voikov, who helped arrange the last tsar's
killing.
The province where Yekaterinburg is located is still named
Sverdlovsk after a Bolshevik leader who issued orders for the killing.
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