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Requiem for the
Romanovs
Russia today called to mind the events of July 17, 1918 --
90 years ago -- when the last Russian czar, Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra,
and their children were executed. The country still remains deeply divided
about the communist period. Will Lenin's tomb be moved?
A single tear. It welled up, then fell from the corner of
one of the principal soloist's eyes, glistening as it ran down her cheek.
She was a young Russian woman, dressed in a white gown, and
she was performing here tonight at the world premiere of a "Requiem
Concert" in Russia's largest church, Christ the Savior, in a commemoration
of the 90th anniversary of the execution of the last Russian Czar and his
family -- Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, their four daughters Olga, Tatyana,
Maria, and Anastasia, and their son, Alexei -- on the night of July 17, 1918.
In her weeping, the soloist was not alone. Many of the more
than 2,000 people who filled into the concert hall of the largest basilica in
Russia, the Church of Christ the Savior, bombed by Stalin and rebuilt in the
1990s, wept openly as they listened and watched the tragedy of the last
Romanovs unfold.
Outside, a summer rain fell.
The story of the last days of the Romanovs is well known.
Czar Nicholas II, embroiled in a terrible war with Germany and Austro-Hungary,
decided to abdicate his throne on March 15, 1917. Without a single strong
leader, Russia was soon in political turmoil. Out of the turmoil, the tiny but
compact and single-minded Bolsheviks emerged as Russia's new rulers toward the
end of 1917.
Nicholas and his family were soon placed under house arrest.
They gardened, read books, prayed. Then, in the summer of 1918, on the evening
of July 17, they were taken to the basement room of their prison, and shot to
death. Their bodies were then burned.
Russia had made a clean break with its monarchical, and
Christian, past.
The age of the "dictatorship of the proletariat"
and of anti-Christian state atheism had begun.
For almost two hours this evening, a Russian orchestra and
choir alternated with historical and scriptural readings, accompanied by a
skillfully done video documentary containing never-before-seen footage from the
time of the Russian Revolution, to meditate on the Romanovs, and on the communist
persecution of religion in Russia which followed for 73 years (1918-1991).
The historical texts and music were by the Russian Orthodox
Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev, bishop of Vienna, Austria, for the Russian Orthodox in
central Europe. Alfeyev also participated in the performance, reading
Scriptural passages in which the sufferings of Christ seemed to foreshadow the
sufferings of his followers in communist Russia.
The Russian voices soared majestically, filling the hall.
The images projected on the screen showed the last days of the Romanovs -- and
moved the soloist to shed a tear...
The Vatican's current representative in Russia, Papal Nuncio
Antonio Mennini, an affable career Church diplomat who has labored for the past
two years in Moscow to build a relationship of trust between Rome and the
Russian Orthodox, was present in the front row throughout the performance. Also
present were a number of Russian political leaders, but not the counrty's
highest leadership.
I sat next to Mennini, and when the final crescendo, a cry
of faith transcending all suffering and death entitled "Come, let us
worship," concluded, in the quiet instant before the crowd erupted with
applause, Mennini, who had seemed hesitant about the whole affair at the outset
of the performance, turned slightly toward me and spoke a single word:
"Bella!" ("Beautiful!").
That is sufficient commentary: the performance was
beautiful.
But it was more than that.
It was a cultural and socio-political watershed for the
Russian Orthodox Church in post-communist Russia, stating the case more
forcefully and persuasively than ever before that Russia needs to acknowledge,
and repent, of the crimes of her communist past in order to build a new,
post-Soviet Russia.
The performance was woven of somewhat contrasting elements,
containing aspects of a concert (that is, a purely cultural event) and of a
religious service (the Scripture readings, the location -- inside the largest
church in Russia).
But there are two things which especially stand out about
tonight's performance.
The first: the sheer density of the emotion.
No one can contemplate the bloody murder of four lovely,
educated, refined, innocent girls, and their young brother, without a shudder.
This sense of horror is multiplied by the sense that the children in some way
represented the nation itself. The czar "incarnated" the
"essence" of the Russian nation, according to the monarchical
thinking of the age, and his children were thus the "future" of the
nation. To see them live so vibrantly, and then see their lives snuffed out so
brutally, would bring a tear to many Russian, and non-Russian, eyes, and did.
Sound, sight, and moments of silence tonight combined to
create a sense of being transported back in time, back to the World War I
period, of being "eyewitnesses" to acts of terrific brutality and
terrible barbarism. (There were moments in the film footage showing the actual
execution of prisoners by pistol shots to the head.)
So this was not simply a musical performance, but a
multi-media "tour de force."
The archival material uncovered by a team of Russian
researches in recent months concerning the life and last hours of the Romanov
family includes rare century-old photographs and film footage.
These images, particularly the smiling or pensive faces of
the four daughters and the frail son, displayed on a enormous screen behind the
orchestra, seemed to bring the viewer into direct contact with Olga, Tatyana,
Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei.
The orchestral music, the voice solos and choruses, and the
photos and films gripped the audience.
This meditation on the murder of a family became a
first-hand experience of a tragic injustice which unfolded inexorably before
the audience, ending with shocking images of the children's lifeless bodies
being burned and buried.
The second remarkable thing about this Requiem: the
meditation does not end with the death of the Romanovs in 1918.
It is not focused on the last Czar alone, and on his family,
though the anniversary of their deaths provided the occasion for the Requiem.
Rather, the performance continues after the deaths of
Nicholas and Alexandra and their children, right through the 1920s and 1930s,
examining the tragic consequences for religious faith in Russia of the victory
of the communists: the hundreds and thousands of Orthodox priest, nuns and
laypeople imprisoned and executed -- and the many Catholics also arrested and
killed. (This was mentioned in the performance.)
Thus, this performance transcends Russia's royal family, and
takes up in a compelling way the "great question" of Russia's choice
and and destiny and suffering during the 20th century.
In this sense, the Requiem is far from a "nostalgic
recollection" of the "good old days of the czars."
Instead, it is a searing socio-political critique of the
atheism and persecution of religious belief central to Russia's communist
regime.
In this performance, therefore, the Russian Orthodox Church
sets forth a powerful, emotionally compelling case for public recognition on
Russia of the crimes of the Soviet period (the performance was blessed by
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexi II, although he did not personally attend, reportedly
because of meetings with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Cyprus, who is
visiting Moscow in these days).
The orchestra was directed by a Russian general, Valery
Khalilov, and was comprised of musicians from the Russian Armed Forces. This
suggests that the Russian government gave its blessing to this Church Requiem
for the last czar.
But Russia, like every country, is not simple, and Russia
today remains deeply divided about the course it should take in the 21st
century. And many around the world are watching with interest and concern as
Russia seeks its way.
Though the Russian Orthodox Church is resurgent (near the
end of the performance are the words: "We believe that Russia today is
recovering by the prayers of all the new Russian martyrs, both named and
nameless, and that faith is being restored on the whole territory of our great
country"), there still remains a strong communist current in Russia, at
least 15% of the population.
The communists tend to be defensive about the "Soviet
time" and resist calls to "close the book" on that period of Russian history (as some
Church spokesman have urged).
I spoke today about the concert, and about Russia, with the
head of the Publishing Council of the Moscow Patriarchate, Father Vladimir
Soloviev, the principal sponsor of the event.
"Russia stands at a crossroads," Father Vladimir
told me. "We are struggling to decide what our national attitude will be
toward our communist past. For example, there are some who argue that we should
remove Lenin's body from his mausoleum beneath Red Square, at the center of
Russia, and re-name those streets and subway stations in our cities which
commemorate communist leaders.
"I personally think we should do this. We cannot fully
celebrate our great national festivals on Red Square as long as Lenin's
mausoleum stays in Red Square. Let it stay anywhere else, but not in Red
Square.
"But not everyone in Russia agrees with us,"
Father Vladimir continued. "There are many who remain nostalgic for the
communist time, many who were trained in Marxist doctrine to disdain and hate
the Church.
"Russia is not a unified society, not yet. We are
divided.
"This is why we chose to organize this Requiem Concert.
This is not a liturgy, not a Church celebration, but a cultural event. We want
to participate in the cultural debate in Russia today, and make our case.
"And that is a case we feel we can win. It is the case
for Christ, for Christian values, for family values.
"Among the primary aims of the communists was the
destruction of the family. Lenin was opposed to the family.
"And as we proceeded forward with this project, we
realized that the suffering of one family, the family of Nicholas and
Alexandra, the father, mother, son and daughters, all executed, could remind us
of all families, and that recalling the death of the Romanovs could be an
important moment for Russian society. All families need the Church, and the
Church needs all families. And we think the members of the royal family, in
their martyrdom, should become the official patrons of the family in
Russia."
Father Vladimir said his Publishing Council is now preparing
a number of new projects in defense of traditional Christian and family values,
and he stressed that the Russian Orthodox Church is open to collaboration on
these projects with Catholics, Protestants and all men and women of good will.
"The Russian Orthodox Church has never been closed in
on itself," Father Vladimir said. "We have always been open to the
outside world, to sharing our faith with others and to receiving from others
the gifts of their insight and faith."
The Moscow Patriarchate, in preparing tonight's Requiem
Concert, was supported by two American groups: the Bradley Foundation of
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Urbi et Orbi Communications, the publisher of
"Inside the Vatican" magazine. To support this concert, Urbi et Orbi
received donations from Cardinal William Keeler, the retired archbishop of
Baltimore, Maryland, and two American Catholic laymen, Lawrence Neuhoff of
Dallas, Texas, and Charles Parlato of New York, New York.
At a reception after the Requiem, Russian Orthodox Church
officials publicly thanked the Bradley Foundation and Urbi et Orbi for their
support, and awarded representatives of both the highest award the Russian
Orthodox Church can bestow on any layman, the Order of St. Daniel.
Bishop Hilarion concluded tonight's Requiem for the Romanovs
with these words: "The horror of a national tragedy could not destroy the
hope for a breakthrough to light and the inspired certainty that the triumph of
evil would be fleeting, and would be followed by a bright future, by growth in
spiritual perfection, by restoration and revival. The heroism of the martyrs of
the 20th century contains a reflection of the future Kingdom which is
transfiguring everyone and everything to live in peace through Christ."
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