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Russian guilt
drives czar's popularity, Romanov heir says
Russians' newly found reverence for the last czar comes from
a sense of guilt 90 years after his murder by Bolshevik executioners, the
self-styled heir to Russia's imperial throne said today.
Czar Nicholas II, shot with his family by the Bolsheviks, is
ahead of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in a poll by Russia's state television
station on who is the greatest Russian.
Maria Romanova said the end of Soviet propaganda, which
lampooned Nicholas as an exotic failure of history, has allowed Russians to
draw their own conclusions about the last czar, who the Russian Orthodox Church
declared a holy martyr.
"Obviously he has become a very revered person,"
Romanova, known by supporters as Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Maria
Vladimirovna, said during a visit to the Urals city of Yekaterinburg where the
czar was shot exactly 90 years ago.
"When they freely read all his diaries before his death
and historians tell the truth to people it changes their feelings. Obviously
Russians have a feeling of guilt over what they have done."
Bolshevik agents killed Nicholas II and his family on the
night of July 16, 1918 in a basement in Yekaterinburg. The bodies were set
alight, doused in acid and dumped in pits.
The Romanov dynasty ruled Russia for 300 years before
Nicholas II abdicated in 1917, setting Russia on course for the Bolshevik
Revolution, civil war and 70 years of Communist rule.
Historians still argue over why Nicholas abdicated. Many
believe he was too weak to hold together the Russian empire, which had been
fighting World War One against Germany, the Austro-Hungarian empire and the
Ottoman empire.
Since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Nicholas II's
reputation has soared among many Russians who see him as a symbol of imperial
glory and the embodiment of a strong Russia.
More than 414,000 people have voted for Nicholas II in the
poll for Russia's greatest person, pushing Stalin with 363,000 votes into
second place. Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet state, is third.
The Soviet Union renamed Yekaterinburg as Sverdlovsk in
honour of Yakov Sverdlov, the Bolshevik official who helped organize the
killing of the czar's family. Now, though, the city is at the forefront of a
revival of the czar's image.
A church has been built on the site of the house where they
were killed and religious icons of the czar and his family dot the city. Today
Romanova unveiled another icon to Nicholas II at the city's mining institute.
"More and more Russian people who might not be
monarchists feel a terrible crime has been committed, not only against the head
of state but against children and normal people," she said, speaking of
the killing of Nicholas II, his family and servants.
Romanova, 54, who was born in Madrid, says she heads the
imperial family, but that claim is disputed.
She traces her royal lineage back to Nicholas II's uncle -
her great-grandfather - who assumed the title of emperor in exile after the
deaths of Nicholas and his family. Potential male heirs to the title
disqualified themselves by marrying women of lower social standing, Romanova's
Web site said.
Masha Kozhevnikova, standing outside the institute in the
bright sun, missed Romanova's visit but agreed that, as Russia's last imperial
leader, Czar Nicholas II was a great man.
"But I don't agree that he was the greatest ever,"
the 21-year-old student said. "If he hadn't been murdered he would not
have been voted number one."
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