|
Russians
prepare to commemorate murder of last Tsar
Russian Christians prayed at icons while soldiers set up
soup kitchens on Tuesday to prepare for crowds expected for the 90th anniversary
of the murder of Tsar Nicholas II and his family.
In the city of Yekaterinburg at a church built on the site
where Bolshevik soldiers shot the family in July 1918, dozens of Orthodox
Russians prayed, chanted and kissed icons of Russia's last imperial leader, his
wife, four daughters and son.
"He is like a God," said 32-year-old Larisa
Sheveleva, wearing a headscarf after leaving the Church on the Blood.
The Romanov family ruled Russia through divine right for
three centuries before World War One triggered economic collapse and social
upheaval, igniting two revolutions in 1917 and forcing Nicholas II to abdicate.
Their communist Bolshevik captors moved the family to
Yekaterinburg in the Ural mountains after a civil war with royalists broke out.
When in July 1918 the royalists appeared to be closing in on
the family, soldiers shot them in a dirty basement and hastily disposed of
their bodies.
But since the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991 Russians
have steadily revived the legacy of Nicholas II. The Russian Orthodox church
has canonized them as martyrs and given the family -- except for the son and
one daughter who were still missing -- state burials in 1998 in cathedrals in
St Petersburg.
Russia has recovered from the chaotic post-Soviet 1990s
through energy and commodity export wealth and increased political stability,
boosting Russians' patriotic pride in both their future and their past.
ICONS, SOUP KITCHEN
He was the imperial leader of Russia. How can the imperial
leader of Russia not be great?" said Roman Novochenko, a 24-year-old
engineer outside the church.
He was not going to attend Wednesday's religious services
but still interested in the tsar. Novochenko's dress -- slicked back hair,
jeans and expensive shirt -- contrasted with the mostly elderly and humbly
dressed churchgoers.
Black and white family photos showing the bearded Nicholas
and his family dotted the outside of the church. A statue depicted the tsar
cradling his son in front of an Orthodox Russian cross surrounded by his wife
and daughters.
At one side of the church soldiers built a temporary soup
kitchen for Wednesday's anticipated crowds.
Vacheslav Serikov, 62, stood and watched women in
headscarves kiss icons of the Romanov family inside the church.
"I had to come to the church today," he said.
"There are people coming from everywhere tomorrow and you just will not be
able to get inside.
|
