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100 years on, Orthodox Church split over executed tsar’s remains
MOSCOW, July 13, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Next week’s centenary of the execution
of Russia’s last tsar has reignited a long-running conflict between the state
and the Russian Orthodox Church over what to do with the murdered royal
family’s remains.
Orthodox Patriarch Kirill on Monday will lead a procession marking 100
years since the Bolsheviks shot dead tsar Nicholas II and his family after he
abdicated.
But the Church — dominated by hardliners — is still divided over the
authenticity of the remains of the family, whose members were all sainted in
2000.
Bolshevik forces shot Nicholas, his German-born wife Alexandra and their
five children along with a maid, cook, valet and doctor in 1918, in the
aftermath of the revolution.
The state plans no official commemorations of the historical landmark.
In 1998, then-president Boris Yeltsin’s government buried bone fragments,
first found in 1979, that were identified as those of Nicholas, his wife and
three of their daughters. But 20 years later, the Church still refuses to
accept DNA tests confirming their authenticity.
It also does not recognise the remains of the tsar’s other children Alexei
and Maria, whose bodies were separated from the others and found in 2007. The
government has failed to reach an agreement with the Church on burying them.
Instead, the Church maintains that the Bolsheviks put the burnt bodies of
their 11 victims in a pit in a forest in the Urals region, where the Church
has built a large monastery complex.
But ahead of the centenary, some Russian newspapers are asking when
Patriarch Kirill will finally recognise the remains.
– A ‘personal conflict’ –
In 1998, the late Patriarch Alexei snubbed a state funeral for Nicholas
II’s bones in Saint Petersburg’s Peter and Paul Fortress. He sent a bishop to
bury them as “unknown remains” instead.
Officially, the Patriarchate said there was not enough evidence to accept
DNA test results and accused the government of sidelining the Church.
“Nobody really knows what happened because everyone who was involved is no
longer here,” said Ksenia Luchenko, an expert on the Russian Orthodox Church,
commenting on the dispute.
She speculates that tensions could stem from a “personal conflict” between
Church and state officials.
Liberal-leaning priest Andrei Kurayev told AFP the Church opted to believe
a version of the killings favoured by anti-Bolshevik forces during the Civil
War in the wake of the revolution.
– ‘Huge conspiracy theory’ –
“Over 20 years, it has grown into a huge conspiracy theory,” Luchenko said.
One version says Soviet Union founder Vladimir Lenin kept Nicholas II’s
head in his office, another that the tsar’s youngest children, Alexei and
Maria, somehow survived and lived abroad.
Last autumn, Tikhon Shevkunov — the senior cleric put in charge of the
Church investigation who is reportedly close to President Vladimir Putin —
raised the possibility of a “ritual killing”, implying that Jews murdered the
ex-tsar. He denied anti-Semitism.
Father Kurayev said such interpretations are common inside a Church now
dominated by ultra-conservatives.
“Church circles that had good relations with science were sidelined after
the Pussy Riot scandal” in 2012, he said, referring to Russia’s jailing of
two punk activists over an anti-Putin stunt in a Moscow church.
The case was a huge boost for the Church, and its radical wing has been
growing stronger “by the day” since, Kurayev said.
Patriarch Kirill is “scared” of recognising the remains, fearing a backlash
from ultra-conservatives, many of whom have not forgiven him for shaking
hands with Pope Francis in 2016, Kurayev said.
– Divisive Nicholas –
Church issues — including the question of Nicholas II’s remains — have
become “politicised” under Patriarch Kirill, said Roman Lunkin, a religion
expert at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Last year, “Matilda”, a Russian feature film about Nicholas’s pre-marital
love affair with a ballerina, sparked a violent backlash from radical
Orthodox activists.
“It showed that Nicholas II is a figure who can divide Orthodox society,”
something the Patriarch wants to avoid, Lunkin said.
On the anniversary, the Patriarch will lead a procession to the monastery
at Ganina Yama outside the city of Yekaterinburg just east of the Ural
mountains.
“The problem is the Patriarch is leading the procession to a place that
according to the modern investigation is not where they died,” Kurayev said.
– ‘Uncomfortable’ for Putin –
Luchenko said Putin is “less interested” in burying the ex-royal family’s
remains while his predecessor Yeltsin saw it as “personal repentance”.
Putin “does not worship Nicholas II. His heroes are Alexander III and
Alexander Nevsky,” she said, referring to Nicholas II’s father and a 13th-
century leader.
Nonetheless, she called the dispute an “uncomfortable situation” for Putin,
who has positioned himself as a close ally of the Church.
“It somehow frustrates (the Kremlin),” she said, adding that authorities
want to “draw a line under this situation.”
In 2015, at the Church’s request, Russia reopened its criminal
investigation into the remains of Alexei and Maria, reportedly exhuming
Alexander III. But three years on, no results have been announced.
“The Church has not formulated a position on the results of the
investigation,” Patriarch Kirill said last November.
Father Kurayev accused the Church of not wanting to make the results
public, suggesting they match previous tests.
“They made a mistake with the science and now they are reluctant to take a
step back.”
BSS/AFP/MRI/1020 hrs