PARIS, March 14. /TASS/. The Romanov family would like Crown Prince Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria, the children of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, to be honorably buried at the cathedral in St. Petersburg’s Peter and Paul Fortress, alongside their parents and sisters, said Prince Rostislav Rostislavovich, the great-grandson of the emperor’s sister, Ksenya.
In an interview with TASS on the occasion of the centennial of the last Russian czar’s abdication (March 15, 1917), Prince Rostislav noted that "in different countries, monarchies came to an end in different ways, but in Russia the end was particularly tragic." "The shock that it caused made all of Russia suffer," he emphasized. After the February 1917 revolution, Nicholas II was sent into exile and was eventually executed in the city of Yekaterinburg together with his family.
According to Prince Rostislav, the UK "could not foresee the consequences" when it refused to provide refuge to the Russian emperor. He added that Nicholas II "would have never left Russia."
However, a number of the emperor’s relatives managed to avoid execution and moved to other countries to start a new life there. "But they were not able to return to their homeland and were forced to remain abroad all their lives," the prince stressed.
The Romanov family descendants consider it their Christian duty to ensure the burial of the emperor’s children, whose remains were found near Yekaterinburg in 2007, thus paying tribute to the late head of the family, Prince Dimitry Romanovich, who died on December 31, 2016. "He believed that the emperor’s children should be laid to rest alongside their parents and sisters," the young member of the family said.
"Dimitry Romanovich hoped that this tragic page in Russia’s history would be turned during his lifetime."
Prince Rostislav Romanov, 31, is an artist by profession. He is a member of the Romanov family branch descending from Mikhail (1832-1909), brother of Emperor Nicholas I, a field marshal and a Caucasus governor.