Russian court rehabilitates Tsar

Russia’s highest court has ruled that the last Tsar, Nicolas II, was unlawfully killed by Bolshevik revolutionaries. The declaration has been hailed as a victory by descendants of Russia’s former royal family.

Tsar Nicolas, his wife and their five children were arrested and executed by Lenin loyalists on July 17, 1918 in Yekaterinburg.

Their bodies were buried in woodland when the vehicle transporting them broke down. The remains of all the family members except two of the children were not found until 1991.

They were finally given a state funeral in 1998, 80 years after their death, in the St. Peter and St. Paul cathedral in St. Petersburg.

Today’s ruling by the Russian supreme court formally gives Tsar Nicolas legal rehabilitation and establishes that his family was a victim of repression on the behalf the Bolsheviks.

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