Russia exonerates Tsar Nicholas II

[bananas]

Source: Telegraph (UK)

Russia exonerates Tsar Nicholas II

The Russian supreme court has ruled that the country's last tsar and his family must be recognised as victims of Soviet repression 90 years after they were executed by a Bolshevik firing squad.

By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow
Last Updated: 3:12PM BST 01 Oct 2008


Tsar Nicholas II with his wife Tsarina Alexandra (background), the Tsaravitch (2nd from right) and his four daughters Photo: PA

In an unexpected ruling, the court in Moscow declared that Nicholas II and the royal family had been killed illegally and are entitled to legal rehabilitation by the state.

The decision brings to a close a decade-long campaign by the tsar's descendants to force the state to admit culpability for what many Russians regard as the single most horrific political crime of the 20th century.

It also represents a symbolic end to Russia's often tortured process of addressing the repressions of the Soviet era.

Since the collapse of Communism, over four million Russians who were executed or jailed in gulags for political reasons have been formally exonerated and declared victims of repression, a process known in Russia as rehabilitation.

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Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/3115053/Russia-exonerates-Tsar-Nicholas-II.html

[Fenris]

1. Not a moment too soon!

[thereismore]

2. Tsar's descendants? Maybe relatives, but not descendants. nt

[freedomnorth]

4. What about Anastasia?

I think i saw her in disney film or sumthin eom

[LisaL]

25. She has been dead all alone.

Whatever it is you saw in a Disney movie ain't real.

[dflprincess]

27. Nieces and nephews are considered lateral descendants (eom)

[Kutjara]

3. In unrelated news...

...Russian genealogists have determined that Vladimir Putin is actually the previously unsuspected direct descendant of Tsar Nicolas, and is therefore the next in line to the Russian throne. Coronation of Vladimir I is scheduled for the second week in November.

[Orrin_73]

17. I thought Putin was descended from

RasPutin.

[bananas]

5. Russian news video posted in Political Videos forum

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x203918

[Sequoia]

6. Good news.

I always felt bad about those children being killed in such an awful way.

[David__77]

7. The tsar was a big time criminal and should be recognized as such.

Where are the tears for those slaughtered on the front lines of World War I, a war supported by the czar? He was a reactionary, feudal, anti-Semitic aristocrat without a single redeeming quality. Russians celebrated when he was overthrown.

[russian33]

9. oh lord

did he start World War I himself? or did the kids help?

if he was so bad, he should've been put on trial, and found guilty, and sentenced to death...instead, "grandfather" Lenin ordered the whole family be executed, in a basement of a house, and their bodies never to be found...

those Russians that did celebrate, quickly realized how much 'good' they got out of their new leaders

[David__77]

13. I agree. He should have been put on trial.

And then executed or imprisoned. Conditions were not ideal. They indeed were kept alive for months after the Bolsheviks came to power. They were executed when the monarchist rebel troops were closing in on their location during the Civil War. The Bolsheviks did not want there to be an heir or figurehead for the monarchist troops. I am not taking a position on that decision. It wasn't Lenin's decision, but the decision of the local Soviet and secret police, though I'm sure Lenin agreed.

[dflprincess]

29. I had a history professor point out that Russia was stumbling its way toward a Constitutional

Monarchy and that there were progressive reforms going on in the U.S. and Europe and W.W.I put an end to all that. He maintained that every great progressive movement has been destroyed by war.

[gratuitous]

11. But if Nicholas can be rehabilitated

Perhaps there's hope for Chimpy's legacy as well. Who knows? In 2098, perhaps some quasi-judicial tribunal will declare that George W. Bush wasn't the Worst. President. Ever. There will be mountains of documentary evidence to the contrary, but the Bush Crime Family can be a pretty tenacious mob.

[David__77]

14. They will indeed try to rehabilitate Bush II.

Just as they did with Bush I. The DC/New York elites want the public to "honor" all presidents in order to reinforce faith in the system.

[Demeter]

21. I Wouldn't Hold Onto that Hope

America is not known for its forgiveness. Maybe because we don't believe in divine rights of kingship. Every man is responsible for his actions here.

[dflprincess]

28. Nixon was rehabilitated

and it didn't even take 20 years to do that.

[carla]

33. Nixon was rehabbed

and regained his stature as President only among those who have no respect for the Constitution. Nixon is and will remain an un-prosecuted criminal, history records this fact. Only pukes rehabbed him; Americans still condemn him.

[Somawas]

16. Exactly.

Certain brutalities were committed in the name of the people and the people's revolution. While the Commusnists were no choir boys themselves, neither the Tsar nor the Imperial family deserve any sort of absolution for their own crimes against the Russian people. Their execution was not undeserved.

[Orrin_73]

18. I couldn't agree more

My family had to flee Crimea some 150 years ago because of the romanov family.

[bitchkitty]

34. But his children were innocent. n/t

[struggle4progress]

8. Following the 1905 revolution, the tzarists promised democratic reforms, but

instead increased repression: Stolypin had thousands of political opponents hanged in the following years. So it was entirely predictable that many of those who escaped concluded they could give no quarter to the tzarists, since the tzarists would give no quarter to them

I do not mean that the extrajudicial execution of the tzar's family was acceptable: it was, of course, shocking and inexcusable. I merely mean that such events can almost be predicted in context: those involved in the execution probably felt that their behavior was natural and necessary

[russian33]

10. how is executing 5 kids and women 'natural and necessary'?

it puzzles me, how anyone can find any rationale for this

[David__77]

15. Because they wanted no heir to serve as whiteguard figurehead.

That does NOT excuse this decision. Every possible effort should have been made to safeguard the children and integrate them as common citizens. The Chinese learned from the Soviet mistake and the last emperor was a model citizen.

[KatyaR]

22. Unfortunately, there are probably a lot of people who feel that way.

I know a physician who thinks that JFK HAD to be assassinated. Strange stuff . . . .

[struggle4progress]

26. I said it was "shocking and inexcusable." I merely pointed out that the tzarist repression

had been brutal and that the reciprocal brutality was predictable

[bluesmail]

12. Taking so long in an age of no internet. Good and inspiring read.

[crim son]

19. I think maybe his nutcase of a wife should have stayed condemned.

But that's just me.

[DebbieCDC]

23. Why "nutcase"?

By all accounts I have read, and I've read quite a few, after her son was born with hemophilia her entire life became devoted to keeping him alive. She thought Rasputin could intercede with "God" on her son's behalf and safe his life and heritage, when in fact Rasputin was nothing but an earlier version of Jimmy Swaggert, Pat Robertson, etc etc. Yes, she did become involved in politics, but again at Rasputin's urging, telling her that if she didn't relay his (Rasputin's) wishes to the Tsar, the son would die. I hardly think that qualifies as "nutcase" and even if it does, how did that justify putting however many bullets into her and her children and even their pet dogs?

[crim son]

24. You just described my reasoning.

Her involvement with politics was very detrimental to the ruling family at a time when a more modern approach was desired by the people. And only a nutcase would believe what Rasputin told her about his powers to cure her son, especially given the fact that the man had a verifiably unsavory reputation when he wasn't hypnotizing people. Alexandra was predisposed to hysterics and irrational thoughts even before her marriage. Finally, I didn't say a thing about the family deserving bullets. I've also read accounts of the assassination scene, where bullets ricocheted off the jewels and coins hidden in the girls' dresses. It is stunningly horrific.

[MrScorpio]

20. Party time in Cossacktown tonight!

[pitohui]

30. must be a slow news night in russia

hokay so there must be some living descendant who paid off somebody and who is in turn going to put their pocket in the public treasury just because of their dna

i hate aristocrats and frankly i don't care that a bunch of people who were born to take money from the public treasury w/out working were executed, it would have been nice if they were executed more humanely or put out to sea on an iceflow or something...but really...what else could have been done to get rid of these royals and nobles? for the most part, they don't go away quietly do they?

for how many more thousands of years will the british worker have to pay for the british royal family as just one example?

why should somebody be a gadzillionaire just for being born and i have to work my whole life?

the world is not poorer because the tzar's family was killed, it's richer, a parasite was removed and a book/film/art industry born

[Pterodactyl]

31. Finally, the Russians do something right!

This is long overdue and shame on the Soviets for not doing this when they had the chance.

[IndianaGreen]

32. This is the same asshole that had his troops open fire on a crowd that was demanding food

The Romanovs were cruel and despotic, and no amount of revisionism can change that.