Russia’s history offers lessons on the effects of political purges

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Yekaterinburg in Russia the other evening to commemorate the murder of Tsar Nicholas Romanov and his family and retainers who were bludgeoned to death by Bolsheviks on the night of July 16-17, one century ago this week.

From the start, the Soviets denied any responsibility for the murders (fake news), and for several years claimed there'd been no murders at all. Then, in 1926, following independent investigations, evidence of the killings emerged. Still, for years more the Soviet regime suppressed all information and knowledge about the affair. The denials led to numerous adventurers claiming to be various of the Romanovs, adding to confusion about whether they were really dead.

Location and positive identification of the remains was of great interest to many Russians, not least the Russian Orthodox Church. In November 1981, the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad canonized the entire family. Once buried beneath a church erected on the site of the massacre in Yekaterinburg, in 1998, their bones were exhumed and reburied in St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. The Orthodox Church within Russia did not recognize the family as saints until the year 2000. And therein lies a tale.

Are the remains so far identified really those of the royal family? It was a local archaeologist who found the remains, in 1976. Alexander Avdonin and a friend, Geli Ryabov, following many leads and discussions with many people over many years, located the shallow grave into which the family, their bodies smashed and disfigured by acid, were buried. The find was extraordinary, for the searchers a moment of deep reverence. But fearing reprisal, they revealed nothing to the authorities.

Then, in 1989, in the relaxed atmosphere of glasnost and perestroika, they told their story. The government undertook an official examination of the graves, including exhumation of the remains. DNA testing seemed to confirm the identities. That led to the construction of a church at the site, and the canonization of the family by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.

But that official exhumation was not conducted by recognized archaeological standards; it was done by bulldozer. In 1998 and 1999, Russian scientists conducted a thorough examination of the site and remains. In 2004, amateur archaeologists discovered a second site, 70 meters from the first, with the remains of two family children, Tsesarevich Alexis and Maria. In 2007 DNA comparison confirmed these identities also.

DNA analysis has been questioned, however, and in 2015, at the insistence of the Orthodox Church in Russia, the government again exhumed and tested two sets of remains, resulting in reconfirmation that they are indeed those of the Tsar and Tsarina. But testing continues, nonetheless.

Just this week, on the eve of the centenary of the deaths, experts announced that the further work has yet again confirmed the identities, using among other methods molecular genetic comparison. The scientists exhumed and took DNA samples from Nicholas' father, Alexander III; these matched the DNA from the Yekaterinburg fragments. Perhaps fearing a loss of face, the Church still declines to endorse the findings.

Why did the Soviets kill the Romanovs? Lenin probably ordered the executions directly. To the communists, the royal Romanovs represented the elites, representatives of an educated and cultured leadership cadre. They had to be eliminated to clear the way for the classless, populist society the communists sought to create. Their continued presence would be too much a reminder. Why did the regime suppress knowledge of the massacre? So those loyal to the existing order would have no symbolic figure around which to rally, a continuing threat to communist power and aspirations.

While hereditary elitism has no place in a democracy, the symbolic persecution of the educated and their opinions by President Trump and some of his supporters is a clear threat to American culture, which has always celebrated merit, intellectual development and a commitment to truth. How far is this from the wanton cruelty and anxious suppression of the symbolic threat of the Romanovs to the communists?

Elites have a responsibility to society, to use their talent for the good of all. It did the communists no good to eliminate those they feared, and it will not serve America, either.

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