Alex - again you provide us with new information - I hadn't heard that there had been a formal investigation into the crypt in China - Please tell us more. Also, what is next in terms of trying to find the missing remains.
thanks!
dca
Carissimo Domenico,
Mille grazie.
As you are undoubtedly aware, during the Revolution and subsequent take-over of Tobolsk by the Godless-armies, the earthly remains of the Grand Duchess and of the Grand Dukes were transferred to the relatively safety of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission of the Russian Orthodox Church in Beijing, in the northwest part of the city. The Mission possesed an IMMENSE portion of land which had been deeded to it by the last Ching Dynasty, because what many do NOT know is that the Chinese Imperial Guards, that is the Personal Guard of the Emperor, were actually Albanizian cossacks from the Amur Region of Russia who had been brought to China many, many years ago. It was through these Imperial Guards that the Orthodox faith was introduced into China. They remained in the service of the last Emperor, Pu Yi, right up until 1945 (even after he became the puppet head of Manchukuo).
In any cases, on the grounds of the Spiritual Mission were located at least six beautiful churches -- one should remember that this area was much greater than ain the 1,000 of hectares and it spread for kilometers and kilometers. It was huge. In any case, the Grand Duchess's remains were held for a period in the 1920s but then in keeping with family wishes, they were transferred to the Holy Land (to Occupied Palestine) where they were reburied. The remains of the others, the servants, the Grand Dukes, etc., were buried in hallowed ground, as the surviving records indicate, on the grounds of the Mission. It WAS believed that they were buried under the foundation of the Church of the All Holy Martyrs. This was a particularly beautiful church built in 1903-1906 in the Nizhninogorod Style, meaning that in the 1920s the floor of the church was dug up and they were buried under the floor and the floor was rebuilt.
Anyway, in 1956, the property of the Russian Spiritual Mission, in connivance with the Russian Church in Moscow,which at that time was completely subordinate to the wishes of the Government, was handed over to the Kruschev Government to become the new site of the Soviet Embassy. Nearly all of the churches were immediately BULLDOZED to the ground, by Soviet bulldozers, not Chinese ones, in the middle of the night, of course, Soviet-style and all of the records were burned. One church remained standing, however, and it was given over to be the garage of the Embassy.
However, times change, thank God, and in 2003, two things happened. President Putin ordered the return of the remaining Church to the Russian Church, which has happened, and Metropolitan Kyrill of St. Petersburg began VERY, VERY, VERY careful and delicate negotiations with both the Embassy and the Government of the People's Republic to determine the location of the remains, to disinter them if found, and then to return them to Russia. One needs to understand that in China one does not disinter the ancestors, be they of whatever faith they were, all of this flies in the face of embedded Confucian thought, and very much so. In any case, it was suggested that the remains were at the bottom of this church, again, like so much that goes on this VERY board, because it was reported by someone that it was reported by someone that it was reported by someone, etc., etc. No one ever bothered to try to locate a genuine primary source. The Chinese stood back and just looked. Permission was sought and "questionably" granted to locate and disinter the remaining New Martyrs. The foundation remains of the pillaged-and-destroyed church were located and excavation began but, alas, there was nothing there, after a great deal of digging.
Nonetheless, new conclusive and primary records from the Chinese side were very, very graciously made available indicating where the New Martyrs are most likely buried, but it is NOT on Embassy territory any more, the Embassy having deeded that part of the land back to the Government of the People's Republic 60 years ago. There is a virtually certainty that the remains lie where these primary sources purport them to lie, but speaking from a Chinese perspective, the Government will have NONE of it of digging up bodies on Government land. It is just not done in China and when they had to move the Russian cemetery in Harbin twenty-five years ago, my God, the ruckus that ensued was terrible. It was a lesson learned by all and it just will not happen again.
Since this is property of the Republic, the Russian Government can do nothing here at all. Nor should it. And even if it tried, it surely would not help relations between the two countries. Metropolian Kyrill has run into a roadblock, bigtime.
