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Date:         Tue, 21 Jul 1992 18:50:00 CST
From:         "VALENTINE M. SMITH" <CDELL@UMKCVAX1.BITNET>
Subject:      On the deaths of the Romanov family ...
Comments: To: val-l@ucf1vm.BITNET, jwales@iubvm.BITNET, olsenj@stolaf.edu,
              shlyakter@huhepl.harvard.edu, kousen@rayleigh.res.utc.com,
              rushist@uscvm.BITNET, sovhist@uscvm.BITNET,
              orthodox@indycms.BITNET

A set of comments stemming from postings on ORTHODOX and RUSSIA that
I hope could extend to further conversations on other lists.

Nicholas Romanov perished 74 years ago the night of the 16th. On
ORTHODOX and RUSSIA, I saw him, his wife Alexandra and the five
children extolled as martyr/saints on that anniversary. I think this
belief to be in error. Martyrs yes, saints no. I cannot be as harsh
as some critics, and say that they invited their deaths by their
behavior, though the whole Rasputin interlude from 1905-16 reflects
terribly on their judgement.

From the moment of his accession in 1894, Nicholas showed cloudy
judgement, from the terrible mishap at Khodynka Meadow and his
seemingly callous reaction the day after his coronation in May of
1896, to his bull-headed disdain of the Japanese and under-estimation
of their military ability that led to Russia's defeat of in the
Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, his anti-Semitism that led to pograms
in the early 1900s, and his allowance of his wife to govern, and be
influenced by Rasputin, from 1915-17, even though Rasputin was killed
in December, 1916.

Nicholas was a weakling, totally dominated by his wife, imbued with a
false notion of autocracy as his country was awaking to the notion of
political participation by the masses, duplicitous in his declaration
of acceptance of the idea of the Duma while remaining in practice
totally opposed to sharing power with anyone, a reputed occasional
user of cocaine, and generally unable to see his flaws. Alexandra had
as many flaws, the best that could be said of them both is that they
were passionately devoted to each other and that they dearly loved
their children.

The Bolsheviks were incredibly cruel to murder the Romanov family,
though they had a genuine fear of the Romanovs always being a
claimant to the mantle of Russian government as long as one member of
the immediate family lived (and as a matter of fact, to this day, 74
years later, there still remains a pretender to the defunct Romanov
throne). At least Great Britain shares in the culpability for
Nicholas and his family's death in their refusal to take them in
after the Revolution. Kaiser Wilhelm II, an alleged war criminal for
his part in World War I, and palbably more directly responsible for
that war's occurance, received better treatment at war's end in being
allowed to go into exile in the Netherlands.

So, I excuse Lenin nor the Ekaterinburg Soviet for their barbaric
attack of wiping out the deposed Royal family, nor do I disagree with
calling them martyrs. I do feel that calling the seven of them saints
goes too far, and that the mere act of dying a gruesome death does
not place that mantle upon them. From my limited theological studies,
I have always understood that sainthood, as it is understood in a
historical context, was conferred primarily upon what did with one's
life, not on the manner of one's passage from this plane.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU