Moscow
– Investigators are examining controversial claims by the Russian Orthodox
Church commission that the murder of the last tsar and his family was a “ritual
murder”, an allegation that has provoked protest from Jewish groups.
Tsar
Nicholas II and his entire family were killed by Communist revolutionaries in
1918 after Vladimir Lenin came to power. The tsar was canonised in 2000 by the
Russian Orthodox Church.
Bishop
Tikhon, an influential priest rumoured to be President Putin’s religious
adviser, said yesterday at a church conference in Moscow that a “significant”
number of members of a church commission believed that the royal family were
victims of a ritual killing.
Russian
Orthodox Church hardliners have long maintained the tsar and his family were
murdered as part of a Jewish ritual. “Many people in today’s church believe the
tsar was killed by Jews,” Father Chaplin, the former spokesman for the Russian
Orthodox Church, told The Times. Although he said he was not personally
convinced by the claims, Fr Chaplin said he believed they should be
investigated. He was unable to offer an exact definition of ritual murder.
In
1995 the Holy Synod, the governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church, asked a
Russian government commission investigating the murder of Nicholas II to
determine whether the imperial family were victims of a Judaeo-Masonic
conspiracy. Church officials said they posed the question to help quash
speculation of a Jewish role in the murders. The commission, headed by Boris
Nemtsov, then deputy prime minister, found no evidence to back up such claims.
Representatives
of Russia’s Investigative Committee, an FBI-style law enforce ment agency that
answers only to Mr Putin, also attended this week’s conference on the murder of
the royal family. A spokeswoman said that the committee’s department for especially
important cases would look into the ritual murder claims.
The
revival of the allegations drew heavy criticism from Russian Jewish groups.
“Accusation against Jews of involvement in ritual murders is one of the most
ancient forms of antisemitic slander,” said Alexander Boroda, who heads the
Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia. Leonid Volkov, a well-known
opposition figure, accused Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Investigative
Committee, of seeking to whip up antisemitic sentiments.
Bishop
Tikhon made no specific mention of a Jewish role in the tsar’s murder in a
follow-up statement issued today, saying only that Communism had its form of
rituals, naming Lenin’s tomb in Red Square as an example.
The
investigation into the murder of the imperial family was reopened by Russia in
2015 after pressure from the church, which has not officially accepted that all
the remains of the royal family are genuine, despite DNA evidence. The body of
Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra, were exhumed in 2015 as part of the
investigation. The church says that because of the family’s saintly status
their bodies are holy relics, so it must be absolutely certain of their
identity.
