Russian pilgrims mark 100th anniversary of czar’s execution

Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, center, leads a religion service at the site where the bodiesof Czar Nicholas II and his family were dumped, around 21 kilometers (13 miles) from Yekaterinburg, Russia, Tuesday, July 17, 2018. Thousands of pilgrims begun a procession marking the 100th anniversary of the execution of Czar Nicholas II and his family. (AP Photo/Aleksandr Abramenkov)

Associated Press
MOSCOW

Thousands of Russian pilgrims have walked in a procession marking the 100th anniversary of the execution of Czar Nicholas II and his family.

Russia’s last czar, his wife and five children were executed by Bolshevik soldiers in the city of Yekaterinburg 18 months after Nicholas abdicated in the February 1917 revolution. They had been moved from detention in St. Petersburg and then in Siberia as the Russian Civil War raged.
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The procession started out late Monday from the Church on the Blood, which was built on the site of the execution, and ended Tuesday at the site where the bodies were dumped 21 kilometers (13 miles) away.

People gather at the Church on the Blood, which was built on the site of the execution of Csar Nicholas II and his family, in Yekaterinburg, Russia, late Monday, July 16, 2018. Thousands of pilgrims begun a procession marking the 100th anniversary of the execution of Czar Nicholas II and his family. (AP Photo/Aleksandr Abramenkov)

The procession was led by Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has canonized the czar and his family as martyrs. Kirill then led a religious service Tuesday where the bodies were dumped.

Nicholas ruled Russia from 1894 until his ouster in March 1917. The remains of Nicholas and his family were reburied in St. Petersburg in 1998.