European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 7, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Photo taken by grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna shows Czar Nicholas it and his son sawing Wood to heat the siberian prison Camp at Tobolsk where they were held during the russian revolution. Of a cult Romanov revival is driven More by How the Czar died than How he ruled by Bill Keller Newyork times seventy two years after the bolshevik secret police at Sverdlovsk slaughtered the last russian Monarch his wife son four daughters family doctor and three servants Czar Nicholas ii is rallying the kind of popular following that eluded him in life he was a vacillating a charismatic autocrat but the Nicholas revival is driven less by How he ruled than by How he died a an event that set a modern Standard for state ruthlessness and that cuts at the heart of the official communist myth. Quot # for As Western historians have Long believed and As a soviet newspaper this week confirmed in contradiction of 72 years of official denial the decision to kill the Royal family was ordered by Lenin himself. In Sverdlovsk where it happened870 Miles East of Moscow a the cult of the romanovs has risen from the underground into the unexpectedly warm embrace of both Church and state. At first there was just a simple wooden Cross erected anonymously one night on the site where the bolsheviks carried out the execution. Then someone baldly replaced the Marker with one of Iron. The shrine became a focal Point for prayer meetings and political rallies and a favorite plaice for brides and grooms to Toast the future after weddings. This summer the Sverdlovsk City Council no longer in the firm grip of the communists authorized construction of a modest Chapel on the spot possibly to be accompanied by an exhibition Hall and conference Center for pilgrims and tourists. But even that was not enough to satisfy the growing cult of the last Czar in september there was a Public exhibition of photos in Moscow focusing on the Czar and his family. Now the russian orthodox archbishop of Sverdlovsk says the Church has approved plans to build a grand Church on the site of the Czar s execution eventually he will of course be canonized As a Saint a a added archbishop Melikh Sedek in an interview. Quot it is Only a matter of  77 7 the Romanov Czar and his family were imprisoned in the ornate whitewashed Home requisitioned for the purpose from a retired army Engineer named Nikolai Pat yes. A Quot 77 a 7 7 a a 7-= in the Early morning dark of july 17,1918, they were taken to the basement and shot by local chemists a members of the bolshevik secret  ricocheted from the jewels hidden in the corsets. Of the Royal daughters who had to be finished off with i bayonets a 7/7 7 7&Quot 7 7 7 a a ,7. When the screams died Down the bodies were carted to the Countryside stripped burned and tossed in a mine a Shaft. 77. A. 7.v-7 7. 7\7 7 Quot the next  prevent a cult of the romanovs the a a Leader of the firing squad exhumed the remains doused them with disfiguring acid and reburied the Marta secret grave. 7 / a 7 7 the bolshevik authorities at first reported that the Czar alone had been executed after the disc very of a plot to liberate him 7 7 it was not until several years later that the authorities permitted publication of an article disclosing that his family had been killed along with him Quot the manner in which the massacre was prepared and carried out at first denied and then justified has something uniquely odious about it something that radically distinguishes it from previous acts of regicide and brands it As a prelude to 20th-Century mass murder a Richard pipes the Harvard historian writes in his new history of the russian revolution the official version still maintained a party historians is that local bolsheviks decided independently in the heat of the civil War to execute the family so they would not become a rallying Point for the White guards who were closing in. Quot Lenin did not know a thing about it a said Mikhail a a Shedlov Deputy director of the party s Institute of. Marxism leninism in Moscow. A there Are documents that describe Lenin a life by hours and minutes. No documents calling for the murder of the Czar s family have been  a 777but now the weekly argument i fatty demolished the official version for its 33 million subscribers. The paper published the findings of Edvard Radzinsky a playwright fete 16 a a a the stars and stripes Friday december 7,1990