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Herbegrafenis Tsarina Maria Fyodorovna september 2006
Reburial Tsarina Maria Fyodorovna September 2006 (pictures in the middle of this page)

Herbegrafenis Maria Fyodorovna - september 2006

Precies 140 jaar na haar eerste reis naar Rusland voor het huwelijk met de latere tsaar Alexander III, keert Maria Federovna terug in haar tweede vaderland. In 1919 na de revolutie, waarin haar zoon Nicolaas en zijn gezin werden vermoord, ontsnapte de van oorsprong Deense prinses Dagmar uit Rusland via Kiev en de Krim. Ze stierf in oktober 1928 in ballingschap in Denemarken, zonder het gruwelijke lot van haar kinderen en kleinkinderen te hebben geweten.

Haar lichaam werd bijgezet in de Dom van Roskilde, het ’Delft’ van de Deense Koninklijke familie. De tsarina had echter gevraagd begraven te worden aan de zijde van haar man, met wie ze in november 1866 in het huwelijk trad. Pas na het uiteenvallen van de Sovjet-Unie kwam die mogelijkheid in beeld. President Poetin vroeg de Deense koningin Margrethe een paar jaar geleden toestemming voor de herbegrafenis in de Sint Peter en Paulkathedraal. Op voorwaarde dat de sarcofaag van de in 1847 geboren tsarina niet wordt opengemaakt, stemde Margrethe uiteindelijk toe. Herdenking De plechtigheid is vervolgens een paar keer uitgesteld, maar op 23 september 2006 was het zover.

In Roskilde vond eerst een herdenkingsdienst plaats, waarbij naast de Deense Koninklijke familie ook afstammelingen van de tsarenfamilie Romanov aanwezig waren. Onder hen de achterachterkleinzoon van de keizerin, Paul Kulikosvki. Hij hield een korte lofrede.

(Bron: Hans Jacobs, Eindhovens Dablad 22 september 2006)

Op 23 september 2006 trekt een koets met daarop de kist met de stoffelijke resten Maria Fyodorovna, door de Deense hoofdstad Kopenhagen. Per schip wordt zij vervoerd naar Sint Petersburg, terug naar het land waar ze zoveel van hield.

Op 28 september 2006, precies 140 jaar nadat zij voor het eerst voet op Russische bodem zette, heeft in de Peter en Paul Kathedraal nu ook de plechtige herbegrafenis plaatsgevonden van Tsarina Maria Fyodorovna, de echtgenote van Tsaar Alexander III en de moeder van Tsaar Nicholas II, de laatste Tsaar van rusland. Zij overleed in 1928 in Denemarken, het land waar zij geboren was en waaruit ze als Deense Prinses Dagmar in 1866 in het huwelijk trad met de Russische Troonopvolger Alexander II.

Na de moord op de keizerlijke familie 1918 weigerde zij om Rusland te verlaten, maar na bemiddeling door het Engelse Hof is zij uiteindelijk met veel verdriet, via haar huis op de Krim, tezamen met andere Romanov familieleden geëvacueerd naar Engeland. Hier bleef ze echter maar kort en verhuisde naar haar vakantiehuis "Hvidore", niet ver van Kopenhagen. Tot haar dood in 1928 heeft zij niet willen geloven dat haar zoon Nicholas II en zijn gezin vermoord waren!


Kopenhagen - Danmark	23 september 2006


St. Petersburg	26 september 2006


Leden van de Romanov familie en Russische burgers tijdens een herdenkingsdienst in Sint Petersburg, 27 september 2006 Romanov family members at St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg


28 september 2006 Peter en Paul Vesting / September 28, Peter and Paul Fortress

Een laatste groet/A last farewell

(Bron afbeeldingen/Source pictures, Internet, Reuters & Associated Press)

English!

23 - 28 september:

September 23, 11.30: Memorial service in Roskilde Cathedral for invited guests. The memorial service was attended by Her Majesty The Queen, His Royal Highness The Prince Consort along with other members of the Royal Family,

representatives of the Danish government and the Parliament, representatives of the Russian government and the City of St. Petersburg, members of the Romanov family, the Kulikovsky family and representatives from the Russian Orthodox Church. The memorial service was lead by the Royal Confessionarius, Professor Dr. phil. Christian Thodberg, who was assisted by the Bishop of Roskilde Diocese, Dr. theol. Jan Lindhardt Dean Jens Arendt.

Following the memorial service a funeral motorcade transported the coffin to Copenhagen. From Christiansborg Castle the coffin was escorted by the Guard Hussar Regiment to Copenhagen Harbour. The funeral procession passed by Amalienborg Castle and the Alexander Nevsky Church in Bredgade and was met by the Royal Couple along with other invitees at Copenhagen Harbour.

At Copenhagen Harbour the coffin of Maria Fedorovna was transferred to the Danish navy vessel Esbern Snare, which left Copenhagen in the afternoon to bring the coffin to St. Petersburg.

Tuesday, 26 September: At 9.00 the Danish navy vessel Esbern Snare arrived to St. Petersburg.

(source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Danmark). See also: http://www.reburial.um.dk/en/

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September 28, 2006

Russia buries a tsaritsa with love and grandeur
By Tony Halpin in St Petersburg
source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2379381,00.html

With a flourish of Imperial tradition, Russia buried the mother of its last Tsar today 78 years after her death.

Tsaritsa Maria Feodorovna was laid to rest in the royal crypt of St Petersburg’s Peter and Paul Fortress in a ceremony attended by dozens of members of Russia’s Romanov dynasty and by royalty from across Europe.

The Danish-born Empress was the mother of Nicholas II, who was executed with his family in 1918 after the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. She fled into exile a year later on HMS Marlborough, initially to Britain then to Denmark, where she died in 1928.

Family members said that the Empress had wished to be buried alongside her husband, Tsar Alexander III, when the situation in Russia permitted.

The return of the remains was a personal initiative of President Vladimir Putin, who contacted Queen Margrethe II of Denmark to secure support for the reburial in an apparent act of atonement for Russia’s bloody revolutionary history.

The Empress’s coffin, draped in the yellow Imperial standard, was lowered into the ground by an honour guard of soldiers from Denmark and from Russia’s presidential regiment as voices of an Orthodox choir mixed with the sound of a single church bell and the crack of a cannon firing a 31-shot salute. The tribute echoed the military salute given to the young Princess Dagmar when she arrived on Russian soil from Denmark 140 years ago.

The coffin was sealed in a white marble sarcophagus topped with a gold Orthodox cross after descendants of the Romanovs and visiting royals, including Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, had filed past to pay their respects. A wreath from Prince Michael carried a note saying simply: “In Memoriam.”

Earlier, in a service of high grandeur at St Isaac’s Cathedral in the city, Patriarch Alexei II, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, led prayers as more than 50 priests in gold and white robes formed two lines either side of the coffin.

Hundreds of officials, foreign dignitaries and ordinary Russians filled the cathedral during the service.

The Patriarch described her as the devoted wife and mother of imperial rulers, who had been a true daughter of Russia. He said: “Having fallen deeply in love with the Russian people, the Empress devoted a great deal of effort for the benefit of the Russian fatherland. Her soul always ached for Russia.”

The split within the Romanov dynasty over the Tsar’s true heir was evident, however. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna was placed in the centre section of the cathedral next to Prince Michael, former King Constantine of Greece and Denmark’s Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary, while Prince Nicholas Romanov and the majority of family members, who dispute her claim to be the titular Empress of Russia, stood at the
side.

After the service, the funeral cortege made a final journey around the former royal capital where the Empress had lived for more than 50 years, then received a full military escort when it arrived at the fortress. Russia’s Culture Minister, Alexander Sokolov, said: “Today we have fulfilled the innermost will of the Empress. It means the time has come to fill the gaps in our history and culture.”

Maria Feodorovna is the last of Russia’s imperial rulers to be buried at the Romanov vault, where the remains of every Tsar and Tsaritsa since Peter the Great are kept. The remains of Nicholas II, his wife and three of their daughters were buried there in 1998.

“The fact that we have been able to rebury Maria Feodorovna shows that we live in a new Russia which is strong and united and is starting to rise again,” said Valentina Matviyenko, governor of St Petersburg, in a funeral address.

Many ordinary Russians feel the return of the Empress is another important episode in healing the wounds of their country’s history. Although large crowds did not turn out to view the funeral ceremony, thousands queued on Wednesday to pay their respects when the coffin lay in state a day after the arrival of the Empress from Denmark.

Feeling among Russians for the royal family continues to run deep and a group of elderly Russians were quick to kiss the sarcophagus and say prayers after the ceremony. Nina Suyetina, 68, said: “We have waited such a long time for this day. I thank God that He has brought Empress Maria Feodorovna back.

“It would be my dream to see the Romanov dynasty come back. Until there is a Tsar in Russia again, Russia will never be at ease.”

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Following years of negotiations with Russia, her great-great niece, Denmark's Queen Margrethe II, gave the final approval to the transfer of the remains to St Petersburg.

'We all knew in my family that her heart remained in Russia. It was her last wish to be laid to rest there,' the queen told Russian media before the burial.

Denmark was represented at the ceremonies by the Crown Prince Frederik and the Princess Mary. Around 40 descendants of the tsar's family, the Romanovs, also attended, but contrary to expectations, Russian President Vladimir Putin did not join them.

He was represented by Culture Minister Alexander Sokolov and St Petersburg Governor Valentina Matvienko.

Public interest in the event was not as great as organizers had hoped. But about 5,000 people came to pay their respects to the casket with the remains, which had lain in state since it arrived in Russia.

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September 28, 2006, 9:54PM
ROYAL TREATMENT FOR LATE EMPRESS

Czarina reunites with family in death
Hundreds honor the exiled mother of Russia's last czar with reburial in St. Petersburg
By DAVID HOLLEY
Los Angeles Times

MOSCOW — Empress Maria Fyodorovna, the Danish-born mother of Russia's last czar, was reburied Thursday next to her son and husband in the Romanov family crypt in St. Petersburg nearly eight decades after her death in exile.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II presided over the pomp-filled ceremonies, which were attended by hundreds of domestic and foreign dignitaries, including members of European royalty and about 50 Romanov descendants.

"This will be another sign that Russia is overcoming the enmity and divisions brought by the revolution and civil war," Alexy said in a televised funeral at St. Isaac's Cathedral in the old imperial capital. "Having fallen deeply in love with the Russian people, the empress devoted a great deal of effort for the benefit of the Russian fatherland. Her soul ached for Russia."

"This is a happy moment, that my great-grandmother is moving from Denmark to our country, to Russia," Michael Romanov, who lives in Paris, said in televised remarks.

Alexy earlier described the return of the empress's remains for honored reburial as "a great historic and spiritual event for Russia" that should be viewed as "an act of repentance on the part of society and the state."

The last czar, Nicholas II, was executed by Bolshevik revolutionaries in 1918, along with his wife, Alexandra, their five children and four loyal servants. His mother fled to Denmark in 1919 and died there in 1928, never having accepted they had really died.

Nine acid-charred skeletons were dug up from a burial pit near Yekaterinburg in 1991. DNA tests identified them as belonging to the czar and czarina, three of the children and the servants. Those bones were reburied in the St. Petersburg crypt in 1998.

The remains of the other two children haven't been found. According to the executioners, the two smallest corpses were burned to ash at the grave site.

The future empress was born in 1847 as Princess Marie Sophie Frederikke Dagmar. Baptized a Lutheran, she took the name Maria Fyodorovna when she converted to Russian Orthodoxy before marrying the future Alexander III, who reigned from 1881 to 1894. She had been engaged in 1864 to marry Alexander's older brother Nicholas, but he fell ill and died the next year. It was then arranged for her to marry Alexander. They wed in 1866.

Her remains arrived in Russia on Tuesday, exactly 140 years after she first came to the country. The remains were taken first to the czars' summer residence of Peterhof.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who played an important role in encouraging the reburial, didn't attend Thursday's services, which were billed as cultural and religious rather than political.

Anatoly Lukyanov, an adviser to the Communist faction in the lower house of parliament, said he feared the reburial "may be used to portray their family as holy martyrs and throw more dirt at Lenin and Soviet history."

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Maria, mother of the last Tsar, is returned to St Petersburg
By Andrew Osborn in Moscow
Published: 29 September 2006

A 31-gun salute rippled across St Petersburg's tsarist-era skyline yesterday as Russians reclaimed a part of their history that they were told to forget for 70 years.

In an exercise branded as the righting of a historical injustice, the mother of the last Tsar, Empress-Dowager Maria Fedorovna, was reburied in Russia's former imperial capital 87 years after she fled the country in fear of her life.

Hers is the last body expected to be interred in the cathedral of St Petersburg's Peter and Paul Fortress barring a restoration of the monarchy - something that seems highly unlikely.

Her original funeral took place in 1928 in Denmark, where she died in exile and was buried, 1,000 miles away from the remains of her husband, Tsar Alexander III, and son, Tsar Nicholas II, in contravention of her final wishes.

Maria Fedorovna chose to live out her final years in Denmark because it was there that she was born as Princess Dagmar in 1847 before marrying into the Russian royal family, converting to the Russian Orthodox Church, and learning Russian.

President Vladimir Putin pushed for her remains to be posthumously repatriated in order to draw a line under one of the country's most tragic episodes - the murder of her son, Russia's last Tsar, Nicholas II, and his young family.

He stepped down in 1917 as revolution swept Russia and was executed by a Bolshevik firing squad with his family in the basement of a merchant's house in Yekaterinburg on 17 July 1918.

Remains thought to be those of the Tsar, his wife and three of his five children were found in 1991 and laid to rest in St Petersburg in 1998. Yesterday they were joined by those of Maria Fedorovna as her last wish was finally granted.

For the Romanovs, a family dynasty that ruled Russia for three centuries, and of which she was part, the ceremony was an emotional point of closure that they hope will foster a renewed sense of respect for an institution whose reputation was destroyed by the Bolsheviks.

For the Kremlin it was the latest in a long line of reburials of tsarist-era figures that are part of Russia's quest to forge itself a new identity that draws on its entire past as opposed to selective highlights. Maria Fedorovna was laid to rest alongside her husband and her son in the Romanovs' family vault.

The ceremony was grand: church bells rang out, a yellow standard emblazoned with the double-headed eagle of the Romanovs fluttered in the breeze, and a choir intoned Orthodox verse. A 31-gun salute thundered across St Petersburg after mourners, including descendants of the Romanovs, European royals, and government officials, had finished sprinkling earth on the Empress-Dowager's coffin.

In life her fate was tragic and she never fully admitted to herself and others that her son and his family had been murdered.

Indeed, she continued writing to him long after his death and, bizarrely, interviewed a number of women who claimed to be Anastasia, her son's murdered daughter, whose remains have never been recovered - stoking rumours that she somehow eluded her Bolshevik executioners.

Maria Fedorovna was famed for her devotion to charitable causes, her general kindness and her stoicism. Before she was evacuated on a British warship in 1919 she allegedly escaped being murdered at the hands of an angry mob of Bolshevik sympathisers by speaking English and ignoring them as they discussed whether to kill her or not.

Prince Michael of Kent, who bears a striking resemblance to her murdered son, Tsar Nicholas II, said her reburial was a moment of catharsis for Russia.

"What happened to them [Nicholas II] was unforgivable and I think the Russian people think that very strongly," he said. "In a sense this [her reburial] is a watershed. I suppose you can say this will be the final act. The mood in Russia has now softened and made a momentous occasion like this much easier than it might have been before."

Vladimir Titov, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister, called the reburial "the restoration of justice" while Orthodox Patriarch Alexiy II, who presided over the ceremony, said it was a sign that Russia was coming to terms with its brutal past.

"This is another sign," he said "that Russia is overcoming the enmity and divisions caused by the revolution and civil war."

But the Romanovs should not celebrate too soon. Their efforts to "rehabilitate" Nicholas II and have his murder classified as a political killing have so far come to nothing as the Kremlin fears such a move could allow his descendants to reclaim dozens of palaces and country estates formerly owned by the Romanovs.

Nor is support for the restoration of the monarchy strong; a recent poll showed that only nine per cent of Russians favour a return of the Romanovs.

A 31-gun salute rippled across St Petersburg's tsarist-era skyline yesterday as Russians reclaimed a part of their history that they were told to forget for 70 years.

Hers is the last body expected to be interred in the cathedral of St Petersburg's Peter and Paul Fortress barring a restoration of the monarchy - something that seems highly unlikely.

He stepped down in 1917 as revolution swept Russia and was executed by a Bolshevik firing squad with his family in the basement of a merchant's house in Yekaterinburg on 17 July 1918.

In life her fate was tragic and she never fully admitted to herself and others that her son and his family had been murdered.

Prince Michael of Kent, who bears a striking resemblance to her murdered son, Tsar Nicholas II, said her reburial was a moment of catharsis for Russia.

"This is another sign," he said "that Russia is overcoming the enmity and divisions caused by the revolution and civil war."

Nor is support for the restoration of the monarchy strong; a recent poll showed that only nine per cent of Russians favour a return of the Romanovs.

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Czarina Maria finally comes home
The Hamilton Spectator
MOSCOW (Sep 29, 2006)
The Hamilton Spectator.com

Empress Maria Fyodorovna, the Danish-born mother of Russia's last czar, was reburied yesterday next to her son and husband in the Romanov family crypt in St. Petersburg nearly eight decades after her death in exile.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II presided over the pomp-filled ceremonies, which were attended by hundreds of domestic and foreign dignitaries, including members of European royalty and about 50 Romanov descendants.

"This will be another sign that Russia is overcoming the enmity and divisions brought by the revolution and civil war," Alexei said in a televised funeral service at St. Isaac's Cathedral in the old imperial capital. "Having fallen deeply in love with the Russian people, the empress devoted a great deal of effort for the benefit of the Russian fatherland. Her soul ached for Russia."

The morning ceremony was followed by afternoon burial with a service in a church at the St. Peter and Paul Fortress, now the final resting place for every czar and czarina beginning with Peter the Great, who ruled from 1682 to 1725.

Alexei earlier described the return of the empress' remains for honored reburial as "a great historic and spiritual event for Russia" that should be viewed as "an act of repentance on the part of society and the state."

source: Los Angeles Times

Then Princess Marie Dagmar left Copenhagen in 1866. Hans Christian Andersen was among the crowd to see her off. He wrote in his diary:

"Yesterday, at the quay, while passing me by, she stopped and took me by the hand. My eyes were full of tears. What a poor child! Oh Lord, be kind and merciful to her! They say that there is a brilliant court in St. Petersburg and the csar's family is nice; still, she heads for an unfamiliar country, where people are different and religion is different and where she will have none of her former acquaintances by her side".

Csar Alexander and Maria Fyodorovna had four sons, two daughters: * Nicholas II (May 6, 1868 - July 17, 1918) * Alexander Alexandrovich (June 7, 1869 - May 2, 1870) * George Alexandrovich (May 6, 1871 - Aug. 9, 1899) * Xenia Alexandrovna (April 6, 1875 - April 20, 1960) * Michael Alexandrovich (Nov. 28, 1878 - June 12, 1918) * Olga Alexandrovna (June 13, 1882 - Nov. 24, 1960).

The last czar, Nicholas II, was executed by Bolshevik revolutionaries in 1918, along with his wife, Alexandra, their five children and four loyal servants. His mother, Maria Fyodorovna, fled to Denmark in 1919 and died there in 1928, never having accepted they had really died.

According to accounts by the executioners, the two smallest corpses were burned to ash at the grave site and scattered.

Princess Marie Sophie Frederikke Dagmar (Nov. 26, 1847 - Oct. 13, 1928) was the second daughter of Louise of Hesse and Christian IX of Denmark. After her marriage to Alexander III of Russia, she became the Empress Consort of Russia as Maria Fyodorovna. Her children included the last Russian monarch, Nicholas II, whom she outlived by ten years.

Dagmar was named after her kinswoman Marie Sophie Friederike of Hessen-Kassel (1767-1852), Queen Dowager of Denmark. Her father soon became a hereditary heir to the Throne of Denmark, largely due to her mother's succession rights. Born as a daughter of a relatively impoverished princely cadet line, she was baptized into Lutheran faith. Her father became King of Denmark six days after her marriage. Due to the brilliant alliances of his children, he became known as the "Father-in-law of Europe."

Most of her life, she was known as Maria Fyodorovna, the name which she took when converting to Orthodoxy immediately before her 1866 marriage to the future Tsar Alexander III. She was known within her family as Minnie.

Maria Fyodorovna's being the younger sister of Alexandra, Queen Consort of King Edward VII and mother of George V of the United Kingdom, helps to explain the striking resemblance between Nicholas II and George V. Her brother was King George I of Greece.

In 1864, Tsarevich Nicholas went to Denmark, where he was betrothed to Dagmar. He died within the year and before the marriage could take place. His last will was that Dagmar would marry his brother, the future Alexander III.

Dagmar was warmly welcomed in Kronstadt by Alexander II of Russia and all his family. The wedding took place on 28 October.

Despite the overthrow of the monarchy (1917), the Empress Maria at first refused to leave Russia. Only in 1919, at the urging of her sister Alexandra, she grudgingly departed. After a brief visit to London, she returned to her native Denmark, choosing as her home Hvidore, her former holiday villa near Copenhagen. Maria died in 1928.

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oktober 2006

Alexander III en zijn gezin

Tsarina Maria Fyodorovna, Tsar Alexander III
and their 5 children

Pagina bijgewerkt: 2007-06-18

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