Royal Memorial

Hundreds of people Friday stood in a rain-drenched wooded clearing in Siberia to witness the unveiling of a black marble cross marking the 81st anniversary of the murder of Russia’s Czar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra and their five children. The privately funded Orthodox Christian cross stands in the place near Yekaterinburg where the remains were discovered eight years ago. The mourners, shielding their yellow candles from the rain, listened to dedications to Russia’s last royal family, who were killed by a Bolshevik firing squad July 17, 1918, in Yekaterinburg. Most of the bodies were burned, doused with acid, and thrown into a pit outside the city. They were re-buried last summer in St. Petersburg.