IMPERIAL FUNERAL SHOULD BE "AN ACT OF REPENTANCE."

The government commission set up to determine the authenticity of the remains of the imperial family has confirmed this and finalized its recommendations for burial. In its January 30 meeting, it recommended to President Yeltsin that the royal family should be buried in the former imperial capital. Four members of the commission favored the Yekaterinburg site, where the family was murdered. All others supported St. Petersburg as the final resting place. Commission Chairman Boris Nemtsov said that the most likely date for interment was July 17 — the 80th anniversary of the murders. (NTV, January 30) The choice of St. Petersburg is said to be in line with the wishes of the royal family’s surviving relatives. The decision is President Yeltsin’s to make, but he is expected to follow the commission’s recommendation.

In an interview with the BBC, Aleksandr Avdonin, the geologist who found the bones in 1979 but did not reveal his discovery until 1991, said Russia faced the task of recovering and authenticating not only the imperial remains, but also its own past. Under communism, Avdonin said, "We lost our memory, our patriotic tradition, our history, our culture. This is about memory, not just about the revolution but about all the crimes of the Soviet regime, from the Gulag to the Hitler-Stalin Pact. It must be an act of repentance for, if we do not repent for the crimes of the past, if we do not remember, we shall repeat their mistakes." (BBC World Service, "From our own correspondent," February 1)

Ukrainian Political Leaders React to Yeltsin’s Endorsement of Kuchma.