WOULD THAT IT WERE SO:

President Boris Yeltsin attended services at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg as the remains of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, murdered 80 years ago during the Bolshevik revolution, were interred in the crypt. In a short and powerful speech, the president said: “We must finish this century, which has become the century of blood and lawlessness for Russia, with repentance and reconciliation regardless of political and religious views or ethnic origin.”