Tramp buried instead of Nikolas II, Russia's last emperor

Specialists discovered the absence of fillings in the teeth of the skeleton

Remains of the last Russian emperor Nikolas II, which were buried in Peter and Paul Cathedral in St.Petersburg in 1998, do not belong to the Russian Tsar, the president of the center investigating the details of the Romanovs Royal Family's death, Vadim Viner said on Thursday.

According to the historian, specialists discovered the absence of fillings in the teeth of the skeleton, which had been buried in the cathedral. Scientists, therefore, believed that the remains belonged to an absolutely different person.

”Nikolas II has notes in his diary. The tsar wrote that he had visited a dentist. The tsar's doctor Maria Rendel has similar notes too. The records contain a detailed description of the dental work, the fillings in particular. Forensic medics examined the skeleton, which was considered to be the remains of Nikolas II, but did not find any tooth fillings,” Vadim Viner said.

The expert assures that the authorities violated the legal procedure of burying the remains: “From the legal point of view, it is a homeless person who is buried in Peter and Paul Cathedral instead of Tsar Nikolas II,” Viner said. The historian added that it was not the court that made the decision regarding the burial: “Everything was decided by the executive authorities, although they had no right to do it,” said he.

”They simply ignored any doubtful and disputable facts that we and our colleagues found. In other words, they decided for themselves from the very beginning that the uncovered remains belonged to the tsar and no one else. No expertise was conducted. They had only to make the society believe that it was the tsar's skeleton,” the expert concluded.

Vadim Viner said that the center for the history of the royal family, “The Fate of the Dynasty,” was going to file a claim to the Supreme Court of Russia to dispute the decision about the burial of the remains. “The center is currently preparing an address to the Supreme Court with a request to review the legal ground of the decision to bury the remains uncovered in Ekaterinburg,” Viner said.

”The Fate of the Dynasty” center was founded in 1994. In September of 1995, the center became a member of the Russian committee of foreign experts for investigating the fates of the Russian emperor's family members. The center also officially represents the “400 Years to the Clan of the Romanovs” foundation in Ekaterinburg.