Emperor Nicholas II commemorated in St. Petersburg

Last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his family and servants will be commemorated in the Sts. Peter and Paul Fortress (the St. Petersburg state history museum) on Saturday.

A divine service dedicated to the Royal Martyrs will be held in the Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral today, the museum's development foundation reported.

After that, an exposition "Empress Maria Fyodorvna (wife of Alexander III and mother of Nicholas II). Life pages" will open in the state bastion of the fortress. The exposition features unique archive photographs covering the St. Petersburg period of the Empress's life from her arrival in Russia till 1916.

A series of charity postcards "Empress Maria Fyodorovna" will be presented at the exposition. The money gained from their distribution will be spent on the Cathedral's reconstruction.

Nicholas II of the Romanov dynasty and his family were executed by Bolsheviks in the basement of the Ipatyev house in Yekaterinburg in the early hours of July 17, 1918.

On July 17, 1998 the remains of the emperor, his family and servants were reburied in the chapel of St. Great Martyr Catherine in the Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral, St. Petersburg. In 1999 Prince Dmitry Romanov proposed to commemorate the royal family in the Sts. Peter and Paul Fortress every year.