Trips and Tales (Part 37)
Ekaterinburg’s Beaten Track
Well, in what is becoming a tradition, it’s time for a dash through some of the highlight locations in Ekaterinburg, according to a scan around the web and the Russia Experience’s own info pack. There’s plenty of options: a definite “Which way to turn?” scenario. Here are some of them.
The Church On The Spilt Blood in Honour of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land
Possibly the most pivotal location in 20th century Russian history, and a milestone in world events. Following the death of the Romanovs, there was arguably no going back. The fateful action of the Bolsheviks would lead to the new political regime eating itself from the inside out; Russia being force-marched into the future, agriculturally and industrially, on an (initially) optimistic tide of steel and flesh; the Stalinist purges; and the great civil cost – the Berlin Wall, the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis (everything you’ve ever heard about the “Reds”) and the Russian Communist system’s ultimate slow-dive into the dirt as a spent political firework, now the reserve of retrograde dictatorships led by idiosyncratic figurehead egos. Phew! The line through all of those events can be traced back to this place.
As mentioned in the last two installments of Trips and Tales, the Ipatiev House where the Romanovs and their entourage perished was demolished in 1976 under the orders of Yelstsin (then a local party official). The Church on The Spilt Blood now stands in its place as a monument to all those who died under Soviet repression. Poignantly, the crypt encapsulates the volume and location of the house’s cellar: the original murder-site.
Chapel of the Revered Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna Romanova
The wooden chapel adjacent to the Church is also notable, as it is dedicated to the memory of Revered Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna Romanova, formerly Grand Duchess Elizabeth, sister-in-law to the Tsar.
Elizabeth was murdered separately to the rest of the Romanovs, following the assassination of her husband, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, and after a life of unrelenting good works as a nun. She was beaten and thrown into an abandoned mining pit near the village of Siniachikha, along with other royal relatives and their associates. Upon the examination of her remains, it appeared that though she had sustained fatal injuries from the fall, she still managed to tend the wounds of a mortally wounded companion, Prince Loann, before she died. Two grenades had been thrown into the pit followed by brushwood, which was subsequently set alight. It is reported with some poignancy that during the drawn-out process of their murder, the victims sang an Orthodox hymn.
Elizabeth was canonised as a martyr in 1981 by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, along with other members of the Romanov family and their associates. In 1992 she was also canonised as New Martyr Elizabeth by the Moscow Patriarchate.
Also on the site of Ipatiev House, between the above Church and Chapel, are two memorial crosses. One, made of iron, dates from 1991; the other, in marble, from 1998. These mark, respectively, the discovery of the remains and their removal for burial in the Romanov family vault located in St.Petersburg.
Next time: Trips and Tales (Part 38)
Continuing along Ekaterinburg’s beaten track, with Ganina Yama (or “Ganya’s Pit”), first resting place of the Romanov’s.