CZAR'S BONES? U.S. TO IDENTIFY

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 16, 1992                   TAG: 9202160058
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: YEKATERINBURG, RUSSIA                                LENGTH: Medium
CZAR'S BONES? U.S. TO IDENTIFY
Secretary of State James Baker said Saturday he would send American forensics experts to identify bones and skeletons said to be those of Russian Czar Nicholas II and his family.
Baker was taken to see the remains at the Department of Criminal Pathology, where the bones and some intact skeletons were on a table.
Russia's last czar was executed here along with his wife, Alexandra, and his children in July 1918 on the orders of the country's new Bolshevik leaders. Nicholas abdicated in March 1917, ending the nearly 300-year rule of the Romanov dynasty.
The family was shot to death in the basement of a house in the center of the city. The question of what happened to their bodies has long been a mystery, but it is widely believed their remains were doused with acid to prevent monarchists from finding them.
According to U.S. officials, Russian scientists 10 years ago found what they believed was the burial site after reviewing notes left by the Bolsheviks. They tested the ground for acid and unearthed nine sets of bones and skeletons, but kept their discovery secret.
The circumstances surrounding the murder of the imperial family were a taboo subject for decades in the Soviet Union.
Pathologists say the bones belong to the czar, his wife, three of his four daughters, his cook, doctor and maid. The bones of his son, Alexei, are not believed to have been among the find, said a U.S. official who participated in the tour of the lab.
The identity of the ninth set of bones apparently has not been determined.
The Russians have not determined which of the three daughters the bones belonged to, the official said. There has been speculation through the years that the czar's youngest daughter, Anastasia, escaped the assassins.
The scientists asked that U.S. pathologists come to Yekaterinburg to help confirm the identification and Baker readily agreed.
Baker also was taken to the site of the house where the czar and his family were imprisoned and executed. The house was razed in 1977 under orders from Communist Party leader Leonid Brezhnev, who didn't want it included on a U.N. list of historically protected sites. Russian President Boris Yeltsin was the local party leader at the time.
A cross stands at the site and carnations are laid on it daily by monarchists. Local authorities plan to build a chapel there and a hotel next door.
Baker was taken on a tour of the city, which until two years ago was closed to foreigners because of the many nearby defense industries. Even now, only foreigners with specific invitations may visit.
Yekaterinburg - founded in 1723 and named after Catherine I - was renamed Sverdlovsk in 1924 in honor of Communist leader Y.M. Sverdlovsk. It reverted to its former name last month after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB