Naryshkin proposes reburial of Great Prince Nikolai Romanov Jr on April 30
MOSCOW. April 22 (Interfax) - The ceremony to rebury the remains of Great Prince Nikolai Romanov Jr and his wife is expected to take place in Moscow on April 30, Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin said.
"I suggest that the ceremony for reburying the remains of the great prince and his wife should be conducted on April 30. The necessary negotiations and approvals have been conducted by our colleagues and everything is ready for that," Naryshkin said at the final meeting of the interdepartmental working group on the organization of this reburial.
The meeting was held in the State Duma on Wednesday.
The speaker recalled that a ritual event will be conducted in the Les Invalides building in Paris before this date.
Naryshkin pointed out that Great Prince Nikolai Nikolayevich was not only a representative of the imperial family, but also commander-in-chief of all ground and naval forces of the Russian Army in the initial period of WWI.
"Like our entire Fatherland, he had a difficult fate: the fate of a statesman, a politician, a military commander," Naryshkin said.
Nikolai Nikolayevich had to spend the last years of his life outside of Russia, he said. He died in France and was buried there. "Only many years later, conditions emerged for the return of his remains to Russia," the politician said.
Naryshkin emphasized that the remains of the great prince are being transferred at the request of his descendants, who have chosen a place of his future reburial in Russia.
"The family has an unwritten will of the great prince, in which he says he would like to find rest in his native land and he would like to be reburied next to Russian soldiers and officers killed in WWI," Naryshkin said.