Perm, Russia, June 7, 2018
Photo: foma.ru A search for the remains of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich Romanov and his secretary Nikolai Johnson began on Monday in the Russian city of Perm. Excavations will continue there at three sites until June 17, reports the site of the government of the Perm Krai.
According to the search organizers, more than 2,000 historical documents were studied, and the researchers believe with a high probability that they have pinpointed the place of Grand Duke Mikhail’s execution. Now archaeologists are looking for the exact burial site.
Grand Duke Mikhail was the fifth child of Tsar Alexaner III and the youngest brother of Royal Martyr Nicholas II. He and his secretary Johnson were executed in the early hours of June 13,1918 in a forest outside Perm, where they had been sent into exile. He was the first of the Romanovs to be executed by the Bolsheviks.
The organizers of the excavations have carried out extensive preparatory work, removing all the landfills in the area, and communicating with locals about the historical background of their selected sites. A testing trench will be dug to determine the level of the land in 1918, and various scientific methods will be used to identify any anomalies that could indicate the location of any human remains.
In the event that the remains will be found, they will be transferred to the Russian Investigative Committee to be used in the larger investigation into the murders of the members of the imperial family.
The search for the Grand Duke’s remains has been organized by the S.E.A.R.C.H. foundation in cooperation with the Russian authorities, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Russian police, and state and municipal authorities.
Extensive examinations are currently underway on remains that many believe belong to Tsar Nicholas II and his family members who were martyred on July 17, 1918, in Ekaterinburg. The Russian Orthodox Church has never recognized the authenticity of the remains, but hopes to resolve the issue sometime this year.
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