Eighty years after their brutal murder, the mortal remains of the last Czar of the Russias, Nicholas II, his wife Alexandria, three of their four children, and four servants were finally laid to rest on July 17, 1998, at the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg, Russia. The burial turned out to be a feeble attempt at closure on one of the most sordid affairs of the twentieth century. A descendant of the last Czar, Prince Nicholas Romanov, desired that the burial be a "signal of forgiveness" and "a moment of repentance, understanding and mutual pardon."

The bones were exhumed in 1991 from a forest near the Russian city of Yekaterinburg. DNA testing verified the remains as those of the Romanovs. Still missing are the remains of one daughter and the heir, Alexei.

The deep rift within Russia was evident in that President Boris Yeltsin, who ordered the burial of the remains more than six years ago, waited until the last minute to decide to attend. Because he believes the remains of the family are not authentic, the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church would not officiate. Some members of the Romanov family would not attend because of deep-seated animosity toward the Bolshevik regime.

Today's Russia is facing critical economic and political problems that threaten to end its brief experience with democratic rule. A headline in the July 10 issue of The Economist read "Russia's Crisis: Could It Lead To Facism?" As Russia lurches from one crisis to another some speculate that its current problems could snatch the fragile seeds of democracy from the mother soil. The article paints a gloomy picture, "Even by Russian standards, it has been a frightening and sometimes bizarre few weeks. The ruble is on the edge of a precipice. Short-term interest rates, just 21 percent last autumn, shot up to 150 percent last month before coming down to 60 percent; they have again climbed back to 80 percent. If the ruble crashes, economic-and quite possibly political-catastrophe beckons. Instead of pottering around their weekend dachas and bathing in muddy pools (their usual summer pastimes), intelligent Muscovites are talking seriously-for the first time in five years-about a financial and political crisis that may be settled only by force of arms."

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 the world has watched and hoped for true reforms that would bring about prosperity for the middle class and a political stability for a country still possessing a vast nuclear arsenal. The intervening years have produced conflicting emotions of hope, dismay, and cynicism. In 1993 President Yeltsin turned the Army's guns on the Parliament building to deal with dissent. The Russian Army brutally crushed nationalist desires in Chechnya. While workers go months without getting paid and whole cities suffer energy shortages, a new class of wealthy elite secrete away money in Swiss bank accounts and live a lifestyle of conspicuous consumption. Today, Russia awaits word whether another monetary bailout from the International Monetary Fund, $15 billion worth, will come in time to stave off another revolution.

A comment by communist Party leader, Gennady Zyuganov, before a recent meeting of the International Press Institute in Moscow, sums up the current crisis. He said: "You have come here at the height of our national catastrophe.... Today we have a president with more power than a Russian czar or Egyptian pharaoh...yet the man on the street knows that this road leads to destruction."

Russia has come to the end of a 1,000 year period which began with the Christianization of the country in 988 A.D. From the ancient city of Rostov the orthodox faith spread throughout the country until Moscow became known as the Third Rome. The hierarchical and autocratic faith eventually was wedded to the political power of the czars. The Romanov czars came to be regarded by the peasants as deities, answerable only to God. In Nicholas II this arrogance came to a head as his well intentioned but inept leadership plunged the empire into a crisis that resulted in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Three hundred years of Romanov rule were replaced by the utopian theory of communism which also failed to bring about a just society.

Modern Russia has become a proverb among the nations for what was written long ago in the Bible: "Because of the transgression of a land, many are its princes; but by a man of understanding and knowledge right will be prolonged" (Proverbs 28:2). Also in Proverbs 29:2: "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when a wicked man rules, the people groan."

There appears today to be no leader in Russia who has the wisdom or vision to lead the people into a brighter safer time. During her long history, no political or religious leader measured up to the description of a just and wise ruler that King David described at the end of his reign. "The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spoke to me: He who rules over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be like the light of the morning when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, like the tender grass springing out of the earth, by clear shining after rain" (2 Samuel 23:3-4).

A little understood factor in the rise and fall of great powers has been the lack of true justice and righteous rule within their borders. Other than Israel of old, no nation has ever been founded on the just law of God. Without such a proper foundation the words of the second Psalm come to light. Nations rage and the people devise empty paths (verse 2). Monarchs, presidents, dictators, and all rulers plan strategies and devise theories apart from the foundation of God's Word. Ultimately, God will set His hand to bring all nations under His rule, but not until the lessons of human experience prove the folly of man's government (verses 8-9). God urges those who rule over men to seek godly instruction and to humbly serve their people, knowing they hold office by God's will (verse 10-11).

Nicholas II, like so many other autocratic monarchs, sought to hold onto his power at a time in history when the zeitgeist, or spirit of the age, was changing. Freedom, liberty, and self-determination had long been denied the Russians. The Czar could not grasp what was happening and abdicated the throne. With his murder, the Bolsheviks hoped to kill a part of their history and start anew. During their 74 year reign they tried to extinguish the Orthodox faith throughout the land. Churches were closed or left to rot. Priests who sought to minister to the people were persecuted. One autocratic rule was substituted for another, one form of faith for another.

Columnist Georgie Ann Geyer wrote recently about this cumulative effect of misrule: "The greatest truth about Russia today is that, after 1,000 years of one absolute faith or another, today it has no faith and no system at all. Oh, a few communists still hang around, but their time is clearly at an end. The Orthodox Church is experiencing a small revival, but it is too soon to say how deeply its tenets still bore into Russia's soul.

"Above all, this is an age here without principle. This is not a time for grandeur and a true faith, but a time dictated by individual seeking and the miniaturization of dreams. And here, in this new period for Mother Russia, we come to the final truth, one that will haunt and change this country: When the United States and the West defeated communism, they did far more than defeat one period of Russian history. They defeated its entire history" (Universal Press Syndicate,June 2, 1998).

While a burial should be a time of healing and looking forward to the future, the burial of Russia's last czar is a reminder of past mistakes and human misrule. May the Romanov family and their servants rest in peace until better times.