Late Russian Tsarina Maria Fyodorovna's Body Returns To Russia
Maira Oliveira - All Headline News Reporter Kronstadt, Russia (BANG) - The late mother of Russia's last Tsar will finally be laid to rest in her adopted homeland on Thursday. The body of Maria Fyodorovna - the mother of Tsar Nicholas II - arrived on a Danish frigate into the port of Kronstadt, in Russia, on Tuesday, almost nine decades after the royal fled the Bolshevik revolution. Descendants of the Romanov dynasty gathered to watch as the coffin, draped in the imperial flag, was brought ashore to the sounds of a 31-gun salute. After the solemn military ceremony, the body was transported to the former imperial summer residence at Peterhof for two-days of ceremonies, before being laid to rest in St. Petersburg. Maria was born Princess Dagmar of the Danish royal house and married Tsar Alexander III in 1866. She was forced to flee Russia in 1919 after a Bolshevik firing squad executed her son and his family in 1918. She died in 1928 and was buried at Roskilde, Denmark's royal cathedral. The return of her body follows years of negotiations between Moscow and Copenhagen to bring the Danish-born royal back to Russia. Thousands of Russians are expected to line the streets to watch Maria's last journey to the Peter and Paul fortress, in St. Petersburg, where she will be placed in the Romanov vault next to her husband Tsar Alexander III. Valentina Matviyenko, governor of St. Petersburg, said, "This ceremony |
