c. 1998 Religion News Service

(Rabbi Rudin is national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.)

UNDATED _ The recent burial of Nicholas II, the last Russian czar, in the St. Petersburg Russian Orthodox Cathedral proved once again that few things are ever permanently settled in history.

In July 1918, the communists led by V.I. Lenin were flush with their newly won power and were confident their political movement was the irreversible”wave of the future.”They boldly flexed their revolutionary muscles and brutally executed Nicholas, his wife and their five children in a remote area of the Ural Mountains far from the czarist capital city of St. Petersburg.

Exit the despotic royal House of Romanov in shame and enter the communist dictatorship of the proletariat in glory. Or so a stunned world believed.

But less than 75 years after the execution of the czarist family, the Soviet Union, communism’s massive home base, was no more.

And in an ironic twist of history, Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s president and a former communist official, attended the St. Petersburg funeral service along with 50 surviving members of the Romanov family. Yeltsin bowed his head in respect as Nicholas’ casket was placed among the tombs of past czars.

In his remarks, Yeltsin condemned the”slaying of the last Russian emperor and his family,”and declared,”We (Russians) are all guilty.”The Russian president also condemned the Romanovs’ tyrannical rule and urged Russians to seek”repentance and peace regardless of political views, ethnic or religious belonging.”And in a remarkable admission, Yeltsin said the royal murders caused an”uncompromising split in Russian society into `us’ and `them.’ The results of this split can be seen even now.” Despite Yeltsin’s plea, it seems the executions of the Romanovs and the collapse of communism have settled almost nothing in Russian life. And it is equally clear that Nicholas II, Lenin, and Joseph Stalin will continue to haunt Russia for generations to come.

Although the flag-draped caskets and booming gun salutes at the St. Petersburg funeral tried to romanticize the Romanovs, I can never forget how Nicholas’ cruel policies profoundly affected both my immediate family and the entire Jewish people.

Nicholas, the self-proclaimed”autocrat of all the Russians,”came to power in 1894 and was forced to abdicate his ancestral throne in 1917. It was during his reign that numberless vicious anti-Semitic acts took place in the vast Russian empire, including pogroms frequently organized by czarist government officials.

Young Jews, including my grandfather Samuel Rudin, were frequently conscripted into Nicholas’ army for 25-year tours of duty. Many potential draftees cut off their trigger fingers to avoid military service.

My grandfather crafted leather boots for Nicholas’ officers, but like many other draftees, he deserted the czarist army and emigrated to the United States. Louis Rosenbloom, my other grandfather, also fled to America to escape the brutal economic, religious, and political hardships Nicholas placed upon Jews.

On Easter Sunday 1903, a pogrom broke out in the city of Kishinev in czarist Russia. Forty-nine Jews were killed, 500 injured, and 2,000 families were made homeless. The bloody pogrom stunned the civilized world and until the words Holocaust and Auschwitz entered the world’s collective consciousness, Kishinev remained for many years the generic name for murderous anti-Jewish persecution.

Nicholas II had full knowledge of the pogrom, but as one report of the time noted:”The local czarist government authorities, while totally aware”of the pogrom did nothing to stop it.

The U.S. reaction to Kishinev was one of revulsion. A strong petition of protest was signed by thousands of Americans representing all religious beliefs. President Theodore Roosevelt transmitted the petition to the czarist government, which refused to receive it.

A final note: In 1906, the American Jewish Committee was organized to combat anti-Semitism and all other forms of bigotry as a direct response to Kishinev and the czar’s anti-Jewish policies.

Nicholas’ legacy lives on in many unexpected ways.

DEA END RUDIN