Debates Surrounding the Last Romanov Family in the Russian Press in 2013-2015

In 2013, Russia celebrated the 400th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. In the context of this event the figure of the last Emperor Nicholas II was playing the great symbolic importance, which is explained by the fact that 2013 was the tear for another two anniversaries: 95 years from the date of the execution of the Romanov family and 145 years since the birth of Nicholas II. Discussions around Nicholas II in press show the ambiguity of the relationship of various social agents, which give their interpretations last Emperor’s role in the Russian history. This situation existed before 2013, but then the state, Church, and “society” were able to reach certain agreements: in 1979, the remains were found to be authentic and reburied in 1998, in 2000 the Emperor and his family were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church, and in 2008 rehabilitated as victims of political repressions. 2013-2015 can be called the time of the revision of these agreements. New disputes about the identification of the remains began, and the new discussions related to the roles of victims and guilty persons of the tragic events of the XX century appeared in press despite the fact that this process was already completed during the religious and juridical rehabilitation. This research is the analysis of the Central Russian newspapers of the last three years. The aim of this paper is to show how these narratives are involved in constructing the national memory about the Russian past. The analysis of newspaper articles examines the relationship between actors that are involved in the discussions, the overall picture of the interpretation of the epoch of Nicholas II and the problems of memory about the execution of the Royal family. Additional topic is the analysis of stories that have no directly relation to the discussion of the last Emperor figure, but have the impact on the process of creating narratives about it.