Putin Unveils Monument to Assassinated Grand Duke

A new monument commemorating Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, who was assassinated in a bomb attack by Socialist-Revolutionary Ivan Kalyayev on February 17, 1905, was officially unveiled on Thursday by Russian President Vladimir Putin and consecrated by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia in the park near Nikolskaya Tower in the Kremlin.

The President said the the memorial was “a symbol of the price we had to pay for hatred, division and hostility, and reminds us that we must do everything we can to preserve our people’s unity and harmony” and that “the Grand Duke’s death shook Russian society back then and people from all backgrounds saw it as a tragedy.”

“The cross raised in memory of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich’s death has been restored to its historical place,” President Putin also said, referring to the original memorial’s destruction at Bolshevik hands in 1918.

The original memorial was erected in 1908 on the site of the Grand Duke’s assassination with the blessing of his widow, Elizabeth Feodorovna, whom President Putin described as a “remarkable woman” who “did not leave the country even during the darkest days and to her death remained true to the ideals of Christian forgiveness and love.”

Grand Duke Sergei, a son of Tsar Alexander II and uncle of the last Tsar, Nicholas II, was Governor-General of Moscow from 1891 until January 1, 1905. He was 47 years old when he was killed.

Крест на месте гибели великого князя Сергея Александровича в Кремле: скоро начнется церемония открытия pic.twitter.com/4DfvW6f8ca

— Дмитрий Смирнов (@dimsmirnov175) May 4, 2017

Filed under Historical Royals, Russia
Tagged Assassination, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, Memorial, President Putin of Russia.

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