07 — The Relics and the Ekaterinburg Remains

A case in which the science is largely settled and the ecclesiastical status is not. The bodies buried at Porosenkov Log in 1918 were found (1979/1991) and identified by multiple genetic studies as the imperial family; the state buried them in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in 1998, and the two missing children were found and identified in 2007–2009. Yet the Moscow Patriarchate has not recognized these remains as the holy relics of the passion-bearers. This section reports the discovery and identification, and then — scrupulously both-sides — why the remains remain contested. It never asserts the identification as settled Church fact.

Tradition: Russian Orthodox / ROCOR

Files in This Section

File	Description
The Discovery and Identification	The finding of the grave (Ryabov and Avdonin, 1979; exhumed 1991), the 2007 discovery of the two missing children, and the genetic identifications (Gill/Ivanov 1994; Coble 2009; Rogaev 2009), including the resolution of the Anna Anderson claim.
Why the Remains Remain Contested	Why the Moscow Patriarchate has not recognized the remains as relics — the reliance on the Sokolov “total destruction” tradition, doubts about chain of custody and method, the “which daughter” discrepancy, the reopened investigation of 2015, and the state of the question as of 2026.

See Also

• The Murder of 16–17 July 1918 — the two-grave disposal that shaped the forensic story
• Sources and How We Know — the forensic record weighed as one class of source
• The Church on the Blood and the Feast — the shrines that exist independently of the relics question

References

• Gill, Peter, Pavel L. Ivanov, et al. “Identification of the remains of the Romanov family by DNA analysis.” Nature Genetics 6 (1994): 130–135.
• Coble, Michael D., et al. “Mystery Solved: The Identification of the Two Missing Romanov Children Using DNA Analysis.” PLoS ONE 4, no. 3 (2009): e4838.
• Massie, Robert K. The Romanovs: The Final Chapter. New York: Random House, 1995.