--- title: Here's Why Russia Had To Exhume Its Last Czar | TIME description: Russian officials are doing more DNA tests to confirm they've found Czar Nicholas II's remains, because the Russian Orthodox Church isn't convinced. canonical: https://time.com/video/KuiV1Rhf/ og:title: Here's Why Russia Had To Exhume Its Last Czar og:description: Russian officials are doing more DNA tests to confirm they've found Czar Nicholas II's remains, because the Russian Orthodox Church isn't convinced. og:url: https://time.com/video/KuiV1Rhf/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/KuiV1Rhf/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's Why Russia Had To Exhume Its Last Czar twitter:description: Russian officials are doing more DNA tests to confirm they've found Czar Nicholas II's remains, because the Russian Orthodox Church isn't convinced. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/KuiV1Rhf/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Here's Why Russia Had To Exhume Its Last Czar > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Here's Why Russia Had To Exhume Its Last Czar [Watch (HLS stream): Here's Why Russia Had To Exhume Its Last Czar](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KuiV1Rhf.m3u8) (1:55)  _Published 2015-09-24. Russian officials are doing more DNA tests to confirm they've found Czar Nicholas II's remains, because the Russian Orthodox Church isn't convinced._ --- Jul 27, 2023 6:51 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [China's Economy Czar Is Coming to Washington for Trade Talks](/video/nfhQOprV/) ### China's Economy Czar Is Coming to Washington for Trade Talks [RFK Jr. as Vaccine Czar](/video/rL4yg4ux/) ### RFK Jr. as Vaccine Czar [SNL Takes Down New Ebola Czar Ron Klain](/video/utUPpVQb/) ### SNL Takes Down New Ebola Czar Ron Klain --- ## Transcript On Wednesday Russian investigators reportedly exhumed the body of Czar Nicholas Romanov II and his wife Alexandra. It's part of an investigation into the family's death in 1918. And into confirming the remains really belong to the Czar and his wife. Ever since some of the family's remains were tested in the early 90's, Scientists have been pretty confident that it's really them, but they haven't been able to convince the Russian Orthodox Church. Church officials haven't come out with their exact reasons for doubt. There's been some discussion on the fact that the Romanov family has been canonized, making the remains holy relics, so that could play a role. but in general, church leaders say they just aren't convinced, and their approval is important for bringing the family's remains together. The remains that were excavated in the 90s are said to have included the czar, his wife, three of their children, and several servants. Two of their children, Alexi and Maria, were unaccounted for. Then another burial site was found in 2007 containing the remains of a young man and a young woman. More DNA testing confirmed they belonged to Alexi and Maria. ... ria, but those remains are reportedly sitting in a shelf because the Russian Orthodox church has balked at the idea of adding them to the family tomb. The church says it believes the families remains were completely destroyed and won't change it's position, Until it's 100 % sure. US Armed Forces geneticist Michael Coble, who worked on identifying the 2007 remains, wrote a thorough and kind of annoyed sounding chronicle of all the testing that's been done so far. Dismissing some other scientists' feeble attempts to discredit these studies with contaminated data, and concluding it is now time Time to put this controversy to rest. That was 4 years ago and the controversy is still going. There was a plan to bury Alexi and Maria's remains in the Romanov in October but the church insists it be allowed to supervise the latest round of testing before it gives its approval. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Here's Why Russia Had To Exhume Its Last Czar","description":"Russian officials are doing more DNA tests to confirm they've found Czar Nicholas II's remains, because the Russian Orthodox Church isn't convinced.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/KuiV1Rhf/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-09-24T15:03:31.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KuiV1Rhf.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/KuiV1Rhf/","duration":"PT1M55S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/KuiV1Rhf/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```