MOSCOW, Oct. 7 -- Supporters of restoring the Russian monarchy, ended 74 years ago by the Bolshevik Revolution, gathered Friday in Moscow to discuss what they consider to be the destiny of Russia. A motley and colorful group of Cossacks, Russian Orthodox priests, Slavophiles, people decked out in old-fashioned uniforms and new-fangled politicians mingled with czarists to consider whether the future should go back to some sort of czarist rule. The opening day of the two-day affair in downtown Moscow saw the unlikely appearance of Russian Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov and last year's rebel uprising ringleader and toppled vice president Alexander Rutskoi. Nationalist politician and former KGB Gen. Alexander Sterligov and the leader of the anti-Semitic reactionary group Pamyat Dmitry Vasilyev also showed up. The attendance of these other political figures may have fit more into their own political agendas and less in the monarchist assembly. But Rutskoi, who craves his old boss's Kremlin job, made some remarks to the Interfax news agency about the important historical role of monarchy in Russia. Even a Constitutional Court judge, Valery Zorkin, who lost his job as chairman of the nation's highest court last year after he openly sided with President Boris Yeltsin's enemies, played a role. Zorkin was invited to discuss 'Monarchic power and law in Russia.' Last week one of Russia's various monarchist parties announced plans for a petition drive that would give Russia a constitutional monarchy. The so-called Majority Party wants Russians to vote on introducing this system, said party spokesman Vyacheslav Grechnev.
Although he acklnowledged that only a small minority of Muscovites support a monarchy, he said support is higher in the provinces, and he voiced confidence that a referendum could usher in such a system. One problem the monarchists might face is the issue of succession to the throne. The Bolsheviks killed the czar and his immediate family in 1918. Recent scientific tests have confirmed the identify of the bones found at the execution site in Yekaterinburg as those of the last ruling Romanovs. There have been some more recent pretenders to the throne and some distant Romanov relations running around with an eye toward celebrity, nobility and, perhaps, power.Any Russians with a hankering for royalty, but who have no desire to give up their nascent post-Soviet democracy, can relish the upcoming visit to Russia in mid-October of Queen Elizabeth II of England.
