ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, July 19 (UPI) -- A top Russian archaeologist says bones uncovered at a St. Petersburg landmark are those of military officers executed during the communist revolution.
The remains of 80 victims of the overthrow of the czarist government were discovered recently at the Peter and Paul Fortress, which had been used as a prison by the Bolsheviks during the bloody so-called red terror of 1918-21.
Vladimir Kildyushevsky, the head of the government dig, told the ITAR-Tass news agency anthropologists would conduct further study of the skeletons to determine the cause of death.
ITAR-Tass said Monday around 100 similar skeletons were found in recent years around the fortress, including an apparent mass grave unearthed by a road construction crew that is believed to include the remains of four grand dukes.