The headlines in the local newspapers said it all:

Eighty years later, on the anniversary of their brutal execution, the Russian people laid the Tsar and Tsarina to rest, with most of their children, at the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg. A Russian Orthodox funeral for the family, with a speech by President Boris Yeltsin, finally ended the atrocities committed against the Romanov family.

What happened during the midnight hours of July 17, 1918, is an example of what occurs when those in power disregard the law. For Yurovsky to even suggest the Tsar's trial was "prevented" because the White Army was advancing leaves no doubt justice was never an issue. Expediency was the only thing at work that night.

The "Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia" claims the Tsar and his family are still at work today. Believing the family has helped to bring about miracles since their execution, the Church has designated each member of the family a saint and a holy royal martyr.

In a final twist of irony, as the body of the murdered Tsar was laid to rest with honors, Russians debated whether the body of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin should be removed from its place of honor in Red Square. Where he will ultimately end up is not known. Turns out, the Tsar's memory is generally held in higher esteem at the end of the century than the memory of the man who likely ordered the death of the Romanov family near the century's start.