papavers

Russia today called to mind the events of July 17, 1918 -- 93 years ago -- when the last Russian czar, Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, and their children were executed. The country still remains deeply divided about the communist period. Will Lenin's tomb be moved?

MOSCOW, Russia, July 16, 2011 -- A single tear. It welled up, then fell from the corner of one of the principal soloist's eyes, glistening as it ran down her cheek.

She was a young Russian woman, dressed in a white gown, and she was performing here tonight at the world premiere of a "Requiem Concert" in Russia's largest church, Christ the Savior, in a commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the execution of the last Russian Czar and his family -- Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, their four daughters Olga, Tatyana, Maria, and Anastasia, and their son, Alexei -- on the night of July 17, 1918.

In her weeping, the soloist was not alone. Many of the more than 2,000 people who filled into the concert hall of the largest basilica in Russia, the Church of Christ the Savior, bombed by Stalin and rebuilt in the 1990s, wept openly as they listened and watched the tragedy of the last Romanovs unfold.