Moscow - Eighty-two years after Russian Bolsheviks shot dead and bayoneted the Russian royal family, the country's Orthodox Church yesterday granted sainthood to the last tsar, Nicholas II.
Considered a weak ruler, Nicholas II and his family were killed in the city of Yekaterinburg on July 17th, 1918. The decision to make him a saint came amid a swelling of support for the country's lost monarchy.
He becomes the fourth former ruler of Russia to become a saint.