The Romanov Fund For Russia

A commission created in the years 1894-1895 to mark the tercentenary of the rule of the Romanov Dynasty in 1913 approached Tsar Alexander III for guidance about the possibility of building a public worship site close to the Moscow railways station in St Petersburg.
The intention was to commemorate the many significant deeds marking the rule of the Imperial Family during the centuries.
Tsar Alexander responded by suggesting that instead a church should be built on that location. The church was inaugurated in January 1914 by Tsar Nicholas II in the presence of members of the Imperial Family.
Only a few years later, a national tragedy followed, which deeply affected many millions of Russians as well as the Monarchy, Tsar Nicholas II and his closest family having been brutally massacred in Yekaterinburg.
The church was virtually demolished by the bolsheviks during the following 70 years, and therefore ceased to exist as a place of worship.

In November 2006 at a meeting between Metropolitan Vladimir of St Petersburg and the president of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Boris Gryslov it was decided to create a committee with the purpose of initiating the reconstruction of the church.

In July of the following year I was asked by Mr Gryslov to become a member of the board of trustees which I was proud to accept. Since then I have visited the church three times and closely followed the advance of the reconstruction work and had very informative and meaningful meetings with Father Alexander Sorokin, who is deeply involved and motivated with this important task.

On 20 July 2009, accompanied by my wife and my nephew Prince Rostislav Romanov and several close personal friends I made another visit to the reconstruction site of the church, this time to donate a very personal icon.
This act was meant as a gesture on my behalf not only to remember the martyrs of the Yekaterinburg massacre, but also to ask for their blessing upon the Romanov descendants.

Prince Dimitri Romanov
July 2009