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#33 - JRL 2006-216 - JRL Home
No restitution of property nationalized after 1917 - government

ST. PETERSBURG, September 27 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's culture minister said Wednesday that property nationalized after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution will not be restituted.

Following the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917, all property belonging to the Russian aristocracy was nationalized as part of a declared campaign to eliminate private property and create a classless society.

"The question is often asked whether property nationalized after the October (1917) Revolution will be restituted, but I always say no," Alexander Sokolov said.

The issue has re-emerged now that the remains of Russian Empress Maria Fyodorovna, mother of the executed Tsar Nicholas II, have arrived in Russia from Denmark for reburial due on Thursday in St. Petersburg. The move is part of an agreement signed between the two countries to honor the royal's last wish.

However, Sokolov said that restitution has never been a consideration, and that the return of the Empress is not a reason to raise the question again.

Empress Maria Fyodorovna, the Danish-born wife of Russian Emperor Alexander III, died in 1928 in Copenhagen where she moved after the Bolshevik Revolution. She will be reburied at the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, a sepulcher for the Romanov dynasty, which ruled Russia for more than 300 years.