Some school and university programs still present students with a biased image of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II and his life, in the spirit of "ideological clichés" of the Soviet era, and it would be appropriate to eliminate these distortions. This opinion was expressed Wednesday at a roundtable discussion of the XXX International Educational Readings Head of the Administrative Secretariat of the Moscow Patriarchate, Rector of the Elokhovsky Cathedral, Bishop Thomas (Mosolov) of Odintsovo and Krasnogorsk.
"More than a century has passed since the martyrdom of the emperor and his family - a period quite sufficient to eliminate misunderstandings and ideological cliches. But, unfortunately, some school and high school textbooks still describe the emperor as a weak ruler, or as crafty and crooked, guilty of the tragedy on Khodynka Field in Moscow and the events of January 9, 1905 (known as "Bloody Sunday" - note TASS) in St. Petersburg. The tsar's innocence has been repeatedly proven in historical works, which saw the light of day after 1990," Bishop Thomas said.

Speaking as chairman at the roundtable "Problems and Solutions in the Issue of Disseminating the Historical Truth about Emperor Nicholas II and His Time," a representative of the Russian Orthodox Church drew attention to the fact that Bolsheviks and their successors during Soviet times "methodically humiliated the personality of the sovereign" and described the country during his rule exclusively "as backward and unpromising."
"Overcoming the historical falsification and ideological untruths of the times of the domination of state atheism is still an urgent task," says the representative of the Patriarchate.
In turn, the head of the Belarusian exarchate of the ROC in Moscow, Archbishop Dimitriy (Drozdov) of Vitebsk and Orsha recalled that the Russian Orthodox Church canonized Nicholas II as a martyr in 2000 not for his public services or ideal life, but for the martyrdom he suffered in a worthy manner at the end of his life.
"Most contemporary Russian historians agree that there were two different periods in the life of Nicholas II in terms of length and spiritual significance: the time of his reign and the time of his exile and imprisonment. The second period-the spiritual and physical suffering-is more important to the Church. It was after the consideration of this exploit of the royal family that the [church] commission, in full agreement and with the approval of the Holy Synod, found it possible to glorify, in the Synod of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra, and their children," the Archbishop noted.
Source: tass.ru (Russian)