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Ganina Yama


Ganina Yama (Russian: Ганина Яма, "Ganya's Pit") was a 9' deep pit in the Four Brothers mine near the village of Koptyaki, 15 km north from Yekaterinburg. On the night of 17 July 1918, after the shooting of the Romanov family, the bodies of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family (who had been executed at the Ipatiev House) were secretly transported to Ganina Yama and thrown into the pit.

A week later, the White Army drove the Bolsheviks from the area and launched an investigation into the fate of the royal family. An extensive report concluded that the royal family's remains had been cremated at the mine, since evidence of fire was found and charred bones, but no bodies. But the Bolsheviks, realizing that the burial site was no longer a secret, had returned to the site the night after the first burial to relocate the bodies to another area. The secret Bolshevik report on the execution and burial did not give the location of the second burial site, but the description provided clues.

The second burial site, a field known as Porosyonkov Log (Поросёнков лог, "Piglet's Ravine") four and a half miles from Ganina Yama (56°54′41″N 60°29′44″E / 56.9113628°N 60.4954326°E / 56.9113628; 60.4954326), was discovered in the late 1970s through clandestine research but kept secret until the political climate changed in 1989. In 1995, the remains found at the Porosyonkov Ravine were identified as Romanovs using DNA from living relatives of Nicholas and Alexandra's parents. The Porosenkov Ravine burial pit is marked by a cross and simple landscaping of the burial pit. A second, smaller pit was located at the Porosenkov Ravine in 2007 containing the remains of two Romanov children missing from the larger grave. Further excavation is planned for the summer of 2009.


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