584 pages, Atheneum, ISBN-13: 978-1122359351
When this book first appeared in 1967, nothing anything like it had ever
existed before. There were the original emigré accounts, most of them
written in the 1920's and 1930's, which contained personal memories of
the last tsar and his family from many points of view, and there were the
other historical sources which gave, for example, descriptions of
Russian and European society in the time of Nicholas II, along with
depictions of the cataclysmic events of war, revolution and regicide. But there was no biography of the man or his family.
The real brilliance of Robert K. Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra: In Intimate Account of the Last of the Romanovs and the Fall of Imperial Russia lies in
the fact that he was able to weave these far-flung historical
narratives into an intensely readable and informative whole, in the
process resurrecting the last Tsar and his family from the murky mists
of time which had made them all but vanish from the attention of the
world. A whole Romanov industry exists today, producing several new
books on this tragic family every year, but the public's fascination with
this field, however, must surely be traced back to Massie's astonishing
book. It is a work of nearly faultless
scholarship, fidelity to historical sources, and deeply moving human
interest. It is unthinkable that one should let one's life pass by and
leave this book unread.
The way the book is written gives both the perspectives of a
government in decay, complete with the political circumstances and key
political figures of the time. However, the book often drifts off: through the snow covered capital of St. Petersburg, to the ice cold
walls of the Alexander Palace, where Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra
became simply Nicky and Alix. In their private world at Tsarskoe Selo,
the titles of "Their Imperial Majesties the Grand Duchess" and the
Tsaravich simply became those names of children, from Olga to Alexis.
From their days at the Alexander Palace, Massie brought us up close
to not only the Tsaravich's struggle with hemophilia, but also the
struggle of a mother, Alexandra, who had to bare it all by her
son's side. Into this family tragedy came in the (in my opinion) intolerable abomination of a
man the world knows as Rasputin. The way Massie wrote of the influence of Rasputin on Alexandra, and hence the influence on government, which led to
the collapse of Imperial Russia, one clearly sees the faults that are
shown within the Empress and her ineptitude in running an empire. However,
at the same time, one feels for her and pays special attention to her
religious beliefs, which influence much of the final outcome of her
greatest mistake.
Finally, Massie depicts the final collapse of Imperial Russia, concisely and tragically. This eventually leads to the imprisonment and final execution
of the last Tsar, Autocrat of All the Russians, and his family. The
breathtaking detail and account of their murder is extremely unsettling.
One may think that reading of simply a murder, one of many, is not so
great a shock, yet, as one has read this book from the very beginning,
one has gotten to know, personally, the Imperial family, and cannot help
but pity them.
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