“The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra”, by Helen Rappaport

544 pages, St. Martin’s Griffin, ISBN-13: 978-1250067456

I first became aware of the Romanov Sisters – Ольга (Olga Nikolaevna Romanova); Татьяна (Tatiana Nikolaevna Romanova); Мария (Maria Nikolaevna Romanova); and Анастасия (Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova); “OTMA” as the sisters referred to themselves – when I read Nicholas and Alexandra: In Intimate Account of the Last of the Romanovs and the Fall of Imperial Russia by Robert K. Massie (reviewed on February 6th, 2012) way back in high school. I can still remember the feeling of horror, of tragedy, of black despair I felt when I read that these four beautiful, accomplished and, yes, privileged girls (along with their parents, little brother and a few doomed servants) were cut down by the mad-dog Reds, because they were such a threat to the New Order the Commies were going to build. Bastards.

So when I saw this book by Helen Rappaport, The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra – and when I remembered her excellent Caught in the Revolution: Petrograd, Russia, 1917 – A World on the Edge (reviewed on April 24th, 2018) I knew I had to have it, even at the risk of dredging up old, dark emotions. I reviewed Faust’s Metropolis: A History of Berlin by Alexandra Richie on December 5th, 2017, and mentioned that it was “not so much a history of the city of Berlin as a history of Germany from a Berliner’s (or Berlinerin’s) perspective” (this is the second time I’ve recycled this quote). I mention this as certain stretches of The Romanov Sisters felt more like the history of the fall of Tsarist Russia and less like a quadruple biography of the four Grand Duchesses. However, as the book continued and the author got into her groove, these four young women – and their brother Алексе́й (Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov, Tsarevich of Russia) – began to come back to life, as more and more evidence of their personalities came to light and was recorded for all the world to see.

Apart from the dread weight of knowing the Romanov’s ultimate fates while researching her book, it became obvious that Rappaport was often stymied by some unfortunate realities. Firstly, Russia, since the Reign of Paul I (1754-1801), was under Salic Law, which excluded women from inheriting the Russian throne; thus, upon his birth on August 12th, 1904, Alexei automatically took precedence over his older sisters. Not that Nicholas and Alexandra didn’t love their daughters any less (some of Nicholas’ surviving comments on the birth of various daughters are achingly beautiful), but in dynastic terms, all eyes were on Alexei. Secondly, during the Victorian era, there were more strictures on the acceptable roles and presentation of young women, and, thus, while we have much in the way of white dresses and masses of hair, there is little about their opinions or options for life. Thirdly, the Grand Duchesses, due to the fears of terrorist attacks on the family, were sheltered to an extraordinary degree, even for young women of the era, and so any sighting of them was rare. Lastly, after the Revolution of 1918, while a great deal of information was saved, so much about their lives was lost, from letters, to diaries, to the people who knew them first hand (indeed, it was delightfully surprising to learn the number of correspondents the sisters had beyond the family, and the frequency with which they wrote to these friends).

In her introduction to The Romanov Sisters, Rappaport mentions that she “had to make a very clear decision about where my story was going to end, having already written about the Romanovs” in 2008; thus, we are, mercifully, spared the family’s final horrific final moments. And I, for one, was glad, as I am all too familiar with their doom. Instead, I was left with a vision of four young women, cut down before their lives truly began; their haunted younger brother; and their docile though out-of-their-depths parents. While I have no qualms about the downfall of the Tsars, and however much I may wish that a democratic republic had been established upon the ashes of that decrepit system, I also wish that Nicholas, Alexandra, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexei had been allowed to leave Russia and live out their lives on a farm in England, like they wanted to after their overthrow.