Romanov

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Not just a thumpingly good read, but also essentially a story of human fragility and passions, albeit taking place under the intimidating shadow of a massive Stalinist portico." The National Nicholas started a disastrous war with Japan in 1904 that greatly weakened his standing at home and abroad. At home he was beset by constant unrest from revolutionary groups carrying out assassinations, bombings and ordinary crime to raise money. The Okhrana grew infiltrating and closely surveilling revolutionaries. In January 1905, 160,000 workers went on strike in Petersburg and marched on the Winter Palace to deliver a petition for better conditions. To stop them, soldiers killed over one thousand and thousands more were wounded. Known as Bloody Sunday, this incident hardened both sides. That year would see riots, strikes, and assassinations greatly increase across Russia. Some areas were completely controlled by dissidents. Nicholas conducted a punitive counter revolution with officially 15,000 killed, 45,000 deported and 70,000 arrested. The actual count was far higher. Separately pogroms killed thousands of Jews. While not initiated by Nicholas, he praised those who conducted them.

Still the relation between Alexander and Napoleon is very interesting and dramatic in twist and turns, with Moscow burning and Paris occupied in the eb and flood of fortunes of Russia. I can finally see why War and Peace would choose to focus on this period. Autoarea cu un talent incontestabil te transpune în acea atmosferă tensionată, acele vremuri de neliniște, influența personalităților precum Rasputin, Lenin asupra destinului tragic al ultimei familei imperiale din Rusia. She definitely has the best quotes, like: Your children belong to you, me and the state (about her grandchild, taking him from Paul). Mi-a plăcut că autoarea a reușit să creeze o îmbinare originală între opulența nobilimei și sărăcia țăranilor fiind menționate mereu momente prin: dincolo de porțile palatului.A comprehensive and lengthy study of the three-hundred-year rule of the Romanov dynasty, with particular attention paid to the reign of Russia’s last Tsar, Nicholas II. Lincoln, who was a professor of Russian history at Northern Illinois University, succeeds in bringing to life the sweeping saga of the Romanovs from their beginning in the seventeenth century with the accession to the throne of Michael I to the end with the abdication of Nicholas II in 1917 and onwards to the executions of the imperial family in 1918. Perhaps Alexei’s most notable impact was in 1648 when he approved new laws that gave nobles sole authority over the peasants on their land. They could not leave without permission and could be hunted if they escaped. They were subject to the justice imposed by the noble. Thus they were now serfs and for practical purposes enslaved. Owning serfs became the very definition of nobility. In return Alexei secured his autocracy and the right to mobilize everyone for war. He also established 63 crimes punishable by death, some by being buried alive, some others by burning. Lesser criminals received the knout, a kind of cat-o’-nine tails that could kill in only ten lashes. Alexei died in 1676. His son Peter would bring dramatic change and be known as Peter the Great The best-known Anastasia imposter was Anna Anderson, a young woman pulled out of a canal in Berlin, Germany, in 1920 after an attempted suicide. Anderson was sent to an asylum where she told fellow patients she was the Grand Duchess Anastasia.

It is worth nothing that while Montefiore occasionally indulges glib conclusions and gleefully dwells on the sordid aspects of the story, he is an esteemed historian who has written extensively about Russia and the Soviet Union. The Romanovs ruled Russia for 300 years. This book catalogues the rise and fall of the dynasty, atop a multi ethnic empire spanning one sixth of the globe. I told such a good story that people always thought I was telling the truth. But I wasn't. I didn't have a three-legged cat or a ghost in my attic, and I'd certainly never been to Paris, France. I simply enjoyed telling a good story... and seeing my listener's reaction. The remains of the family were discovered in a mass grave in the Ural Mountains in 1991. Subsequent DNA testing confirmed the identities of the Nicholas, Alexandra and three of their daughters. Czar Nicholas II was the last Romanov emperor, ruling from 1894 until his forced abdication in March of 1917. The duration of his rule was plagued by periods of political and social unrest. When he succeeded his father—Czar Alexander III—Nicholas II had little experience in government. He was widely seen as a politically weak, indecisive leader.

2. The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra by Helen Rappaport

I liked the authors attention to detail and his erudite and gossipy style. I particularly liked the evocative opening chapter which bookends the teenagers Michael, first czar of Russia, and Alexei, doomed tzaraevitch and son of the hapless Nicholas II - one hunted by Polish death squads, the other destined to be murdered by Bolsheviks.