The Last Days of the Romanovs

Posted on 23 December 2017 by Helen Rappaport

On the sweltering summer night of July 16, 1918, in the Siberian city of Ekaterinburg, a group of assassins led an unsuspecting Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, his wife, the Tsarina Alexandra, the desperately ill Tsarevich, and their four beautiful daughters, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia, into a basement room where they were shot and then bayoneted to death. This is the story of those murders, which ended three hundred years of Romanov rule and set their stamp on an era of state orchestrated terror and brutal repression. The Last Days of the Romanovs counts down to the last, tense hours of the family s lives, stripping away the over romanticized versions of previous accounts The story focuses on the family inside the Ipatiev House, capturing the oppressive atmosphere and the dynamics of a group the Romanovs, their servants, and guards thrown together by extraordinary events.Marshaling overlooked evidence from key witnesses such as the British consul to Ekaterinburg, Sir Thomas Preston, American and British travelers in Siberia, and the now forgotten American journalist Herman Bernstein, Helen Rappaport gives a brilliant account of the political forces swirling through the remote Urals town She conveys the tension of the watching world the Kaiser of Germany and George V, King of England both, like Alexandra, grandchildren of Queen Victoria their nations locked in combat as the First World War drew to its bitter end And she draws on recent releases from the Russian archives to challenge the view that the deaths were a unilateral act by a maverick group of the Ekaterinburg Bolsheviks, identifying a chain of command that stretches directly, she believes, to Moscow and to Lenin himself. Telling the story in a compellingly new and dramatic way, The Last Days of the Romanovs brings those final tragic days vividly alive against the backdrop of Russia in turmoil, on the brink of a devastating civil war Free Download eBook The Last Days of the Romanovs By Helen Rappaport – kino-fada.fr If you ve stumbled across my review of The Romanovs Autocrats of All the Russias, you might recall that I ve recently become a member of the Two Person Russian Book Club As the name implies, this is a Russian themed book club comprised of two members myself, and my friend Jamie We are the only two members because we are the only two people we know personally who would join such a club Our first book was the aforementioned The Romanovs, by W Bruce Lincoln, a dense, sweeping look at the dyna If you ve stumbled across my review of The Romanovs Autocrats of All the Russias, you might recall that I ve recently become a member of the Two Person Russian Book Club As the name implies, this is a Russian themed book club comprised of two members myself, and my friend Jamie We are the only two members because we are the only two people we know personally who would join such a club Our first book was the aforementioned The Romanovs, by W Bruce Lincoln, a dense, sweeping look at the dynasty that ruled Russia for hundreds of years, who molded a modern empire out of a fractious people, who took them from backwater to great power to disastrous revolution It s a good book, but it s a lot to digest, especially since our next book is Orlando Figes A People s Tragedy, an equally massive book that look...Onefascinating historical book about the Romanovs and a close look to their last days, their killers and the legacy of the stunning famous family I wroteabout them in my review of The Romanov Sisters The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra The Last Days of the Romanovs Tragedy at Ekaterinburg is a sad, touching book with an emotional end There was only one member of the family left, waiting for them to return, but it didn t happen The cruelty of the massacre Onefascinating historical book about the Romanovs and a close look to their last d...A vis o que a autora nos traz neste livro bastante diferente dos livros que tinha lido at ent o sobre a fam lia Romanov, porque n o se cinge a defender a fam lia imperial e nem a criticar o comunismo Ela exp e a verdade que conseguiu descortinar sem passar paninhos quentes a ningu m certo que nunca se vai saber exactamente o que aconteceu, porque muitos relatos eram aldrabados e a documenta o tamb m era tendenciosa Mas neste livro senti que tudo o que me estavam a contar o mais pr xim A vis o que a autora nos traz neste livro bastante diferente dos livros que tinha lido at ent o sobre a fam lia Romanov, porque n o se cinge a defender a fam lia imperial e nem a criticar o comunismo Ela exp e a verdade que conseguiu descortinar sem passar paninhos quentes a ningu m certo que nunca se vai saber exactamente o que aconteceu, porque muitos relatos eram aldrabados e a documenta o tamb m era tendenciosa Mas neste livro senti que tudo o que me estavam a contar o mais pr ximo da realidade poss vel Por outro lado, a autora n o se centra s na fam lia Romanov, explica nos o ponto de vista dos bolcheviques e o porqu de odiarem o czar e a czarina e conta nos como foram os ltimos 14 dias na ltima morada da fam lia, tendo por base o contexto pol tico da p...A readable, fast paced and interesting history of the Romanov family s demise.The narrative covers the family s last two weeks at Ekaterinburg, as well as the tsar s decision to abdicate and how the family got there Rappaport also covers the interactions between the local soviet and the Moscow regime The Soviet leadership, by then trying to crush the Whites, had basically lost interest in the family s fate they didn t want the Whites to get anywhere near them, but that was about it The deci A readable, fast paced and interesting history of the Romanov family s demise.The narrative covers the family s last two weeks at Ekaterinburg, as well as the tsar s decision to abdicate and how the family got there Rappaport also covers the interactions between the local soviet and the Moscow regime The Soviet leadership, by then trying to crush the Whites, had basically lost interest in the family s fate they didn t want the Whites to get anywhere near them, but that was about it The decision to execute the family was made quickly and the communists quickly moved on after that and rescuing the family was a low priority for the allies Her treatment of Yurovsky is a bitnuanced than usual.The narrative is a bit repetitive, and there are no footnotes The prose is a bit pedestrian at times Also, like most books on the subject, the Romanov daughters...I m probably not being fair in giving this book 4 stars, but I can t help it It s my never ending itch that no history book written by women can scratch I am not being a misoginistic arsehole, it s just my frank opinion This has probably been the direct effect of the latest history book that I read, which is The End by Ian Kershaw Now ...After finishing The Romanov Sisters The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra, I picked up this book hoping forinsight into the family and their last days at Tobolsk and Ekaterinburg This was a riveting historical account,tightly paced than The Romanov Sisters.I didn t care for the off topic meandering in The Romanov Sisters however, I felt like the broader historical information in this book was not only on point, but vitally necessary in order to show how the Rom After finishing The Romanov Sisters The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra, I picked up this book hoping forinsight into the family and their last days at Tobolsk and Ekaterinburg This was a riveting historical account,tightly paced than The Romanov Sisters.I didn t care for the off topic meandering in The Romanov Sisters however, I felt like the broader historical information in this book was not only on point, but vitally necessary in order to show how the Romanovs were caught up in larger social and political forces sweeping Russia Through a detailed exploration of the events leading up to the execution, the book shows why the Bolsheviks ultimately chose to murder the...I m always disturbed at the romanticized and saccharined portrayal of the Romanov murders It seems wrong to cannonize the dynasty that inflicted torture, exile, imprisonment, and death upon its people Equally, in my mind, Nicholas II only received the same treatment he gave to many of his subjectsmurder Especially in Nicholas s case, I don t think the calm, devoted family man image redeems his strictly autocratic and anti Semitic rule as monarch For a monarch to turn the other way while I m always disturbed at the romanticized and saccharined portrayal of the Romanov murders It seems wrong to cannonize the dynasty that inflicted torture, exile, imprisonment, and death upon its people Equally, in my mind, Nicholas II only received the same treatment he gave to many of his subjectsmurder Especially in Nicholas s case, I don t think the calm, devoted family man image redeems his strictly autocratic and anti Semitic rule as monarch For a monarch to turn the other way while his subjects 85% of whom were peasants starved or suffered from the charming, Eastern European t...A very readable piecing together of the last few weeks in the lives of Tsar Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, their five children, and the unfortunate faithful retainers who shared their fate Each chapter moves the narrative along a few days, or a day towards the end , then focuses on a protagonist in order to give the background of the event leading up to the massacre.As we know what happened, the feeling of tension and inevitable doom builds until we reach the very graphic chapter that describes A very readable piecing together of the last few weeks in the lives of Tsar Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, their five children, and the unfortunate faithful retainers who shared their fate Each chapter moves the narrative along a few days, or a day towards t...Rivals the Manson murders for the pure savagery A shameful act Book was very well written and well balanced Made the Romanovshuman than Nicholas and Alexandra, which practically deified them.POTENTIAL SPOILERS I m honestly not quite sure how to review this I mean, not very much time is dedicated to the Romanovs at all They all have their own separate chapters of course, minus the four sisters, who were all squished into one chapter but had separate sections for themselves That was all fine and good, although most of the book is describing the atmosphere of Ekaterinburg, and the family s servants, and their killers, which is all fine and good since I did learn a lot of stuff I h POTENTIAL SPOILERS I m honestly not quite sure how to review this I mean, not very much time is dedicated to the Romanovs at all They all have their own separate chapters of course, minus the four sisters, who were all squished into one chapter but had separate sections for themselves That was all fine and good, although most of the book is describing the atmosphere of Ekaterinburg, and the family s servants, and their killers, which is all fine and good since I did learn a lot of stuff I hadn t known before, like how a lot of Yakov s friends were Lithuanian and Latvian snipers, but this book is called The Last Days of the Romanovs, and I felt like I didn t really get that At the end of the chapters, it would briefly go over what the family did on that particular day, and that was it I felt like we didn t really get to know anything about w...

English
23 December 2017

Helen Rappaport