The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty by Robert K Massie

Nicholas and Alexandra :The fall of the Romanov Dynasty was a book written by Robert K Massie in 1967. Massie wrote this book as an biographie that recorded the last Emperor and Empress of Russia. This book has been copyrighted several time, once in 1967, when it was first published, then in 1995, an renewed copyright and finally in 2000 by Robert K. Massie. In 1967, it was published in hardcover in the U.S by Atheneum Publishers, the trade paperback was published by Ballantine Books.

Both of these publishing company is an division of Random House Publishing Inc. The copy that are in libraries today are most likely the 2012 Modern library Library Eedition. This book was also adopted into a movie with the name of Nicholas and Alexandra in 1971. This movie was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and won Academy Award for best Costume Design and the Academy Award for Best Production Design.

After writing Nicholas and Alexandra,Robert K. Massies also wrote Catherine the Great, Castles of Steel, the Romanovs, Dreadnought and Peter the great as well being a co-author of Journey.

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Massie studies American history art Yale and European history at Oxford. Massie’s writing has not only made appearances in various journal such as the New York Times and Disgust, he has also acted as an historical adviser and made several appearances on national programs and documentaries.

The book Nicholas and Alexandra was divided into four part. Part one cover Nicholas’s childhood, his marriage to Alexandra as well as when he took on the title of Tsar.

The timeline of chapter one is from 1894 to 1905 and it also covers some of the struggles that the new Tsar face. This part of the book also covers the tsarina and tsar need to have a male heir to inherit the throne. Part two takes the timeline from 1905 to 1914. This portion of the books covers more of the struggles of the Russian citizen, their petitions for better work conditions, the tsar’s reaction towards the pesantez actions. It also covered how Rasputin came to have a higher social statues in Russian as well as becoming a high influence on the tsar through the tsarina.

At the tale end of part two, it start to covered the start of the first world war. Part three covers the downfalls of the Russia’s royal govermenting system the autocracy, the start of the Russia revolutions and the step down of the tsar from the Russian thrones. In this part of the book, it was made evidence that Russia would no long let a Tsar rule ever again. Part four of the book covers how Nicholas, Alexandra and their children live out their last days before being murdered, as well as how Russia is moving forward with a communist government. This book also included a epilog that talked about more in depth of the murders of the royal family, the escape of some of the royals, the thinking of the key players in the communist movement as well as proposing many question that has been answer in the book.

One of the main theme of this books was hemophilia. Hemophilia was what Nicholas and Alexandra’s son, Alexei Nikolaevich had. It was this disease that lead to the tsarina to relied on Grigori Rasputin, who had major influence on the Tsar through the tsarina. Massie’s son also had hemophilia, it was this disease that brought Massie to research about the Romanovs, perticalr Nicholas and Alexandra. Hemophilia was also discovered to be from Alexandra’s side of the family, which made her even more disliked by the public. Hemophilia also made concerns around the Alexri’s health, the consequent demands on the family and fear for the future of Russia’s imperial succession

Another point in this books was the fact that Nicholas did not really wanted to rule Russia, nor did his father, Alexander III wanted his son to succeed him after he died. Nicholas was shy,conservative gentleman and intelligent but not an imposing or intimidating, as what a tsar should be. When Nicholas frost took the throne, he said“What is going to happen to me...to all of Russia? I am not prepared to be tsar. I never wanted to become one. I know nothing of the business of ruling. I have no idea of how to even talk to the ministers.” This quote further proves that he did not have the mindset of becoming a tsar nor the ambiguous of being the tsar. Although Nicholas loved Russia, had a strong sense of duty and a stilted affection for the peasantry. He was also blindly conservative, elitist and racist.

Massie has done an exceptional amount of research while writing this books. For example, in the acknowledgment area of this book, Massies listed several sources that he had used while writing this book. Some of these sources induced the New York Public Library, Butler Library of Columbia University, Beinecke Rare Book Library. Massie also included a notes sections that was dedicated to listing the use of primary sources listed throughout the book. Some of these primary source includes ‘letters of the Tsar and Tsaritsa’, Nicholas II’s Journal Intimes, as well as the secret letter of the Last Tsar: the Confidential Correspondence Between Nicholas II and His Mother, Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna.

Furthermore, each of the primary source are cited by chapters. This book also includes a bibliography, which are alphadlized, and a note in the front that explantation of the royal titles as well as the number of name that each Russian had. It also explain in detail about the different calendar that the Russian used. Massie also dedicated a page to cite did the illustration in the book, where he got it from and the name of the pictures too. The questions that related to hemophilia, Massie interviewed many doctors to guided him through the questions and answers.

Massie as done a great job while writing this book. He has solid evidences, research to back up the books as well as the claims that were made in the book. In my opinions, I have never find historical books like this one very interesting. I usually find them to be largely text book liked reading materials, rather then a novel type of writing. However, in this books, I found that although it was a big dry form my usually reading material, I liked it. I really enjoy the fact that it covers not only the fall of the last royal family of Russia, I also get to read about the struggles that comes with a child having hemophilia. This books also had me looking up various information to not only make sure that it is true, but also just to get a understanding of how it fit into the timeline of the book.

I absolutely love the love story between Nicholas and Alexandra, how they came to be together and their struggles as a married couple that has high powers. I am mostly fastened with their fourth daughter, Anastasia because I always liked the Disney movie version of it and to comparer the two was very fun. Massie, however was a bit bias in that he wanted the readers to see that Nicholas was a swell guy, but Massie also made sure to tell that Nicholas was also not a very good guy by stating that he sent millions of young Russian men to battle without bullets or even adequate footwear. Massie is also baise in that he is very sympathetic to the Alexei because he, like massie’s son also has hemophilia. He also went in depth about blaming Alexandra and Ruphti’a role on Alexei’s issuness and the fall of the Russian Royal family as well as kind panting them as the villain of the book.

This is not a book to read in one sitting at all. In fact, if someone tries to do that, they would tried them self out, overhile by the huge amount of information that are present in the book. I would recommend this book to those who are interested in the Romanov dynasty and the Russian Revolution. I won’t recommend this book to young readers, unless they love reading, because it is a big book. It has over 600 pages, which would require them to have great patience as great attention to gruesome details as they read through the book.