This book made it hard not to sympathize with the Romanov family. Not that they weren't horrible rulers who left their country in shambles, because they most definitely were, and they were most definitely given several political outs along with way. But there were familial, cultural, and global factors beyond their control and, truly, they were also just people. When we got to the ending I knew we'd get to, I found myself tearing up while driving home (note to self:: don't do that). On 17 July 1918, the whole of the Russian Imperial Family was murdered. There were no miraculous escapes. The former Tsar Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, and their children – Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexey – were all tragically gunned down in a blaze of bullets. Only in Latin can one root word be the basis for myriad appalling descriptors. Horrible, vulgar, violent words. Brutish and masculine. I hate them all and the language from which they originated. Latin deserves to be a dead language, and I do not mourn it." (PG. 315)

The Best Romanov Books, The Russian Tsars and - Goodreads

Gripping. Montefiore’s characters snare our sympathy and we follow them avidly. This intricate at times disturbing, always absorbing novel entertains and disturbs and seethes with moral complexity. Characters real+fictitious ring strikingly true.It is to a large extent Tolstoyan …..” The Australian

On Centenary, Russian State and Orthodox Church at Odds Over Romanovs, The Moscow Times, 18 July 2018 , retrieved 22 July 2018 Steinberg, Mark D. The Fall of the Romanovs: Political Dreams and Personal Struggles in a Time of Revolution (Yale, 1995); with Vladimir M. Khrustalev. I was curious to see how of Ariel Lawhon would construct the story since much has happened since Anna Anderson died in 1984. Now I take for granted that you know all about that, but if you don't know, then I will spoil the story a bit. Or rather I will reveal some truth's that may or may not be included in this book. So, read on if you dare!

After the Romanovs: Russian exiles in Paris between the wars

a b Michael D. Coble (26 September 2011), "The identification of the Romanovs: Can we (finally) put the controversies to rest?", Investigative Genetics, 2 (1): 20, doi: 10.1186/2041-2223-2-20, PMC 3205009, PMID 21943354, S2CID 11339084Alec Luhn (23 September 2015), "Russia reopens criminal case on 1918 Romanov royal family murders", The Guardian , retrieved 30 September 2016 I did like learning more about the girls personalities, though of course the focus is on Anastasia. They went through some terrible things, even more so because they had such a protected upbringing. Quite heartbreaking that the children were blamed for their parents mistakes. The part with Anna was also told well, but I found because of the way it was written, sometimes confusing.

The Romanovs: 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore | Goodreads

Sure, some people might have said I was a seven-year old fibber. But not my parents. Instead of calling my stories "fibs" they called them "imaginative." They encouraged me to put my stories down on paper. I did. And amazingly, once I began writing, I couldn't stop. I filled notebook after notebook with stories, poems, plays. I still have many of those notebooks. They're precious to me because they are a record of my writing life from elementary school on. Seriously good fun... the Soviet march on Berlin, nightmarish drinking games at Stalin's countryhouse, the magnificence of the Bolshoi, interrogations, snow, sex and exile... lust adultery and romance. Eminently readable and strangely affecting." Sunday Telegraph From the archive, 22 July 1918: Ex-tsar Nicholas II executed", The Guardian, 22 July 2015 , retrieved 29 September 2016 Three days after the murders, Yurovsky personally reported to Lenin on the events of that night and was rewarded with an appointment to the Moscow City Cheka. He held a succession of key economic and party posts, dying in the Kremlin Hospital in 1938 aged 60. Prior to his death, he donated the guns he used in the murders to the Museum of the Revolution in Moscow, [66] and left behind three valuable, though contradictory, accounts of the event.A] frank and brilliant study of the various efforts to save the Romanovs that begins, intelligently, with the race to save them from themselves.” SPECTATOR But everything I read and learned was written with a lot of leeway given towards the Romanovs. If I learned much of anything about the conditions that led to their deaths, I forgot it years ago; my memories of learning about the Romanovs go along the lines of "Once upon a time, there was a rich, royal, tragic family, and Bolsheviks killed them in a cellar. And Anastasia didn't escape." Because of my long-standing interest with the people involved in this story, I appreciated learning all the particulars about Anna Anderson's rise to notoriety. I also learned some new information about Anastasia (and her family) that I never knew before! The mystery of the Romanovs' untimely demise, Russia Beyond the Headlines, p.4, archived from the original on 16 January 2017 , retrieved 15 January 2017