3.5 stars

The animated film Anastasia got the entire story wrong, sadly. The writers didn't even try for accuracy, apparently - very sad to me, because I really liked that movie.

Massie details the true story here, and though I normally don't like history texts, I liked this one. His writing is very readable, and I learned a lot. (Particularly about the events leading up to the war; and about Rasputin and how he came to be involved with the Imperial family. I didn't even know that Nicholas and Alexandra had a son, let alone that he suffered from hemophilia.)

At over 500 pages, though, it was still far too long for me. I felt that 50-100 pages could have easily been omitted by paring down unnecessary details of persons not central to the story.

Also, I was quite appalled when Massie at one point described Rasputin as having "good-natured aggression" right after stating that he would grab women and "start undoing buttons" without any kind of preamble or permission. Rasputin was accused of attempted rape many times, and it is not okay to write this violence off. There is no such thing as "good-natured" sexual assault or harassment. ( )

Robert Massie's book is packed. I read it because I was interested in Tsarevich Alexis and hemophilia and how it affected the fall of the Russian Empire, and that was certainly part of the story. However, there was too much detail ( for me ) about WWI and the Russian Revolution, that is too much information about the battles. In general, it was interesting to learn how the Tsar and his family lived and what they were like as individuals. I would have liked more information about his daughters, the Grand Duchesses. ( )

Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie. Section 16: General History. This book began my lifelong interest in Russian history and culture. Nicholas II was the last tsar of Russia and his wife was German-born Alix, granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England.
Nicholas Romanov, tsar by age 26, was inexperienced, shy, and ultraconservative. His power was absolute. Most Russians were poor and illiterate, but young people were flocking to cities to work in new factories. There was constant tension as Russians began to demand a parliament and civil and workers’ rights.
Alexandra’s “job” was to provide a male heir to the throne since girls could not inherit it. After birthing four girls, son Alexei was born but found to have hemophilia, the “bleeding disease”, which in those days was incurable. Yet the semi-monk Rasputin seemed able to control Alexei’s bleeding through prayer. Rasputin immorality was well known, but for Alexandra, he remained her son’s lifeline. Over less than a decade, this illness, a closely guarded secret, became the undoing of 300 years of Romanov rule.
Against this family drama, the book chronicles the political scene – the 1905 revolution, Russia’s entry into WW1, and the collapse of the monarchy in 1917. Lenin returned to Russia from exile, fomented revolution and the country dissolved into civil war (watch Dr. Zhivago). The royal family was moved east into the Ural mountains, where, despite miserable living conditions, they remained steadfast in their religious faith. However, they were killed in 1918. While other Romanovs were also killed, a few, including Nicholas’ mother and two sisters, escaped via the Crimea before the Red armies could conquer that southern location.
Since this book was written, the family’s remains – including youngest daughter Anastasia’s – have been discovered, identified and reburied in St. Petersburg. Their bodies were identified with DNA provided by the late Prince Philip; he, Queen Elizabeth, and Tsarina Alexandra are all descendants of Queen Victoria, who, by the way, was the original carrier of the hemophilia gene in this particular family.
The film “Nicholas and Alexandra” is based on the book. On www.youtube.com you can find numerous lectures and interviews about this family as well as 1998 news coverage of their interment in the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. ( )

This is a fascinating history of the final years of the Romanov dynasty. ( )

This book gives a fascinating portrait of Nicholas II, and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna. It provides excellent atmosphere for imperial life. Massie's thesis is that Nicholas and Alexandra's relationships with each other and with their hemophiliac son Alexei are key for explaining the influence of Rasputin and the downfall of the Romanovs. This is convincing—the troubles of hemophilia and Rasputin are drawn brilliantly.

The weaknesses of the book are that it does not give a good picture of Russia beyond the Tsar, nor a decent explanation of the revolution that overthrew him. What else contributed to the Romanovs' downfall? We get only very little. Also, despite Massie's tight focus on the imperial family, to me Alexandra and, especially, Nicholas are still a bit mysterious. I don't fully understand how Alexandra grew into taking a larger role in government, and I don't know how to reconcile Nicholas's energy and intelligence with his passive governance.

Still a very good book, but I prefer Massie's Peter the Great biography. ( )