Customer Reviews

The Last Diary of Tsaritsa Alexandra (Annals of Communism Series)

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It is ironic that, being the most private of persons, many of the last Tsarinia's most intimate thoughts are now available in several books, including this recently declassified diary of her final days. However, readers who search out this book are probably sympathetic, and will find her daily entries of interest and sometimes moving. Alexandra wasn't writing a best-selling novel -- simply a daily account of the tedium of their imprisonment, and how she, her family, and attendants passed the time -- but for those interested in Alix, her husband, and children, this book is a valuable link to their final days. The introduction, essay by Jonathan Brent, and other sections are all appropriate accompaniment. It will be interesting to see if excerpts from the children's diaries also are eventually published; several books compiled and edited by Russian archivists already have quoted from some of those diaries.

If you are interested in the last tsar and his family, I invite you to contact me at whitcombj@juno.com.

As many reviewers have said, the very monotony of Aleksandra's last diary gives it an eerie significance. However, beyond that, there is little to recommend it. Entries, spaced one to a page, mostly consist of a single brief paragraph, and the content is boring-- notes on the weather, her health, the health of her children. "Sat for 10. m[inutes] on the balkony [sic]." It is a very short book, and a very quick read. Only for the true Romanov fanatic (of which I am one), I'm afraid. Aleksandra's letters and the letters & diaries of the others who shared her captivity are far more interesting.

Tsaritsa Alexandra had no idea, of course, that this was her last diary or that anyone besides herself would ever read it. Since we know the ultimate fate of this unhappy woman the banality and monotony of the last few months of her life have an unintentional sense of tragedy. How sad, for example, that she took the time to note the birthdays of various royal connections, people she would never see again and who in some cases (such as George V of England) had abandoned her and her family to their fate. A brief but compulsive read

The story of Nicholas and Alexandra is perhaps the most tragic of the royal families of the twentieth century. Robert Massie, the introductory of this diary of Alexandra, is a sensitive historian, who while being true to the art of historiography does not neglect the human angle of the tragedy of the Russian `revolution'.

The introduction is very important; it starts the reader on to the journey in the internal recesses of the last empress of Russia. Alexandra is a much maligned character of history; mostly because of the propaganda of the Communists, but also because of her association with Rasputin. Many accuse her for the destruction of traditional Russia.

This diary shows that the fault of Alexandra was something of which any woman could be blamed of. Her fault was her inwardness, her occupation with her immediate family and her religiosity. She was a simple woman who was simply at the wrong place; she was not made to deal with the brutality of the Russian `revolution'. Her fault was her simple religious worldview and her quest to defend it against all odds.

This diary is, of course, meaningful only for those who are Romanov fanatics and serious Communism students; but for them it's very valuable.

Alix's diary is a most important document,
it reveals her , but in a very different way to say
how her letters do.in her diary, it is of chief importance
to note the things she leaves out, and how laconic the
text itself is.this tells as much about her at the time
than had she written pages about her feelings and experiences.
This is an extremely important book, the last page is
agonising - the "ex-Tsarina" has written in a fine and clear
hand "July 17th" - but the page is blank. We have to read
what Alexandra didnt write - between the lines.her last
diary reveals her final states of mind, her humaness, her fear,
in those last terrible words, in the entry for July 16th.
Alix has written her own memorial here, and it is a just tribute.