Customer Reviews

The Escape of Alexei, Son of Tsar Nicholas II: What Happened the Night the Romanov Family Was Executed

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I found this book to be most intriguing, but it left the door wide open for speculation. Obviously, DNA testing would solve the riddle. Despite the fact that the authors are scrupulous in presenting documents which have little relevance to deciding the question (such as report cards from the supposed tsarevich) and repetitive accounts of Filatov's demeanor, personality, habits and traditions, they do not address the DNA question in a similar manner. Nor do they make it clear as to the efforts to have this testing completed or the impediments to this process. There are some inconsistencies in sections of the book which relate the personal stories of different familiy members - some of this may be a result of ideas or impressions that are "lost in the translation." The most impacting evidence I found in the book were the photos of Filatov's children and their comparison with those of the Royal Romanov family. Amazing likenesses, but DNA it is not. Filatov's son purposefully sports a beard, mustache and hairstyle in imitation of Nicholas 11. Still, one can see a haunting likeness to the murdered tzar if one looks close enough. The organization of the book itself is hampered by the determination to present everything - history, photos, documents - without having to hop across the decades to make comparisons. Some of the historical material in the beginning is tedious and repetitive. The impression most people have of the Romanov execution is one of the precise following of orders, taking the family by surprise and completing the execution without a hitch. Even if the remains of Anastasia and Alexei are someday found in another nearby grave, settling the question once and for all, it apparently did not happen without confusion, gunmen wounded by ricocheting bullets or the poor marksmanship of other gunmen, trucks breaking down or caught in mud, bodies that would not burn, burial sites that had to be changed and the constant attempt to keep the execution from the curious and probably sympathetic villagers. In summary, The Escape of Alexei did not confirm or deny the birthright of Vasily Filatov. I was intrigued by the possibility, but I am still left wanting - the conclusions were not enough.

Yet another Romanov book that assumes its readers are brainless. The author makes numerous mistakes about basic historical facts..one example being his claim that Grand Duchess Elizabeth ("Ella") is buried in China, when she is actually buried in Jerusalem. In another chapter he claims that Anna Andersen and Anastasia were the same person, when it had already been proven (with DNA testing) that they were NOT the same. Based on interviews with the Filatov family, the authors would have us believe that Alexei escaped, but little evidence is given to prove this.I don't know how this book could have been published before DNA testing has been done. Save your money...don't buy this one.

Alexei Romanov was a hemophiliac in poor health in 1918. There is no way he could have survived the massacre, much less live as long as this man did and endure the physical hardships that he did. The resemblances are superficial at best. This book is not worth your money.

This book poses many questions, but answers none. Too suggest that this man was indeed Alexei and not back it up with a DNA test is pointless. I was totally captivated by the book until I reached the end, then I was disappointed. Spend your time reading something else. This book adds nothing to the countless theories about what happened to the youngest Romanovs.

...let us know when the DNA testing is complete on Vasily Filatov and the other parties involved. This make a buck on a book is infuriating! Lysenkos book is no more than another piece of Anna Anderson trickery. Photographs with a line here and a line there; handwriting analysis with a loop here and loop there. Filatov may be the Tsar's son or another Anna! I'll give Anna her due...she's in the history books as one of the greatest tricksters.

DNA testing remains key. To date, Lysenko's book presents still yet another infamous Anna Anderson story in the making. Photographic comparisons with a line here and a line there; hand writing analyses with a loop here and a loop there. Vasily Filatov could be the Tsarevich...just as Anna Anderson was the Duchess Anastasia. Anderson was a great trickster. AND Filatov may be the same!

Appearances are deceiving: just as the man on the right of the cover doesn't look a bit like the little boy on the left though they are supposed to be the same person, this book is not really about "the escape" of Alexei Romanov, as the title says, but about a family who honestly believes their father/husband was actually the tsarevich. If you want solid historical documentation and scientific data of this fact, you'll be terribly disappointed. But if you only want to explore, open-mindedly, a very exciting possibility that more than likely is *not* true, you may have a good time reading this book, and learn a little bit on the way too. I did. The book has many faults: it is a bit frankenstein-like in its clumsy attempt to glue together its different parts. There are repetitions, contradictions; boring and useless material. It also ignores obvious questions such as, what happened to the other missing body or, weren't Alexei's and this guy's eyes of a completely different color? But the book also has a nice layout, plenty of pictures and the testimony of family members that in the least reveal a personal and often moving picture of life at the times of one of the most important events of the last century: the Russian communist revolution and its aftermath. It also has an incomplete but interesting theory about how the tsarevich might have escaped his execution and survived since then, though of course the holes in it at times seem bigger than the cheese. But, who knows, in an event so confuse and controversial such as the execution of the tsar and his family, with questions still unanswered (where are the two missing bodies, for instance?), this book might just have the enough amount of "possible" to make you enjoy the ride. After all, though according to the executioners the tsar and his family were all shot, bayoneted and confirmed dead, should we really take only the word of a bunch of cold-blooded killers for it? When you finish this book you'd probably be at least curious to see the results of a DNA test comparing the Romanov and Filatov families. And whatever you chose to believe or think more reasonable, in the end you may also find yourself wishing it was all true, wishing that the little boy who had such a difficult life since he was born suffering from a painful condition, had indeed survived the terrible ordeal his family went through and lived to have a rich and reasonably happy life. And, most of all, lived to become the nice guy the man on the right cover of the book was, if not on his external appearance, at least in character and spirit.

It all boils down to this: there is no way that the little boy and the man in the front cover (or in any of the other pictures) are the same person. Alexei's eyebrows tend to be very square, yet Vasily's are drooping down. Age may change appearance, but there is the "essence of the person" and these two don't match. The rest of the story is interesting, especially the history, but the argument is not airtight or even water-tight. There are other explanations. As for the writing, the book tends to drag on at times, but overall it is entertaining reading.

The Escape of Alexei combines accounts from the executioners of the Tsar's family with the reminiscences of a devout, long suffering Orthodox man's family. Surely Vasily Filatov was a saintly hemophiliac, but comparing the data in this book to quotations from the Tsar's own diary and the memories of those who knew the child, one comes away unconvinced that this poor fellow was indeed the lost Tsarevich. We are asked to believe that in spite of the fact that Nicholas' last diary entry reports that the boy could just put his foot down and that on that fateful night he had to be carried down the stairs, Alexei rolled off the cart, still alive, and hobbled up to three and one half miles in two and a half hours, to a train station. Miracles do happen, but this writer is more inclined to believe that Mr. Filatov may have overidentified with the Tsarevich because of his own hemophilia, and that his family dared to dream in the days of glasnost, when Anastasias and Alexeis were suddenly appearing after the grave was discovered. We want to believe that at least one of the children survived, because this was the most brutal regicide in history. But little Alexei was the one least likely to. Better to wait and see if anything develops in terms of a second gravesite in the near future. But this is a far more readable book than 'The Hunt for the Czar'. I'd rather believe this man was Alexei than Michal Goleniewski. But the equation is just not right, even if his behavior is reminiscent of that of Dmitri Shostakovich - another sensitive soul that the Soviet regime stifled. It is easy to feel for Vasily Filatov - but easy to believe that someone is behind all this, for reasons unknown.

I am a sucker for all things Romanov, and haven't read anything about the Russian Royal Family in a year or two. So I was anxious to start The Escape of Alexei by Vadim Petrov, Igor Lysenko and Georgy Egorov. Those looking to this book for a Romanov-fix won't find it here.

The premise that someone could have survived the Romanov massacre in Ekaterinburg in July 1918 is a tempting one. It gained even more momentum when two bodies turned up missing when the remains of the Royal Family were found in 1978. The group chosen to kill the Romanovs was a disorganized bunch, and the scene of the murder was complete chaos. But the theory that Vasily Filatov was actually the tsarevich Alexei is a laughable one.

First and foremost, there has been no DNA testing, and the authors give us lame excuses why this has not been done. We've already been duped by Anna Anderson, who was proven by DNA to be an impostor after her death. Second, the fact that a hemophiliac could live to the ripe old age of 83 stretches the imagination-especially without medical intervention. The book does have good photos, but the young Alexei looks nothing like Filatov. There are many statements made by Filatov's family, but just because Filatov loved the celebrate New Years' and birthdays, read poetry, or played classical music doesn't prove he was Alexei. Filatov also didn't seem to pass on much concrete information about growing up as the tsarevich. There are just too many gaps in the story, and too much lacking here.

The book itself is tedious at times-especially the background information at the beginning. The body of the book is only 176 pages, and much of it is repetition. And the 26 page appendix is filled with worthless information.

So, for true Romanov aficionados, I suggest you pass on The Escape of Alexei and pick up something a little more worthwhile.