Customer Reviews

The Last Tsar: The Life and Death of Nicholas II

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am Russian and my family background is not peasant at all, so I have been always interested in Romanov's history and sympathized with Tsar before I had red the book. The book has only strengthened the feelings of sympathy and sorrow I feel for the last Russian Tsar.

The reviews I have red above are obviously written by Western readers, who have studied the Russian history but don't possess the Russian mentality, so doesn't see the role of personalities in Russian politics, the place of religion the same way Russians do. Perhaps, because of that, in my opinion, they are missing the main point. It is not a political pamphlet or historical textbook. It is an account of one family's life. In the book by Radzinsky Tsar is shown as a person - a boy, a young men in love, a father, a husband, a prisoner, and only lastly - a ruler & politician. When Radzinsky looks at the Romanovs he looks at them as a family - that's my understanding. So in brief I would describe this book as "A story of a family".

Probably as a Russian (and I hope not Soviet) I can feel some things about the book as an insider and will try to express it. It is very important to understand how religious were both Nicolay and Alexandra and how it all fits in the scheme of his somewhat fatalistic approach to his rule, to Rasputin, to war and revolutions. I can see how shy, naïve and kind young men has to take over a rule in one-sixth of the Globe and it is no easy task, never has been. Radzinsky shows clearly that Nicolas was kept ill-informed and hence some of the worst mistakes he made in politics. He was always torn between his Father's will to keep country under authoritarian rule of Tsars and desire to improve the life of his people, between desire to make his rule entirely peaceful and having to start war in Japan, between his Mother and his wife, between Vitte and Stolipin.

From Radzinsky's account many events which we knew from Soviet text books look entirely different. Khodynka, after which Tsar went to dance at French embassador's party and didn't punish Moscow Governer Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, Bloody Sunday, Revolution of 1905 - it all seems like huge misfortunes of thorn, indecisive, and yet kind, smart and decent Nicolas. And then after 1905 we see how he changes, "getting used to blood and becoming more rigid in his politics". The almost military regimen with field courts and "Stolipin's ties". But it all seems understandable if one imagines his family threatened. Again, it is if the reader is willing to see Nicolay - the father, not just a Tsar.

Even the understanding of all the dreadful mistakes Nicolay probably had made as a ruler doesn't diminish the anger against the murderers of his family, the sadness of the loss of such a colorful and charming part of Russian history and culture. From my family accounts - Russian people - either peasants or not - never lived worse then when ruled by Commies and during Perestroika. Ultimately, since Alexander II, Russia was heading towards the Constitutional monarchy and would get there under Nicolas if different political forces - both leftwing and rightwing wouldn't provoke the catastrophe which has happened - the Revolution, the Red Terror and the murder of Tsar's family.

I strongly recommend the book for those readers who look for memoir and biography type pf reading on Russian history and doubt that those scholars who look for dry facts will enjoy it.

Although I've studied Russian history, I have never been that fascinated by Nicholas II. However, I got this book as a gift and found it quite interesting.

What makes this book special is not so much Radzinsky's account of Nicholas' last days but his access to Communist archives that let him reconstruct how and why the Bolshevik leadership decided on killing Nicholas as they did. (Apparently this was done to thwart Trotsky, who wanted a public trial of Nicholas with himself as prosecutor.)

Also fascinating is Radzinsky's account of the subsequent careers of Nicholas' murderers, how they became minor league Communist celebrities, telling Komsomol (youth group) assemblies how they had shot the Tsar. This went on until Stalin decided they had become drunken embarassments and kept them out of the public eye.

So I would say if you want a book that looks at the last days of Nicholas from a broader perspective, this is the book to get.

This very factual and well-written book is, in my opinion, the very best on the life and death of Tsar Nicholas II and his family. Replete with both historical and familial details, it reads like a well-plotted, well-characterized fiction novel. The book, however, is all the more horrifying and heartbreaking because it is true. Unlike some of the previous reviewers, I enjoyed Radzinsky's writing style and consider him to be the ultimate authority on all matters Romanov. The only book more factual may be Nicholas and Alexandra, A Lifelong Passion which consists solely of the family's letters. The Last Tsar is definitely a must read for those interested in Romanov Russia and a book that will be enjoyable to all.

A man is sitting at a book-covered table in the Central State Archive of the October (1917) Revolution in Moscow. The surviving diaries of the last imperial family of Russia are there, unclassified at last. Reading them, his thoughts carrying him back and forth in time, the man is moved when he finds pressed flowers in the journals of the tsar's daughters: "Souvenirs of a destroyed life".

Edvard Radzinsky is that haunted man, sitting at a table strewn with memories of a broken dynasty. "The Last Tsar" is the product of his research and his sadness. A playwright, Raszinsky is well-qualified to explore the human depths of the lives of Tsar Nicholas II, his family, and the others who were part of their doomed world.

The book gained a great deal of publicity when it was first released here for its sensational assertion that two of the family may have escaped execution on that terrible night in 1918. And this work of popular history merits the attention. This book is likely to become the definitive work on the last years of Tsar Nicholas II and his family.

Rarely is a work of history so beautifully written, so thoroughly researched, and so permeated with emotion and insight. A great debt is owed to the translator for her lyrical and poetic voice while retaining a sense of historical authority.

Radzinsky's attitudes and feelings are juxtaposed with those of the two main characters of the story-- Tsar Nicholas and his queen, Alexandra. The inclusion of the author's feelings is unorthodox in a historical work however, in this case, it's a success and it offers a perspective that is both personal and realistic.

The tone of the book is conversational rather than scholarly. It is not difficult to imagine Radzinsky weeping as he sits at the table covered with diaries, though he does not say he did. Certainly, the depth and honesty of his feelings are so evident that we find it difficult to hold back tears ourselves as the tragedy of the Romanov family unfolds.

Radzinsky has a deep respect for the dead Tsar and his wife, but he clearly loves those children. They are the classic innocence, doomed by the destruction of their grand and insulated world.

In the early 90s, exhumation of what is assumed to be the family's grave revealed only nine skeletons. Although the accepted number of victims has always been put at eleven. Even more recently, two bodies were found nearby to the execution site and burial site that some experts believe to be the missing bodies.

The book and the forensic examination raise again the persistant belief that not only the Princess Anastasia, but also the Tsar Evitch Alexi, heir to the Russian throne may have survived the execution. However, these most recent exhumations near the main burial pit appear to show that neither Alexi nor Anastasia survived.

One of the participants in the execution later wrote that Alexi and his four sisters remained alive after the shooting had stopped.

"This had amazed the Commandant", he wrote, "since we had aimed straight for the heart. It was also surprising that the bullets from the revolvers bounced off for some reason and ricocheted, jumping around the room like hail."

That night, the children were wearing clothing into which the family diamonds had been sewn. Seeing that the bullets had not done its jobs, the killers decided to finish off the children with bayonets. A strong, although essentially circumstantial case, is presented that Alexi and Anastasia may, in fact, have survived.

This conclusion appears to have been recently overturned by the finding of the two bodies near the main burial site.

"The Last Tsar" was written as the Soviet Union, the author's homeland itself, was collapsing. The two Russian Revolutions, those of 1917 and 1989, are often intertwined in the book. In the lonely archives and libraries of a dying country, Radzinsky fell into a no-man's land of historical whirlwinds where huge and incomprehensible became understandable. He offers insights into the character of Russian history where, ". . . great and terrible events. . . are usually due to someone's stupidity or laziness," and to the apparently cyclical nature of history.

"Oh, our bitter, bitter revolution," he writes.

This is a book about processes. The tragedy of a family, the drama of a world turned upside down and the mechanics of research and writing are among the subjects.

Radzinsky's superb use of diaries and letters, his simple straightforward arguments and his penetrating thought-provoking style combined to make a very entertaining and convincing book.

As readable and compelling as a novel, we learn the intimate details of the end of the Tsar and Tsaritsa's lives primarily through primary sources such as their diaries, original telegrams, and eyewitness accounts (cross-verified with physical evidence). As the book progresses, we can see how a combination of factors (including Nicholas' own non-confrontational personality, paranoia and over-protectiveness of the secret police, and Nicholas and Alexandra's faith in Rasputin) caused Nicholas to miss the signs that the absolutist monarchy had to come to an end. As is to be expected from a tale based on personal writings, the story is sympathetic to the family and portrays the barbarity of the execution in the most compelling manner. The focus of this book is very narrow, however. While we get a detailed description of the thoughts and feelings of the Romanovs', we see almost nothing of the larger picture of what was going on in the rest of Russia and the world. Information is notably lacking on the progress of World War I and the Bolshevik revolution, except as the Romanovs encountered them. The narrow focus is both a strength and weakness of the book. It is a weakness in that the reader would need some supplementary reading in order to understand what was going on in Russia overall at the time, but it is a strength in that the reader is seeing the world from the limited viewpoint of the Tsar and his family, and you get a feel for just how sheltered they were and how incomprehensible world events and their own fate must have seemed to them.

This is hands down the best book written on the last Tsar (and I've read my fair share of books!) and his family!! I've always been fascinated by this family and what they were like and how they lived. This book not only gives a great insight into their lives, but also pieces together what happened the night they were executed (and leaves you to draw your own conclusions about whether you think anyone survived). A definate MUST READ for everyone!!

Radzisky's "The Last Tsar: The Life and Death of Nicholas II" was a fine written book. Radzinsky writes this book as if he were a detective himself. The most compelling and moving segments of the book are his clear explanations and emphasis on the events that took place after the murders in Ekaterinburg.

Although Radzinsky shines in this later portion of the book, it seems to me that the previous portions were somewhat flawed. I did not approve of the way Radzinsky made accusations, such as the one regarding a love affair between Anna Vyrobova and Nicholas, without showing any hard evidence. Unfortunately, I felt as if most of his book disproved many of his own theories, such as those of the affairs.

One can clearly see that this book was written by a native Russian. And in this Radzinsky probably shined the most. He had many resources available that many western authors did not. Hence, Radzinsky was able to clearly put most of the pieces in place.

Perhaps one of the most creative aspects of his book was the way information was often displayed. It was not only his own writings. He often had a number of people tell the same story from their own perspective. Unfortunately, this often led to questions as to "who really killed the tsar?" But on the other hand, one is able to draw their own conclusions.

Radzinsky brilliantly analyzed everything following the execution of the former Tsar and his family. The information is very detailed; so much that one can picture the exact atrocities that were committed, which of course are very unsettling.

This book was written during and after the fall of the Soviet Union. I believe Radzinsky is one of the first to have truly depicted the most complete analysis of the Tsar's murder, which remained mostly secret until the fall of the Soviet Union.

Even though one may not necessarily approve of things said, or necessarily like every aspect of the book, it is a must read for any Romanov or Nicholas II aficionado.

The most serious problem with this book is Radzinsky's writing style. He seems to be unable to allow the facts to speak for themselves or he underestimates the readers ability to grasp the drama and weight of the events he desribes . . . either way, his description of the facts is, at times, heavy-handed in it's attempt to steer the reader's reaction. On the other hand, the inclusion of material from the previously sealed Soviet archives makes the book at least a little fresher and more interesting than most of the sensationalistic re-hashings of this period of Russian history. Overall, this is not so much a book for serious scholars of Russian history, as an enjoyable read for the curious and those with a particular interest in the last of the Romanov's. On a more specific note, the idea that either Anastasia, Alexei, or both survived the execution is patently ridiculous, and the hear-say and verbal testimonies of the guards (especially in light of the well-known Russian proclivity -- particularly in the military -- for story-telling) does little to measure up against the scientific, forensic evidence that has been layed out elsewhere by reliable sources.

Radzinsky takes a very interesting perspective on the last of the Romanovs. He uses the diaries that Nicholas so carefully kept for much of his life time, but he doesn't try to rewrite them. He uses excerpts when appropriate, as well as incorporating information from those closest to the Tsar. It is the kind of book that becomes hard to put down once you pick it up, and is a must read for any one who is interested in this interesting but tradgic chapter of history.

This novel displayed great detective work by Radzinskii. It gives as much detail as possible about Tsar Nicholas II, his family and their last days. He searched archives that were previously closed to non-government personnel and he corresponded with those who were either witnesses or heard accounts (via second hand) from witnesses such as parents or grandparents. Tsar Nicholas II is shown as a Tsar not for power, but out of obligation. He is shown as a loving husband and caring father. The execution of this family is tragic.