Customer Reviews

The Last Tsar: The Life And Death Of Nicholas II

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As a comprehensive chronicle of Nicholas' life goes, Radzinsky's book fits the bill perfectly. Almost. The tsar is shown from infancy on up to adulthood, with a proper amount of focus in his pre-Alexandra days, and shown as a regular human. His likes, mistakes, abilities as a father, etc.
The one really massive problem I had with this book is how the subject's passing is treated. The vile, horrible murder of an entire family and other innocent people is given very little respect in the way it kept being brought up. Constantly, sometimes 4 or more times in a single page, come statements along the line of "unaware of the horror that awaited them at.." or "X long before a such-and-such kind of death at the hands of..." etc. I just felt that to constantly bring up the event time and again from beginning to end in such a tone was in very poor taste. Yes, many know how the Romanovs died, and they more than certainly did not deserve that, but they do not deserve to be disrespected by having their deaths amount to knee jerk B grade horror movie lines either.