This book is a wonderful combination of diplomacy, deception, love, jealousy, and agonies about the last Czar of Russia Nicholas and his German-born Princess Alexandra. The pangs of emotion surging all through the pages of this book has taken me back to the initial world of the 20th century. The ordeal the last monarch and his families had to endure was extremely difficult for the faint-hearted people to digest.
Regarding the imperial world of Romanov’s Russia, no doubt they had lived an unimaginable life of luxury while the general peoples of Russia lived in extreme poverty. Nicholas the last Czar of Russia which many proclaim to be the wrong place in history at the wrong time. In a true sense, Nicholas truly was a man of a true gentleman. But many other factors like the emergence of peoples who believe in the new social order, the never-ending war, and Alexander continued obsession with mystic corrupt Rasputin ultimately paved way for the downfall of an empire that had ruled Russia proudly for many centuries.
Alexandra feodorovna and Rasputin
“It is one of the supreme ironies of history that the blessed birth of an only son should have proved the mortal blow. Even as the saluting cannons boomed and the flags waved, Fate had prepared a terrible story. Along with the lost battles and sunken ships, the bombs, the revolutionaries and their plots, the strikes and revolts, Imperial Russia was toppled by a tiny defect in the body of a little boy.”
Robert K. Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra
This book traces the tragic life of Nicholas II who married a German princess Alexander had to embrace the title of Czar when he was not yet ready suited for the role. Despite the incompetency, they stood by each other with support and love. However, the heir to the Nicholas II throne, their son Alexei Nikolaevich was hemophilic by birth. It is their utmost devotion and love to their son that the princess had to rely heavily upon trust to the mystic Serbian man called Rasputin. Her insistence to rely continuously on him made way for the other factors to be starkly visible in front of the doubtful revolutionaries to unleash their propaganda in overthrowing the Czar regime.
I can somehow understand with the whole measures to bridge the gap between the difference in imperial luxury and the extreme poverty of general peoples. But the manner in which the whole overthrowing of the last Czar and his family in the Russian revolution was something difficult for me as a person to digest. It was way too tragic.
In this masterpiece delivered by Pulitzer award-winning author Robert k Massie, get ready to enliven the world of Czar and live through the whole mental ordeal. A must-read for all.
Rasputin
“Without Rasputin, there could have been no Lenin.” ALEXANDER KERENSKY”
Robert K. Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra
Rasputin , the mystical man of Serbia
You crossed distances for strenuous years
To the core of Russia
For an aid , the royal’s needed
They say, you were the man of god
A person to whom god talks
The lassie’s crooned, believed
For them, you were a goodwill gestures
Rasputin as you were called
The truly mystical man
With uncertainties and debaucheries
You preached hatred and vengeance
Yet you manage to deceive others
With the mightiest of the might
At your helm , for you
Filled with trickery and evil
O Rasputin , how much I despise you
From the name itself I heard first
To last days of your cruel death
I only sensed evil and hatred
Though you were long gone
But your remnants stayed
With your souls and thoughts
Still ringing into many mortal beings.
How evil you were, Rasputin.
By Tenzin Wanga
Robert K Massie
It’s really unfortunate that in the recent year 2019, the Pulitzer-winning author passed away due to complications in Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 90. Robert k Massie was born on Jan 5, 1929, in Kentucky was an American journalist and historian. Among some of his notable works like Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Nicholas and Alexander, etc., he received a Pulitzer award in biography for his book “Peter the great”.
His fascination in the history of Romanovs of Russia has its origin in his hemophilic son, the hereditary disease which also afflicted the Tsar Nicholas son Alexis. Widely regarded as one of the best narrative writers in Russian History and a strong supporter of the freedom of expression through writing. While being the president of “The Authors Guild” persuaded all authors to boycott those stores that refuse to carry Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses, which had been threatened by the Islamic world.