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The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg, by Helen Rappaport
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Rappaport, an expert in the field of Russian history, brings you the riveting day-by-day account of the last fourteen days of the Russian Imperial family, in this first of two books about the Romanovs. Her second book The Romanov Sisters, offering a never-before-seen glimpse at the lives of the Tsar's beautiful daughters and a celebration of their unique stories, will be published in 2014.
The brutal murder of the Russian Imperial family on the night of July 16–17, 1918 has long been a defining moment in world history. The Last Days of the Romanovs reveals in exceptional detail how the conspiracy to kill them unfolded.
In the vivid style of a TV documentary, Helen Rappaport reveals both the atmosphere inside the family's claustrophobic prison and the political maneuverings of those who wished to save―or destroy―them. With the watching world and European monarchies proving incapable of saving the Romanovs, the narrative brings this tragic story to life in a compellingly new and dramatic way, culminating in a bloody night of horror in a cramped basement room.
- Sales Rank: #170203 in Books
- Published on: 2010-01-19
- Released on: 2010-01-19
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.31" h x .80" w x 6.16" l, .71 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 288 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Synthesizing a variety of sources, British historian Rappaport (Joseph Stalin) details the Romanovs last two weeks, imprisoned in a cramped private house in Ekaterinburg, a violently anti-czarist industrial city in the Ural Mountains where Nicholas II; his wife, Alexandra; and their five children were executed on July 17, 1918. The czars rescue was a low priority for the Allies, and several escape plots by Russian monarchists came to naught. A lax guard was replaced by a rigorous new regime on July 4, headed by Yakov Yurovsky, whose familys impoverished Siberian exile had fueled his burning hatred for the imperial family, and his ruthless assistant and surrogate son, Grigory Nikulin. How the last czar and his family died was one of Russias best-kept secrets for decades, and Rappaport spares none of the gory details of the panicked bloodbath (it took an entire clip of bullets to finish off the czarevitch because an undergarment sewn with jewels protected the boys torso) and botched burial of the corpses. Although parts of the Romanov saga are familiar and Rappaports sympathy for the czar often seems naïve, this is an absorbing, lucid and authoritative work. 16 pages of photos. (Feb. 3)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Since the end of the Soviet Union, details about the murder of the Russian royal family in 1918 have emerged and inspired several accounts of the killings. Author Rappaport, a talented British writer of narrative history, telescopes the post-abdication story of the Romanovs into the two weeks preceding their deaths, during which the final elements of decision in Moscow and execution in the Siberian city of Ekaterinburg fell into place. As storyteller, Rappaport skillfully contrasts the ignorance of the family members of their impending doom with the preparations of the Bolsheviks on the scene. She renders astute personality portraits of the seven members of the family, noting especially the beauty of the daughters that, to a degree, underlies popular interest in and horror about what happened to the Romanovs. Such sentimentality was alien to Bolsheviks waging class war, however, and Rappaport describes the chain of command from Lenin to the firing squad with responsibility-fixing emphasis. Unavoidably ghastly in her last pages, Rappaport, whose research included visits to the murder and burial sites, has produced an emotionally powerful work of history. --Gilbert Taylor
Review
“The brutal 1918 massacre of the Romanov family may be familiar, but in Russian scholar Rappaport's hands, the tale becomes as shocking and immediate as a thriller. Drawing on new archives and forensics, she crafts a portrait of the final weeks of Russia's last imperial family, cramped in the House of Special Purpose in Ekaterinburg. Though Tsar Nicholas's rule was harsh, the love and religious devotion he and his family shared makes them sympathetic. The Romanovs are now saints in Russian Orthodoxy, symbols of faith and hope. This gripping read helps you understand why.” ―People magazine (3 ½ stars)
“Synthesizing a variety of sources, Rappaport details the Romanovs' last two weeks. . . . How the last czar and his family died was one of Russia's best-kept secrets for decades, and Rappaport spares none of the gory details of the panicked bloodbath . . . and botched burial of the corpses . . . this is an absorbing, lucid and authoritative work.” ―Publishers Weekly
“British historian Rappaport combines detailed scholarship with an engaging narrative style. . . . The book's most gripping sections describe the days and hours leading up to and including the family's execution. Rappaport spares few details . . . Solid political and social history, related with the vigor of a true-crime thriller.” ―Kirkus Reviews
“Rappaport fills out her story with vivid detail and superb characterization, building the tension and drama to its brutal climax, sparing no stomach-turning details. She draws us in so well, that we very nearly smell the dusty drapes and taste the sweat hanging thick in the air of that tragic Siberian summer. We can't stop reading, wondering what will happen next, even though we know full well what happens next. Meticulously researched and intimately drawn, this is a must read for anyone interested in the sad fate of the Romanovs, or for anyone interested in plumbing the depths of human depravity, witnessing the nobility of calm resignation, or reliving the tragedy that foretold the executions of hundreds of thousands of innocents in the decades to come.” ―Russian Life
“The Last Days of the Romanovs was, quite simply, stunning. It dealt with a subject that has long fascinated me, and I can say without reservation that it is the most detailed, authentic and gripping account of the bloody end of the Romanovs that I have ever read. I was staggered at how Helen Rappaport reconstructed and evoked such searingly vivid images; they are still with me now. Chilling and poignant, this is how history books should be written.” ―Alison Weir, author of Henry VIII: The King and His Court
“The Last Days of the Romanovs is perhaps the most accurate depiction of the demise of Nicholas and Alexandra that I've read. Beautifully researched and written, Helen Rappaport's newest book is notable not only for its balanced view of Russia's last imperial family, but its realistic portrayal of a close-knit family in distress.” ―Robert Alexander, bestselling author of The Romanov Bride
“That perfect but rare blend of history, sense of place, human tragedy, drama and atmosphere. . . . [The Last Days of the Romanovs] kept me up for 2 nights. . . . This book is going to be a bestseller . . . it will be the best read you will have had for ages.” ―Susan Hill, author of The Various Haunts of Men and The Pure in Heart
“Helen Rappaport has brought her subjects back to life with a sombre intensity. . . . The book is essentially a compassionate account of a close-knit, deeply devout and surprisingly ordinary family caught up in quite extraordinary circumstances. The atmosphere of dark menace that permeated the House of Special Purpose is very well captured as their Bolshevik captors gradually closed down their links with the outside world; sealing and whitewashing the windows and erecting a second perimeter fence. . . . I found this book a deeply touching anniversary tribute.” ―The Independent (UK)
“A highly accessible account . . . rather than romanticizing the family members, the author explores their numerous character defects. Set against the rich political backdrop of the bloody birth of the revolution, the result is extraordinary and powerful.” ―Oxford Times (UK)
“The Last Days of the Romanovs is well researched and has some excellent photographs . . . Rappaport successfully evokes the claustrophobic atmosphere within the house. . . . Nor does she spare the gruesome details of the massacre.” ―Daily Telegraph (UK)
“An unromanticised telling of the family's incarceration in the Ipatiev house and the circus that went on around them. [The Last Days of the Romanovs] brilliantly shows how history is never simple but always enthralling when written with this style.” ―Bookseller (UK)
“An effective and engaging synthesis . . . with skill and imagination [Rappaport] juxtaposes the escalating chaos outside with the day-to-day tedium of the prisoners. . . . The result is an intriguing personal angle on what had seemed an exhausted subject.” ―Sunday Times (UK)
“[Helen Rappaport] skilfully weaves together the grimly repetitive routine of the doomed family with the high drama engulfing the killers as they add the finishing touches to their terrible plan. Though some of the material is familiar, Rappaport's countdown format makes The Last Days of the Romanovs freshly compelling.” ―New Statesman (UK)
“As a short work of history it is informative and concise, telling you everything you need to know to understand what went on. As a fresh look at a crucial point in Russian and world history it presents new evidence and some fascinating first-hand accounts. As a family drama - parents alongside their children unaware of their deadly fate - it is claustrophobic and gripping. I cannot recall the last time I enjoyed a history book as much as this.” ―Scott Pack, Me and My Big Mouth blog author (UK)
Most helpful customer reviews
98 of 102 people found the following review helpful.
A gritty, day-by-day narrative of 14 days leading to a massacre
By S. McGee
Anyone picking up this book is likely to have read some of the other literature on the Romanovs or the Russian Revolution, notably the Robert Massie biography, Nicholas and Alexandra and the follow up volume, The Romanovs: the Final Chapter. This is an altogether bleaker narrative -- if you can imagine such a thing -- that revolves around the day-to-day lives of the Romanovs, their captors and, at a distance, Lenin, George V and others who helped determine their fate.
The format is straightforward: Rappaport uses each of the last 14 days of the lives of the former Tsar and his family (the unpopular Empress Alexandra, their hemophiliac son, Alexey, and four daughters, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia) as the focus of a chapter. In each chapter, she explores the state of the debate about the Tsar's future or the issues that were likely to affect that -- such as the relentless advance of Czech 'White' troops in the direction of the city of Ekaterinburg where the Romanov family now lived in almost complete isolation from the outside world. The result is a relentless "tick tock" account of how hope slipped away, of how the family lived side by side with guards who were making meticulous preparations for their deaths, of the petty indignities they suffered and the petty squabbles in which they still indulged.
It's a chilling book to read, and it culminates in a horrifying account of the massacre of the family and four of their servants in a basement room that I -- despite being familiar with the story, an avid history reader and veteran of many thrillers -- couldn't complete in one sitting. Within minutes, Rappaport tells us, some of the executioners and other guards were weeping at the bloodbath; some of the firing squad (a very loose term in the circumstances) were replaced at the last moment because they refused to shoot the young girls (in their teens to early 20s).
This unusual structure to the book not only allows Rappaport to heighten the tension to an extent that is unusual among non-fiction historical accounts of events now more than 90 years distant, but enables her to fill in details of what was happening elsewhere as, in Ekaterinburg, the former Tsar recorded in his diary the arrival of the new guards who were to become his executioners, or as the Grand Duchesses helped two temporary maids scrub their floors a day or so before their execution. While the Tsar was confined to a sweltering room, reading history books behind whitewashed windows nailed shut to prevent him from seeing even a glimpse of sky, his cousin, George V of England, celebrated his silver wedding anniversary and attended a baseball game organized by the US military. Contrasts like that just heighten the claustrophobic world that the Romanov family now inhabited, and signaled the kind of detachment from the rest of the world that normally is displayed only by those diagnosed with a terminal illness.
It's in the research and structure of this book that Rappaport's skills truly shine. The writing is good, but not great; of a more pedestrian nature than the book's other strengths would lead the reader to expect, and it occasionally relapses into too-fervid prose (as when she compares Alexandra to a female Iago). The only point when the writing actually hampers the book, however, is when she diverges for too long from the core narrative -- the narrow world of the Romanovs and how they arrived in it -- and spends that time to fill us in on the political jostling and arguments between different factions of the new Revolutionary government. Yes, they are important to understanding why the order was given for the murders -- but they could have been dealt with more elegantly and expeditiously.
Overall, this is an excellent book for anyone interested in the Romanovs in particular, and the final stages of Tsarist rule and the first days of the revolution, more generally. It works best as the kind of deeply personal narrative that the larger-than-life characters that the family became following their deaths has made it hard to write. (How many works of fiction are there devoted to the idea of the survival or one or more of the children? How many icons of the family's images now exist and they are revered as martyrs by devout members of the Russian Orthodox community?) In this book, we get a glimpse of reality; a balding emperor with bad teeth and a nicotine habit, frustrated by his inability to resort to exercise to keep his emotions under firm control; an empress addicted to morphine and other drugs, confined to a wheelchair and at once arrogant and fatalistic; four young women caught between their passionate love for their close-knit family and a desire to see the world, hair cropped short to battle head lice; the heir to the throne now mortally ill and unable to walk even a few steps.
For anyone who hasn't also read it, The Flight of the Romanovs: A Family Saga would be an excellent book to read in conjunction with this one -- in a less personal and immediate way, it chronicles the fate of other family members, both in 1918 and the years that followed, including the Tsar's surviving siblings and his mother. The Last Tsar: The Life and Death of Nicholas II I recall as being one of the first post-Soviet books to emerge from Russian research into the Tsar, and being a very compelling (albeit slightly idiosyncratic) work.
One warning to Kindle readers: while this book, as delivered on Kindle, includes a blow by blow description of many photos in the hardcover edition, the photos themselves are not included in the Kindle e-book -- disappointing. The Kindle edition, oddly, does include a complete index, but with page numbers, which is of little help when using a Kindle.
57 of 60 people found the following review helpful.
Three and a half stars...
By Cynthia K. Robertson
Since my high school years, I have been enthralled with the story of Nicholas and Alexandra Romanov and their tragic story. Every year or so, I need a Romanov-fix, and Helen Rappaport provided just that with her new book, The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg. There is much to like in this book, but also, a few detractions.
There are hundreds and hundreds of books on the last tsar and his family. Many of them just rehash the same information, over and over again. Rappaport tries to give a more in-depth look at the last 14 days that the Romanovs were in captivity in Ekaterinburg. She gives just enough background for those who may not know the entire story. Some of her descriptions and observations are first-rate. In describing Nicholas, "how had this devout, insistently dull and dogmatic little man, whose primary interest was family life, come to be demonised as the repository of all that was corrupt, reactionary and despotic about the Romanov dynasty?" When the family was descending into the basement of the Ipatiev House on that July evening, she writes "Twenty-three steps--one for every year of Nicholas's disastrous reign--now led him and his family to their collective fate." I especially liked learning more about the city of Ekaterinburg, as well as Woodrow Wilson's dilemma about aiding Russia. Rappaport's research in this respect is well done.
But what bothered me about The Last Days of the Romanovs is that there are no endnotes. There were so many times that I would read a new fact--something I had never heard before. My first instinct was to see where it came from so that I could learn more. The author gives her reasons for not including endnotes in her "Notes on Sources", but I don't agree with them. I'm not sure about the accuracy of the Index. I went to find Boris Yeltsin (she spells it Eltsin) and couldn't find him anywhere. Yet, he is mentioned on page 219. Finally, there are some minor mistakes throughout this book. One example involves Nicholas and Alexandra arriving in Ekaterburg, "It was Passion Week and the bells--the beautiful bells that had so beguiled Anton Checkov--were ringing out across the city." Three weeks later, the rest of their children joined them. "But the closely interdependent family unit was once more reunited and what greater joy could there be than for it to be during Passion Week--the most sacred festival in the Orthodox calendar." Passion Week is Passion Week. It is not three weeks long.
I enjoyed The Last Days of the Romanovs and I will add it to my extensive collection of Romanov books (now numbering over 100). But I thought Rappaport could have made this a better book.
28 of 31 people found the following review helpful.
It has a few fresh bits, but doesn't quite meet the mark.
By Rebecca Huston
With every turn of the calendar, I see the release of yet another book on the last monarch of Russia, Tsar Nicholas II, and his family, hit the bookstores. And nearly all of them have something 'new' to say on the execution of the family, and their servants, on a warm summer night in July 1918, in the city of Ekaterinburg.
This time, the focus is on the doomed family's final days of life, with each day being chronicled by a chapter in Helen Rappaport's The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg. It's a nice twist, but rather crammed, as the author, a historian specializing in Russian history, explores each member of the family in turn. Of course, there is Nicholas, the father, and once ruler of the largest empire the world had seen. By the opening chapter, he had abdicated from the throne as unrest swept Russia from the terrible results of entering the first World War. Suffering from effects of stress and confinement, the only thing that seems to be holding him together is his family and the endless smoking of cigarettes. Alexandra, his German-born, but English-trained and speaking wife, is next, herself suffering from the effects of poor overall health and constant fretting over her youngest child. Rappaport makes much of Alexandra's mental state and possibility of menopause, and conveniently forgets how devastating physical ailments alone can make a person -- Alexandra suffered since a teenager from the results of sciatica.
The daughters, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, are as most writers do, lumped into a single mass. While it is a given that the four daughters thought of themselves as a group -- they would sign notes and make presents as 'OTMA' -- they were very much individualists as well. While the author does give several tantalizing hints of who they were as people, there's not too much that's new here either. And finally, among the family, there is Alexey, the youngest and only son, who was the pivot around whom everyone in the family turned. His inherited illness of hemophilia keeps him weak and bedridden, but it also brought a great deal of insight. But he was also spoiled and indulged by his doting family, and it was the fear that death would suddenly strike that caused his domineering mother to fall under the spell of Rasputin which helped to accelerate the downfall of the monarchy.
Together with the last of their servants, the family struggles to fill time, and watch helplessly as their possessions, rations, and dignity are chipped away. The commandant of their final home in Ekaterinburg -- the sinisterly named "House of Special Purpose" -- Yurovsky is on a mission of his own, to follow the orders of the local Soviet and wait for instructions from Moscow as to what is to be done with the family. In the meantime, rumours are flying as to where the Tsar and his family are, and even if they are still alive. In the meantime, White Army forces -- those opposed to Soviet rule in Russia -- are closing in on the city, and with them, the possibility of rescue for the Romanovs...
While Ms. Rappaport goes over a trail that has been well combed before by many authors, she is still able to put in a surprise or two. One of them was a Russian woman by the name of Maria Bochkareva, who had, amazingly, become an officer in an all-woman's brigade of soldiers during the war, and now had gone to America to implore for American intervention in Russia in the form of troops and armaments. Her encounters with President Woodrow Wilson are interesting to read, but there's little to go on either. The author explores conspiracies to rescue the family, the travails of living in a dark, closed up house, and makes a few mistakes along the way, especially towards the end of the book.
And as nearly all writers on the Romanovs indulge in, there are the murders themselves, here dwelt on in loving, gory detail. At times I found myself getting physically nauseated by the author's descriptions, and that, coupled with her tendency to try and figure out the psychological states of her subjects. One that found very annoying was that Maria, the third daughter of the family, was being shunned because she had gotten too friendly with one of the guards, and had been caught being physically intimate with him. 'Proof' of this was given in that unlike her siblings and mother, she was not wearing a corset that had been sewn with jewels between the stays on the night of the execution -- hence Maria would have been cut down quickly in the hail of bullets and bayonets. The fact is, Maria was with her parents in Ekaterinburg when they had been separated from the rest of the family for a brief time, and so, her sisters had not been able to stitch the priceless jewelry into her clothing when their mother had sent them the message to do so. Worst still, Rappaport has the jewels being hidden in camisoles, rather than the corsets. It's tiny mistake, but a telling one, as there is a great deal of difference between the two sorts of garments.
Sadly, the best part of the book is at the end, where there is a brief discussion on the discovery of the Romanov remains at the end of the twentieth century, and the more recent discovery of the graves of the two missing Romanov children -- this only occurring in 2007, with DNA results still outstanding as of this writing -- and the modern 'industry' that the discoveries have brought to the city of Ekaterinburg in much needed tourist dollars. It's interesting, but other writers have done far better with the same material, and in a much more sympathetic style.
While I can not fault the author for her research -- she cites an immense number of books and articles in her bibliography -- I didn't much care for her alternate style of treating them as near imbelic idiots or whingers. Even the most neurotic of them all, Alexandra, deserves better than what she gets in this story.
As a curiosity to those who find the Romanovs a fascinating subject -- I confess that I am one of them -- this might be worth an evening's read, but overall, it still doesn't match up to early works about the novels. Even Robert Alexander's novel See all 133 customer reviews...
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