Publishers Weekly
05/07/2018
In this devastating, complex, and fast-moving narrative, everything from monarchical rivalries to sickness and bad weather play into the brutal demise of the Russian imperial family in 1918. Historian Rappaport (Caught in the Revolution) begins this gripping story in 1894 with the marriage of Nicholas Romanov, heir to the Russian throne, and Hessian Princess Alix, who, like her grandmother Queen Victoria, carried the potentially lethal hemophilia gene. Kaiser Wilhelm facilitated the doomed match, but in a couple of decades Russia and Germany were at war, and revolutionary fervor was rising in Petrograd. Rappaport rehashes some history from her previous books and gives salient new details on British procrastination and backpedaling in offering asylum to the imperial family after Nicholas’s abdication in March 1917. She describes the confusion within the provisional government about what to do with the ex-czar and the misguided hope that Kaiser Wilhelm might make the family’s safe exit from Russia a condition of the armistice ending Russia’s involvement in WWI. Relying on fresh archival material, Rappaport dispels some mystery about secret Western rescue plans—that is to say, she clarifies that they were nonexistent. Regarding myriad Russian monarchist rescue plots, she admits that rumors and misinformation make unraveling the truth “an impossible task.” This is a well-researched account of a colorful, suspenseful, and tragic series of events. (June)
From the Publisher
"Finely researched and elegantly written." —Washington Post
"With the detail of a historian-detective, Rappaport utilizes historical, uncovered, and recently declassified information to pick apart the myriad of theories and plans to 'save' the doomed Romanovs by getting them out of the country...Shady characters, tense rivalries, and shifting loyalties abound in the narrative."—The Houston Press
"Excellent...Helen Rappaport, one of today’s leading experts on the last Romanovs, has dug deeply in archives around the world and uncovered a wealth of new information that is certain to make The Race to Save the Romanovs the definitive work on the subject." —Douglas Smith, award-winning historian and author of Rasputin: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs
"Timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the grim executions, this gripping chronicle will find a ready and eager audience."—Booklist
"[A] frank and brilliant study of the various efforts to save the Romanovs...Rappaport handles the controversy with admirable rigour, cutting through the mythology and backside covering that followed the Romanovs’ murder."—The Spectator (UK)
“Rappaport, a historian, turns the question of why European relatives and Allied governments failed to save Czar Nicholas and family into a thriller, full of juicy tidbits for Romanov completists.” —Newsweek
"An intriguing work of investigative writing."—New York Journal of Books
"Royal and aristocratic houses all over Europe were linked to the Romanovs...But could they ever have saved their Russian cousins?...skillfully [told]."—The Economist
“Devastating, complex, and fast-moving…This is a well-researched account of a colorful, suspenseful, and tragic series of events.” —Publishers Weekly
“What I always love about Helen Rappaport’s books is that they appeal to the heart as well as the head. She’s a writer of great compassion.”—Lucy Worsley, bestselling author and historian
"A groundbreaking book...as the centenary of their deaths by firing squad at Ekaterinburg approaches...there remain fresh angles and, crucially, unused evidence pertaining to the Romanovs."—The Daily Telegraph (UK)
"Highly entertaining...Rappaport introduces us to a colourful array of con men, charlatans and fantasists involved in ideas to free the Romanovs...She is a vivid storyteller."—Times (UK)
