The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia

by Candace Fleming

Overview

In this “superb history” (The Wall Street Journal), award-winning author Candace Fleming tells the extraordinary true story of Russia’s last royal family—and transports readers back to a time when both a bloodline and an empire came tumbling down.

“Has all the elements of a fictional thriller . . . woven into a fascinating work of history.”— The Washington Post

WINNER: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature and Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Nonfiction • A Robert F. Sibert Honor Book • A YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Finalist • A Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Book of the Century

He was Tsar Nicholas II of Russia: the wealthiest monarch in the world, who ruled over 130 million people and one-sixth of the earth’s land surface, yet turned a blind eye to the abject poverty of his subjects.

She was Empress Alexandra: stern, reclusive, and painfully shy, a deeply religious woman obsessed with the corrupt mystic Rasputin.

Their daughters were the Grand Duchess Olga, Tatiana, Marie, and Anastasia: completely isolated and immature girls who wore identical white dresses and often signed joint letters as OTMA, the initials of their first names.

Their only son was Tsarevich Alexei: youngest of the Romanovs, heir to the throne, a hemophiliac whose debilitating illness was kept secret from the rest of the world.

Candace Fleming deftly maneuvers between the plight of Russia’s poor masses and the extravagant lives of the Romanovs, from their opulent upbringings to the crumbling of their massive empire, and finally to their tragic murders. Using captivating photos and compelling first-person accounts throughout, The Family Romanov is history at its most absorbing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780375867828
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	07/08/2014
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)
Lexile:	950L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Candace Fleming is the prolific and highly acclaimed author of numerous books for young adults and children, including the nonfiction titles The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary, winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Nonfiction; Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart, a New York Times Notable Children’s Book of the Year; and The Great and Only Barnum: The Tremendous, Stupendous Life of Showman P. T. Barnum, an ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults. She lives in Oak Park, Illinois. Visit her at candacefleming.com.

Read an Excerpt

1881–1895

The Boy Who Would Be Tsar

On a frosty March day in 1881, the boy who would become Russia’s last ruler glimpsed his future. That morning, Nicholas’s grandfather, Tsar Alexander II, was riding through the streets of St. Petersburg when a man stepped off the sidewalk. He hurled a bomb at the imperial carriage. Miraculously, the tsar went uninjured, but many in his retinue were not as lucky. Concerned about his people, Alexander stepped from his carriage. That’s when a second bomb was thrown. This one landed between his feet. An explosion of fire and shrapnel tore away Alexander’s left leg, ripped open his abdomen, and mangled his face. Barely conscious, he managed one last command: “To the palace, to die there.”

Horrified members of the imperial family rushed to his side. Thirteen-year-old Nicholas, dressed in a blue sailor suit, followed a thick trail of dark blood up the white marble stairs to his grandfather’s study. There he found Alexander lying on a couch, one eye closed, the other staring blankly at the ceiling. Nicholas’s father, also named Alexander, was already in the room. “My father took me up to the bed,” Nicholas later recalled. “ ‘Papa,’ [my father] said, raising his voice, ‘your ray of sunshine is here.’ I saw the eyelashes tremble. . . . [Grandfather] moved a finger. He could not raise his hands, nor say what he wanted to, but he undoubtedly recognized me.” Deathly pale, Nicholas stood helplessly at the end of the bed as his beloved grandfather took his last breath.

“The emperor is dead,” announced the court physician.

Nicholas’s father—now the new tsar—clenched his fists. The Russian people would pay for this. Alexander II had been a reformer, the most liberal tsar in centuries. He’d freed the serfs (peasant slaves) and modernized the courts. But his murder convinced his son, Alexander III, that the people had been treated too softly. If order was to be maintained, they needed to “feel the whip.” And for the next thirteen years of his reign, Alexander III made sure they did.

Young Nicholas, standing beside his grandfather’s deathbed, knew nothing of politics. Frightened, he covered his face with his hands and sobbed bitterly. He was left, he later confessed, with a “presentiment—a secret conviction . . . that I am destined for terrible trials.”

Table of Contents

Before You Begin vii

Russia, 1903 1

Beyond the Palace Gates: Peasant Turned Worker 11

Part 1 Before the Storm

Chapter 1 "I Dreamed That I Was Loved" 17

Beyond the Palace Gates: A Peasant Boyhood 23

Chapter 2 "What a Disappointment!" 35

Beyond the Palace Gates: Lullabies for Peasant Babies 40

Chapter 3 "A Small Family Circle" 45

Beyond the Palace Gates: Another Family Circle 48

Part 2 Dark Clouds Gathering

Chapter 4 The Year of Nightmares 59

Chapter 5 Lenin, the Duma, and a Mystic Named Rasputin 68

Beyond the Palace Gates: House No. 13 71

Chapter 6 "Pig and Filth" and Family Fun 88

Beyond the Palace Gates: An Occupation for Workers' Daughters 96

Chapter 7 Gathering Clouds 100

Chapter 8 Three Centuries of Romanovs 113

Beyond the Palace Gates: A Different Kind of Education for a Different Kind of Boy 120

Part 3 The Storm Breaks

Chapter 9 "My God! My God! What Madness!" 125

Chapter 10 In Defense of Mother Russia 133

Beyond the Palace Gates: Vasily's Diary 135

Chapter 11 "The Reign of Rasputin" 146

Chapter 12 It All Comes Tumbling Down 156

Beyond the Palace Gates: Molecule in a Storm 168

Chapter 13 "Ye Tyrants Quake, Your Day Is Over" 170

Beyond the Palace Gates: "Ye Tyrants Quake, Your Day Is Over" 177

Part 4 Final Days

Chapter 14 "Survivors of a Shipwreck" 181

Beyond the Palace Gates: The "Tsar's Surprise Party" 192

Chapter 15 Into Siberia 196

Beyond the Palace Gates: Swarming the Palace 202

Chapter 16 The House of Special Purpose 215

Chapter 17 Deadly Intent 227

Chapter 18 "The World Will Never Know What Has Become of Them" 241

Beyond the Palace Gates: Life Under Lenin 247

Acknowledgments 255

Bibliography 256

The Romanovs Online 266

Notes 267

Index 288

Editorial Reviews

Kirkus starred review, May 15, 2014:
“A remarkable human story, told with clarity and confidence.”

Publishers Weekly starred review, April 28, 2014:
“A wonderful introduction to this era in Russian history and a great read for those already familiar with it.”

Booklist starred review, June 1, 2014:
"For readers who regard history as dull, Fleming’s extraordinary book is proof positive that, on the contrary, it is endlessly fascinating, absorbing as any novel, and the stuff of an altogether memorable reading experience."

The Horn Book starred review, July/August 2014:
"Fleming has outdone herself with this riveting work of narrative nonfiction that appeals to the imagination as much as the intellect."

School Library Journal starred review, June 2014:
"This is both a sobering work, and the account of the discovery of their bones and the aftermath is at once fascinating and distressing. A solid resource and good recreational reading for high school students."

The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books starred review, September 2014:
“With comprehensive source notes and bibliographies of print and online materials, this will be a boon to student researchers, but it’s also a heartbreaking page-turner for YAs who prefer their nonfiction to read like a novel.

From the Publisher

★ 2014-05-12
Fleming examines the family at the center of two of the early 20th century's defining events.It's an astounding and complex story, and Fleming lays it neatly out for readers unfamiliar with the context. Czar Nicholas II was ill-prepared in experience and temperament to step into his legendary father's footsteps. Nicholas' beloved wife (and granddaughter of Queen Victoria), Alexandra, was socially insecure, becoming increasingly so as she gave birth to four daughters in a country that required a male heir. When Alexei was born with hemophilia, the desperate monarchs hid his condition and turned to the disruptive, self-proclaimed holy man Rasputin. Excerpts from contemporary accounts make it clear how years of oppression and deprivation made the population ripe for revolutionary fervor, while a costly war took its toll on a poorly trained and ill-equipped military. The secretive deaths and burials of the Romanovs fed rumors and speculation for decades until modern technology and new information solved the mysteries. Award-winning author Fleming crafts an exciting narrative from this complicated history and its intriguing personalities. It is full of rich details about the Romanovs, insights into figures such as Vladimir Lenin and firsthand accounts from ordinary Russians affected by the tumultuous events. A variety of photographs adds a solid visual dimension, while the meticulous research supports but never upstages the tale.A remarkable human story, told with clarity and confidence. (bibliography, Web resources, source notes, picture credits, index) (Nonfiction. 12 & up)

Kirkus Reviews