Nicholas and Alexandra
Nicholas and Alexandra
Robert K. Massie
Plot Summary
Historian Robert K. Massie’s historical non-fiction, Nicholas & Alexandra: The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty (), narrates the lives of Tsar Nicholas II, Russia’s last monarch, and his beloved wife Alexandra. Massie’s portrait of the Russian royal family is notably more sympathetic than previous historians’, focusing on Nicholas and Alexandra’s struggle with their son Alexis’s hemophilia. Starting his working life as a journalist at Newsweek, Massie’s interest in the Romanov family began when his own son, Robert, was diagnosed with hemophilia.
Massie begins his narrative with the ascension to the throne of Nicholas II after his father’s sudden death. On the day of Nicholas’s coronation, many people are killed in riots. Nicholas decides to ignore this tragedy, continuing with the planned celebrations. Massey notes that the Tsar’s inclination to ignore uncomfortable truths—especially about the people he rules—will ultimately prove his undoing.
Massie traces this trait back to the Tsar’s childhood. His father, Alexander III, was harsh and intimidating. Nicholas excelled
Nicholas and Alexandra: The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty
“A moving, rich book . . . [This] revealing, densely documented account of the last Romanovs focuses not on the great events . . . but on the royal family and their evil nemesis. . . . The tale is so bizarre, no melodrama is equal to it.”—Newsweek
In this commanding book, New York Times bestselling author Robert K. Massie sweeps readers back to the extraordinary world of the Russian empire to tell the story of the Romanovs’ lives: Nicholas’s political naïveté, Alexandra’s obsession with the corrupt mystic Rasputin, and little Alexis’s brave struggle with hemophilia. Against a lavish backdrop of luxury and intrigue, Massie unfolds a powerful drama of passion and history—the story of a doomed empire and the death-marked royals who watched it crumble.
Nicholas and Alexandra
Robert Kinloch Massie III () is an American historian, author, Pulitzer Prize recipient. He has devoted much of his career to studying the House of Romanov, Russia's royal family from Massie was born in Lexington, Kentucky. He spent much of his youth in Nashville, Tennessee and currently resides in the village of Irvington, New York. He studied United States and modern European history at Yale and Oxford University, respectively, on a Rhodes Scholarship. Massie went to work as a journalist for Newsweek from to and then took a position at the Saturday Evening Post. In he wrote and published his breakthrough book, Nicholas and Alexandra. Massie was the president of the Authors Guild from to , and he still serves as a council member. While president of the Guild, he famously called on authors to boycott any store refusing to carry Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. His title Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman made The New York Times Best Seller List for
Nicholas II
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Who Was Nicholas II?
Nicholas II inherited the throne when his father, Alexander III, died in Although he believed in an autocracy, he was eventually forced to create an elected legislature. Nicholas II’s handling of Bloody Sunday and World War I incensed his subjects and led to his abdication. Bolsheviks executed him and his family on the night of July , , in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
Early Life
Nicholas II was born Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov in Pushkin, Russia, on May 6, He was his parents' firstborn child. Nicholas II's father, Alexander Alexandrovich, was heir to the Russian empire. Nicholas II's mother, Maria Feodorovna, had been born in Denmark. Maria Feodorovna provided a nurturing family environment during Nicholas II’s upbringing. Alexander was a strong influence on Nicholas II, shaping his conservative, religious values and his belief in autocratic government.
Nicholas II received his education through a string of private tutors, including a high-ranking government official named Konstantin Pobedonostsev. While Nicholas II excelled in history and foreign languages, ironically, the future leader struggled to comprehend the subtleties of politic
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