The Fall of the Romanovs: Political Dreams and Personal Struggles in a Time of Revolution

by Mark D. Steinberg

Book Overview

"All around me is treachery, cowardice, and deceit "--diary of Nicholas II, on the day he abdicated

"Behave with dignity; do not allow the former tsar and his family to be insulted or treated rudely."--Commissar Vasily Pankratov's instructions to the guard, September 1917

"The bullets...ricocheted off the jewels in the daughters' corsets] and jumped around the room like hail."--Yakov Yurovsky, commissar in charge of the execution of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300070675
• ISBN13: 9780300070675
• Release Date: February 1997
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 498 Pages
• Weight: 1.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A Very Good Book

This is one of the better books concerning the final days of Tsar Nicholas II and his family. A "must" for anyone who collects books on the Romanovs.

An incredible work

It is difficult to express the debt of gratitude that it owed to the authors of this book. For all too long an America scholar should have cast a critical eye on the Soviet files regarding the story the Soviet regime wanted the world to believe. A healthy dose of realism and - if you read between the lines - skepticism was echoed in the writing and analysis. Steinberg scrutunized his findings with a view to the historical record he would leave behind. He has accomplished a much needed task for those of us who value scholarship not sensationalism. And the effort is a much needed addition to any Romanov library. My edition has so many dog-earred pages and has been so used that the spine is lovingly weakened from use.I shall buy another.

A Great Informative Read!

The book, The Fall of the Romanovs, is a great narrative filled with primary documents of the family's path from the most powerful position in Russia into imprisonment and eventually death. Basically, the author explains the attitudes of Nicholas and Alexandra as lovers and rulers. He puts them in the light of leaders as well as family men and women. There are four basic stages explained which give a very nice organized fashion that presents the life in power and downfall of the family. First the tsar and tsarina are discussed in detail from a personal viewpoint. Next, the author moves on to describe the revolution that forced the abdication of the tsar. Then, the reader is taken through daily life and happenings while the family is under arrest at the Selo. Finally, the author narrates the family's captivity in Siberia and their inevitable death at the hands of revolutionaries in Yekaterinburg. The book is introduced as an unbiased analysis of the downfall of the tsar and his family. However, it is easy to tell that in many aspects the author discusses the family as the good guys and throws a dark shadow over the people who held them captive and later killed them. In many aspects the author analyzes situations and the outcome turns into the portrayal of the family as harmless victims to uncontrollable change in society. The author supported his analysis with a huge number of primary sources, which made it very hard to look upon the royal family as bloody rulers. Nevertheless, it was interesting how very little wrong doings of the family were thrown into the primary documents. The author does a very good job portraying his points through his analysis and backing it all up with sufficient documents and evidence. The Fall of the Romanovs was published in 1995. It is a very recent book, which means that the author had access to never before seen archives made available to all only in the early 80s. I don't believe the book has a specific intended audience, however, I think anyone who finds the Russian revolution intriguing will find this book very interesting and informative. The book, with many new resources behind it, is able to address many aspects of the treatment of the Romanovs during their imprisonment and issues concerning their imprisonment and execution. In my opinion, the appeal to the reader and the analysis of issues brought up in the book are superbly accomplished throughout the text. With the incessant evidence and extremely organized structure, the book is a great read. The overall purpose of the text is the layout of analysis and evidence in such a way as to allow the reader to see the story exactly as it is and be able to make their own conclusions. The author does a good job of laying out very accurate analysis backed up with great primary documents. Very organized, is the main style of the book. Every situation is correlated with a primary document towards the end of the chapter that gives the reader great i

Excellent book of first-person accounts

A wonderful, wonderful book about the Romanovs' captivity and eventual death. Consisting almost entirely of letters, diaries, memoirs, and other first-person accounts, it tells the story of their last days in the words of those who were there. Compelling and spooky. Reading Aleksandra's last diary entry made only hours before they were killed-- reading the account of their murder written by their killers-- it's absolutely chilling. I couldn't put it down.

The best book I've read on the Romanovs

I loved this book, couldn't put it down. I found it to be wonderfully insightful. It was amazing to read the original letters. The commentary and order of the letters helped to bring out this complicated story as clearly as possible.