Nicholas II: The Downfall of the Romanov Dynasty

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The Romanov family story is one that ends in tragedy and mystery. The Romanov dynasty ruled Russia for over 300 years coming to an end with Nicholas II. The book The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, & The Fall of Imperial Russia, written by Candace Fleming, tells the story of Tsar Nicholas II of how he came to become the Tsar and fell trying to protect his family. Fleming tells the story of young Nicholas coming to power when his father, Alexander III, died and how ill-prepared Nicholas was to rule due to his father’s inferior teaching skills. The story goes on to Nicholas meeting his future wife, Alexandra, and how they had four daughters, Olga, Tatiana, Marie and Anastasia. With each daughter came a disappointment of not having an heir …show more content…

Botkin. Fleming chose to focus on these people during the duration of the book due to the impact they had on the story. Rasputin, a man who was thought to be a starets, a man of God, mooched his way into the family’s lives by convincing them he could heal Alexei. He controlled the family and convinced Nicholas to fire many trained and certified officials simply because they did not like Rasputin. This caused the start of the rebellion against the Tsar and the people of Russia: “And Rasputin had lots of advice - especially about Nicholas’s ministers. The starets felt threatened by these powerful men, most of whom hated him” (Fleming 148). Gilliard and Gibbes were tutors of the children. They were mentors and saw the daily lives of the children. Gilliard and Gibbes followed the family to every house until they were forced to leave by the rebellion leaders. Dr. Botkin, the family doctor, helped Alexei with his illness and died with the family. He was persistent about staying with the family through the end, and he did. Botkin helped ease Alexei’s and Alexandra’s pain as much as he could. The seven members of the royal family are the main focal point in the story. Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra, the rulers of Imperial Russia, went through hardship after …show more content…

The book was interesting and accurate but did not go in-depth about the imperial family. The author included many negative aspects about Tsar Nicholas’s rule and made the reader side with the people of Russia. When reading, I did not want to side with the people of Russia, I wanted to learn about the lives of the Romanovs and their final days. Fleming mainly included Tsar Nicholas’s inability to rule but did not focus on his family life. The book was compelling in how she decided to tell Romanov story but I would have liked more detail about the individual personalities of the children and family members. I also did not like that Fleming neglected to tell how the children reacted to their prison lifestyle besides that they were scared and confused. Knowing how the children coped with being locked in a house and only being able to go outside for a few minutes per day would have been interesting to the storyline. The author did tell the story accurately, which is hard to find in this family’s story. I would have loved to know about the rumors that circled the family when they had disappeared, along with the rumors of people seeing the imperial children traveling around the world. The story of the Romanov is filled with mystery. If Fleming incorporated the mystery into the end of the book, the ending would have been more enjoyable for the readers.

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