My first book for the Plum Dragon club in 2015 was Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie. In choosing this book (our theme was royal biographies) I was also exploring an idea that Miss B. and I were talking through about a possible option for the staff bookclub. That idea was to re-read a title you had read as a younger person, and to compare your reaction to it now.
I first read Nicholas and Alexandra as a 10-year-old. Strange reading for a child I know, I think I was following in my mother’s footsteps. Mom studied Russian language literature and culture in college and named both of her children Russian names.
Nicholas and Alexandra were the last reigning Romanovs. They are perhaps best known for their mysterious relationship with Rasputin, their hemophiliac son and heir Alexis, and the family’s stark murder in a dank basement in Ekaterinberg after the Revolution.
I find in rereading this title nearly 35 years later that I am no more interested in the diplomatic shenanigans surrounding the start of the Great War then I was as a child, but I am now much more disgusted by the pathetic and revolting loss of life of the soldiers and suffering of the civilian population during that period across Europe and in Russia.
The minutiae of Royal manners and tracing of lineages is charming and a little thrilling when you’re talking about courtship and baby-making. It is unconscionable when it comes to mismanagement of a nation during wartime. And Rasputin and his terrifying influence over the couple and hence national policies? That dude had to go.
On the whole I found I mostly remembered the stories about the four grand Duchesses’ personalities and the reaction of Nicholas and Alexandra to their son’s illness from this book. So much of the political information just went over my head as a 10-year-old. I also have a lot of respect for MAssie. Great historian.
As far as a recommendation goes, you have to have a pretty high tolerance for Duma minutiae and a healthy interest in watching 100-year-old global politics devolve into a world war to be satisfied with every part of this book but it is a fascinating study of a family and how that family both affected and was affected by national and international history.
And the last portion of the book, where we watch the family heading toward death, is unbearably sad. If you didn’t dislike Lenin for any other reason, you will by the time this book is over. Professional revolutionaries beware! Murdering handicapped kids in basements doesn’t look good “from a historical perspective.”
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