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The Romanovs were the most successful dynasty of contemporary times, ruling a 6th of the world's surface for three centuries. How does one family switch a war-ruined principality into the world's very best empire? And how does they lose everything? This is actually the intimate report of 20 tsars and tsarinas, some handled by genius, some by madness, but all encouraged by holy autocracy and imperial ambition. Simon Sebag Montefiore's gripping chronicle shows their top secret world of unrestricted vitality and ruthless empire building, overshadowed by palace conspiracy, family rivalries, intimate decadence, and wild extravagance, with a worldwide solid of adventurers, courtesans, revolutionaries, and poets, from Ivan the Terrible to Tolstoy and Pushkin to Bismarck, Lincoln, Queen Victoria, and Lenin. To rule Russia was both imperial-sacred mission and poisoned chalice: Six of the last 12 tsars were murdered. Peter the fantastic tortured his own child to death while making Russia an empire and dominated his court docket with a eating out club well known for compulsory drunkenness, naked dwarfs, and fancy dress. Catherine the fantastic overthrew her own spouse (who was murdered soon afterward), appreciated affairs with a series of young male favorites, conquered Ukraine, and fascinated European countries. Paul I used to be strangled by courtiers backed by his own child, Alexander I, who in turn encountered Napoleon's invasion and the using up of Moscow, then continued to adopt Paris. Alexander II liberated the serfs, survived five assassination tries, and wrote perhaps the most explicit love words ever composed by the ruler. The Romanovs climaxes with a brand new, memorable portrayal of Nicholas II and Alexandra, the rise and murder of Rasputin, battle, and revolution - and the harrowing massacre of the whole family. Dazzlingly amusing and amazingly written from begin to end, The Romanovs brings these monarchs - male and feminine, great and flawed, their families and courts - blazingly alive. Sketching on new archival research, Montefiore provides an enthralling epic of triumph and tragedy, love and murder, encompassing the seminal years 1812, 1914, and 1917, that is both a common study of vitality and a family portrait associated with an empire that helps define Russia today.
