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This is really a coffee table book that tells the story of the last Romanovs to rule Russia. Peter Christopher’s photographs serve as a lens into Russia’s magnificent past. This was a time of opulent splendor when monarchs ruled Europe by divine right. The pages are adorned with photos and illustrations of 1,000 room palaces, cathedrals, yachts, coronations, balls, priceless Faberge eggs, and a wedding gown gilded with gold so heavy that the empress could barely stand up while wearing it. Most of all the book contains touching photos of the beautiful family of Nicholas II and Alexandra. I give the photos and illustrations five stars and the verbiage three stars but the synergy between the two makes for a five-star experience. You will enjoy thumbing through the pages of this book.

Author Peter Kurth tells the story of Nicholas, a simple family man that was thrust into the role of Tsar without proper experience or training for the job. He was a devoted husband and father that liked to shoot, shovel snow, and garden but really had no aptitude to be the Tsar and autocratic ruler of 1/8 of the world’s people. Nicholas knew that Alexandra of Hesse was his true love since the time he first laid eyes on her when she was only a girl of twelve years of age. Similarly, Alexandra was also thrust into the role of Tsarina without proper grooming for the role. She was a Hessian princess and a favorite granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She barely spoke any Russian at all and never lived there. She was very well educated, refrained from gossiping and a bit too prudish for the busybody, risqué Russian court of the day. The marriage of Nicholas and Alexandra was hastened by the demise of Nicholas’s father Tsar Alexander. It was during a turbulent, climactic time in the history of Russia. They would have to learn on the fly.

Much of Kurth’s book was really a beautiful love story. Nicholas’s parents were at first against the marriage. Nicholas threatened to become a monk rather than marry another. Queen Victoria was also against the marriage and said she didn’t wish to subject any of her relatives to that cold climate. However, they were destined for each other. Alexandra gave Nicholas four beautiful daughters before giving birth to the heir, Alexi, a sickly hemophiliac. This disease was passed down to random males from Alexandra’s (and Queen Victoria’s) side of the family. The pages are adorned with family photos of the girls dressed in matching outfits. Before I finished the book I fell in love with the beautiful duchesses; it was almost as if I were looking at photos of my own daughters coming of age.

According to Kurth, Alexandra was as devoted to Nicholas as much as he was to her. Kurth casts doubt upon rumors that Alexandra was having a physical romance with Rasputin. Kurth said that she signed letters with kisses and called herself mother to Rasputin and anyone else of whom she corresponded. She considered herself the mother of Russia. This was a woman that sat home and crocheted scarves and blankets for people. During the war, the empress and the duchesses received training and became nurses. They converted a palace to a hospital and the girls put in full days taking care of the wounded. This doesn't sound like a women caught up in the sexploits of the royal courts of Europe at the time.

The Russo Japanese War of 1905 cost the empire dearly. World War I was disastrous for the world’s economies and it was the death knell for nearly all the monarchies of Europe. No country suffered worse than Russia. The Tsar abdicated and the Empire was torn apart at its limbs with a series of revolutions by various factions.

The real death knell for Eastern Europe happened when Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized power. This to me was the end of an era of innocence. The Tsar and his family were murdered by a drunken mob of Bolsheviks in the cellar of a house in Siberia. Make no mistake, this was not an execution by firing squad but cold blooded murder of eleven people. The Tsar and his immediate family members and their doctor and a few servants were murdered in a blood orgy that took a good thirty minutes. In the end, Lenin’s hands had royal blood on them.

This could have been avoided had England’s liberal government of Lloyd George given the Romanovs permission to live there in exile. The author said it was really King George V that “shut the door on their hope for exile in England [because] the presence of the Romanovs in in England…especially the empress would raise all sorts of difficulties for their British relations in wartime.� Kurth said that the problem with Queen Victoria’s granddaughter was that she was of German birth. Incidentally, this happened at the same time that the British royal family dropped their German surname of Saxe-Coburg for Windsor because the former name was German.

Finally, the Great War and the abdication of the Tsar gave way to another type of autocratic rule that proved far more deadly and catastrophic for the Russian people and humanity in general than the 300 year reign of the Romanovs. This was another case of the devil you know is far better than the devil you don’t know. The murder of the Romanovs was just the start...the tip of the iceberg really for the iron curtain that would fall down upon Eastern Europe and result in the murder of about 35 million Russian citizens by their own government.

I’m sure I will remain haunted for some time by the ghost-like photographs of this lovely family. The knowledge that these four beautiful girls and this twelve-year-old boy were murdered in cold blood by drunken communist thugs for a cause known as socialism is more personal now that their beautiful faces are ensconced in my memory. I try to console myself with the knowledge that there would be another 35 million faceless victims of socialism in Russia and probably 100 million more victims elsewhere for that wonderful cause. This way, I can console myself that their deaths really aren’t that special when you consider the magnitude. But still�.look at those beautiful children and those matching dresses and consider how innocent they are. How could they? To hell with socialism.