in love with Ella, 1, 2, 3
Nicholas and, 1, 2, 3 Björkö treaty, 1
cablegrams before outbreak of War, 1 comparison of yachts, 1
favors marriage to Alexandra, 1
last meeting, 1
Nicholas’ captivity, 1, 2, 3
Russian Far Eastern policy, 1, 2, 3, 4
in 1907 Bosnia crisis, 1
offers to proclaim new Tsar, 1
outbreak of War and, 1, 2, 3
personality and characteristics of, 1 damaged arm, 1
“Yellow Peril” of, 1
Wilson, Gen. Sir Henry, 1
Wilson, Woodrow, 1n, 2, 3 assassination of Imperial family and, 1
Windsor, Duke of, see Edward VIII
Winter Palace (St. Petersburg), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Alexandra’s wedding in, 1
balls at, 1
Bolshevik capture of, 1
Duma received at, 1
in March Revolution, 1, 2
1905 workers’ march on, 1
at outbreak of War, 1
in Russo-Japanese War, 1, 2
Witte, Count Sergius, 1, 2 background of, 1
death of, 1
on Nicholas, 1, 2, 3
in 1905 Revolution, 1, 2, 3
opposes Russian participation in War, 1
opposes Stolypin, 1
resignation of (1903), 1
resignation of (1906), 1
in Russo-Japanese peace negotiations, 1
Wolfsgarten, 1
World Court (International Court of Justice), 1, 2, 3
World War I Eastern Front in German 1915 offensive, 1, 2, 3, 4
Provisional Government and, 1
Przemysl taken, 1
Russian field headquarters, 1
Russian losses, 1, 2, 3
Russian 1914 offensives, 1, 2
Russian 1916 offensive, 1, 2
events leading to assassination of Franz Ferdinand, 1
Austrian ultimatum to Serbia, 1, 2
German declaration of war, 1
Russian mobilization, 1, 2
William II’s miscalculations, 1
food shortage in, 1, 2
Russian government disintegrates, 1, 2, 3
Russian military position at outbreak of, 1
Russian morale in, 1, 2 anti-German feeling, 1, 2
first mutinies, 1
Russian reaction to outbreak of, 1
Western Front in Battle of Verdun, 1, 2
German advance on Paris (1914), 1, 2
Xenia, Grand Duchess, 1, 2, 3 birth of, 1
later life of, 1
Yakimov, Anatoly, 1
Yakovlev, Vasily Vaslevich, 1, 2, 3 described, 1
motives of, 1, 2
Yalta, 1, 2
Yanishev, Father, 1, 2
Yar incident, 1
Yeo, Mrs., 1
Yurovsky, Jacob, in assassination of Imperial family, 1
Yussoupov, Prince Boris, 1
Yussoupov, Prince Dmitry, 1
Yussoupov, Prince Felix, 1, 2 background of, 1
banished, 1
later life of, 1
Rasputin and, 1, 2, 3 assassination of Rasputin, 1, 2
wealth of, 1
Yussoupov, Prince Nicholas, 1
Yussoupov, Princess Irina, 1, 2, 3
Zaslavsky (commissar), 1, 2
Zhukov, Marshal Georgi, 1n
Zimbalist, Efrem, 1
Zurabov (deputy in Duma), 1
About this Book
A superbly crafted and humane portrait of the last days – and last rulers – of the Russian Empire.
Complementing his Pulitzer prize-winning Peter the Great, in this commanding book Robert K. Massie sweeps readers back to the extraordinary world of imperial Russia to tell the story of the decline and fall of the ruling Romanov family: Tsar Nicholas II’s political naïveté; his wife Alexandra’s obsession with the corrupt mystic Rasputin; and their son Alexis’s battle with haemophilia.
Against a lavish backdrop of luxury and intrigue, Massie unfolds a family tragedy played out on the brutal stage of early twentieth-century Russian history – the tale of a doomed empire and the death-marked royals who watched it crumble.
Also by this Author
Peter the Great
Against the monumental canvas of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe and Russia, unfolds the magnificent story of Peter the Great, crowned at the age of 10. A barbarous, volatile feudal tsar with a taste for torture; a progressive and enlightened reformer of government and science; a statesman of vision and colossal significance: Peter the Great embodied the greatest strengths and weaknesses of Russia while being at the very forefront of her development.
Robert K. Massie delves deep into the life of this captivating historical figure, chronicling the pivotal events that shaped a boy into a legend—including his “incognito” travels in Europe, his unquenchable curiosity about Western ways, his obsession with the sea and establishment of the stupendous Russian navy, his creation of an unbeatable army, and his relationships with those he loved most: Catherine, his loving mistress, wife, and successor; and Menshikov, the charming, unscrupulous prince who rose to power through Peter’s friendship. Impetuous and stubborn, generous and cruel, a man of enormous energy and complexity, Peter the Great is brought fully to life.
Robert K. Massie’s Pulitzer Prize-winning study of the man who brought Russia from darkness into light remains the essential portrait of this great man and his era.
Peter the Great is available here.
Catherine the Great
Born into a minor noble family, Catherine transformed herself into empress of Russia by sheer determination. For thirty-four years, the government, foreign policy, cultural development and welfare of the Russian people were in her hands. She dealt with domestic rebellion, foreign wars and the tidal wave of political change and violence churned up by the French Revolution.
History offers few stories richer than that of Catherine the Great. Robert K. Massie brings an eternally fascinating woman – together with her family, friends, ministers, generals, lovers and enemies – vividly and triumphantly to life.
Catherine the Great is available here.
The Romanovs – Box Set
Against a monumental backdrop of fabulous splendour, intrigue and barbaric cruelty, unfolds a powerful drama of passion and history. This is the story of the Romanovs, from the Tsar who brought Russia from darkness into light, to one of the greatest female rulers in history, and ultimately to the death-marked royals who watched their empire crumble. Includes Peter the Great, Catherine the Great and Nicolas and Alexandra.
The Romanovs – Box Set is available here.
The Romanovs: The Final Chapter
In July 1991, nine skeletons were exhumed from a shallow mass grave near Ekaterinburg, Siberia, a few miles from the infamous cellar room where the last tsar and his family had been murdered seventy-three years before. But were these the bones of the Romanovs? And if these were their remains, where were the bones of the two younger Romanovs supposedly murdered with the rest of the family? Was Anna Anderson, celebrated for more than sixty years in newspapers, books, and film, really Grand Duchess Anastasia? This book unearths the truth.
The Romanovs: The Final Chapter is available here.
Dreadnought
From colonial disputes, secret treaties with former foes, high-wire diplomacy, and tit-for-tat building of the terrifyingly powerful dreadnought battleships. Dreadnought is a dramatic re-creation of the diplomatic and military brinkmanship that preceded, and made inevitable, the outbreak of the first world war.
Massie brings to vivid life such historical figures as the single-minded Admiral von Tirpitz, the young, ambitious, Winston Churchill, the ruthless, sycophantic Chancellor Bernhard von Bulow, and many others. The relationship between Queen Victoria and Kaiser Wilhelm is particularly intriguing. Wilhelm’s admiration, and even envy, for everything British, was to play an important part in the events to come. Their story,
and the story of the era, filled with misunderstandings, missed opportunities, and events leading to unintended conclusions, unfolds like a Greek tragedy in his powerful narrative. Intimately human and dramatic, Dreadnought is history at its most riveting.
Dreadnought is available here.
Castles of Steel
On the eve of the war in August 1914, Great Britain and Germany possessed the two greatest navies the world had ever seen: two fleets of dreadnoughts – gigantic ‘castles of steel’ able to hurl massive shells at an enemy miles away – were ready to test their terrible power against each other.
They skirmished across the globe before Germany, suffocated by an implacable naval blockade, decided to definitively strike against the British ring of steel. The result was Jutland, a titanic clash of fifty-eight dreadnoughts, each holding of a thousand men. When the German High Seas Fleet retreated, the Kaiser unleashed unrestricted U-boat warfare, which, in its indiscriminate violence, brought a reluctant America into the war: the German effort to “seize the trident” led to the fall of the German empire.
Massie’s portrayals of Winston Churchill, the British admirals Fisher, Jellicoe, and Beatty, and the Germans Scheer, Hipper, and Tirpitz are stunning in their veracity and artistry.
Castles of Steel is available here.
About the Author
© Howard Ross
ROBERT K. MASSIE was born in Lexington, Kentucky. He studied American history at Yale and European history at Oxford, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. He was President of the Authors Guild from 1987 to 1991. Robert K. Massie won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography for Peter the Great. His many other notable works include: Catherine the Great, The Romanovs, Dreadnought, and Castles of Steel.
A Letter from the Publisher
We hope you enjoyed this book. We are an independent publisher dedicated to discovering brilliant books, new authors and great storytelling. Please join us at www.headofzeus.com and become part of our community of book-lovers.
We will keep you up to date with our latest books, author blogs, special previews, tempting offers, chances to win signed editions and much more.
If you have any questions, feedback or just want to say hi, please drop us a line on [email protected]
@HoZ_Books
HeadofZeusBooks
The story starts here.
First published in 1967 in the United States of America by Random House, Inc.
This edition published in the United Kingdom in 2013
by Head of Zeus Ltd
Copyright © Robert K. Massie, 1967
The moral right of Robert K. Massie to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Every effort has been made to trace or contact all copyright holders.
The image credits on pages xii constitute an extension of this copyright page.
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (hardback): 9781908800268
(eBook): 9781781850565
Printed in Germany by GGP Media GmbH, Poessneck
Head of Zeus Ltd
Clerkenwell House
45–47, Clerkenwell Green
London EC1R OHT
www.headofzeus.com
Nicholas and Alexandra: The Tragic, Compelling Story of the Last Tsar and his Family Page 80