A 12-WEEK NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER“Helen Rappaport paints a compelling portrait of the doomed grand duchesses.” -People magazine“The public spoke of the sisters in a gentile, superficial manner, but Rappaport captures sections of letters and diary entries to showcase the sisters’ thoughtfulness and intelligence.” -Publishers Weekly (starred review)From the New York Times bestselling author of … review)
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Days of the Romanovs and Caught in the Revolution, The Romanov Sisters reveals the untold stories of the four daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra.
They were the Princess Dianas of their day-perhaps the most photographed and talked about young royals of the early twentieth century. The four captivating Russian Grand Duchesses-Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia Romanov-were much admired for their happy dispositions, their looks, the clothes they wore and their privileged lifestyle.
Over the years, the story of the four Romanov sisters and their tragic end in a basement at Ekaterinburg in 1918 has clouded our view of them, leading to a mass of sentimental and idealized hagiography. With this treasure trove of diaries and letters from the grand duchesses to their friends and family, we learn that they were intelligent, sensitive and perceptive witnesses to the dark turmoil within their immediate family and the ominous approach of the Russian Revolution, the nightmare that would sweep their world away, and them along with it.
The Romanov Sisters sets out to capture the joy as well as the insecurities and poignancy of those young lives against the backdrop of the dying days of late Imperial Russia, World War I and the Russian Revolution. Helen Rappaport aims to present a new and challenging take on the story, drawing extensively on previously unseen or unpublished letters, diaries and archival sources, as well as private collections. It is a book that will surprise people, even aficionados.
more
Quick read. Informative. Learned a lot. I picked it up to see what their story was all about. And I was surprised at the amount of impact was both on the world and on them as a family.
The author does a good job at keeping things at just the right level — not too complex, not too simple. She explains all the connections to the British family, covers some of the world tensions causing the problems for the Romanov’s. And their deaths are handled with the right level of respect.
You really learn a lot about their marriage, the ways the girls were raised, and what people’s thoughts on love were in the early 20th century.
An unforgettable and very well written history of the family and political climate around the time of the Russian revolution, with focus on the daughters Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, as well as their younger brother Alexei, from their births to their tragic executions.
Not one to embrace stardom, celebrity and royalty, nevertheless, this story always fascinated me. The Romanov Sisters is indeed a very comprehensive look at Russia’s last royal family. Rappaport’s research was documented with personal letters and diaries, giving each of the sisters a voice. This is an intimate glimpse into the lives of the Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia Romanov. They were the first four children born to Tsar Nicholas and Tsarina Alexandra, before Alexandra gave birth to Alexei.
I don’t intend to tell the whole story, as it is documented everywhere on the web, but let’s start with Alexandra, or Alix, who was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Through her mother’s marriage, she became Princess Alix Viktoria Helene Luise Beatrix of Hesse and by Rhine, part of the German Empire. She and Tsar Nicholas were in love, but she initially refused to marry him as she refused to convert to Russian Orthodoxy. She did change her mind and came to fervently embrace her new religion. There seems little doubt about Nicholas and Alix’s love and devotion to each other, which was part of his downfall. He spent so much of his time with his family due to her inability to cope, that the citizenry felt he was neglectful of them and ineffective. Being born into a royal family, you would think that she would have had a better handle on reading the public, yet she was wildly out of touch with public opinion. She knew she was unpopular with the Russian citizenry, and never really made an effort to change their opinion. She continued to isolate herself and her children from the public, using her health issues as an excuse. The “girlies,” who grew up with little social interaction, were awkward and immature. Alix’s involvement Rasputin and his influence over her was further cause for public outcry. Then the country went to war, Nicholas was judged to be an ineffective ruler, the revolution took place, and the family ended up being murdered.
Sounds simple, but the details behind the story, both private and political, are fascinating. It also makes you wonder how history may have been rewritten if Alix was different, if Nicholas felt he had the time to tend to the public more, and both were beloved by the citizenry.
This was an excellent book and very thought-provoking.
https://candysplanet.wordpress.com/
This is a very well-written account of the personal lives of the Romanovs — not just the four sisters, but their brother and parents as well. And what a tightly knit family they were! I enjoyed reading this account of their family life, without plodding through a lot of the political detail that often accompanies biographies of the Tsar’s family.
I admit that I skimmed some parts. You WILL get a sense of the distinct personalities of the four sisters, who seem often lumped together as one entity. I particularly appreciated the timetable showing what was happening to different members of the family at the same time. For example, when Tsar Nicolas was abdicating, several of his daughters were ill with serious complications from measles, including encephalitis and pneumonia.
There are many anecdotes that speak to the ill health of all the family members, particularly Alexandra, whose ailments kept her secluded from the family for long periods of time, over years. And of course, there is much description of the agony hemophilia brought to Alexei. The book also includes a very complete description of their final journey and imprisonment just before their execution. It’s a very sad story.
The Romanov family was executed in the early morning hours of Wednesday, July 17, 1918 (100 years ago). This is a very well researched book on the couple and their five children. They were more than just the “one-dimensional family” as they have been too often portrayed. There was tragedy on all sides. His natural personality was not a good “fit” to be the tsar. Though he had 2 brothers, they both died before 1900. It’s an interesting read. This is the 2nd time that I’ve read the book which i will finish tomorrow (July 17, 2018).
This the most revealing book on the tragic Romanov family. Actual parts of letters the family wrote and private pictures. It was fascinating.
I’ve read a great many books on the Romanov dynasty and found this one to be a very great read. I would recommend it for the mildly interested or the avid Russian history reader.
Very interesting facts not found in other biographies of the Romanovs.
Informative information about what the Romanovs were like and how they ended up the way they did.