The Romanov Family Album

Photographs of the life of the Russian Imperial family.

The Romanov dynasty ruled Russia for a little over three hundred years and their story, ending with their tragic deaths, has exerted a lasting fascination. This new book, an album of pictures gathered by the author over many years - the majority of which are unpublished - shows the extended Romanov family. There are formal portraits taken to celebrate comings of age, weddings or other family gatherings, but also pictures of the various members of the dynasty at their ease, or dressed up for formal banquets, balls or ceremonies of state. Children play or take rides in horse-carts, mothers tend their children, brothers and sisters walk in the gardens of the grand palaces in which they lived - Gatchina, Ilinskoie, the Alexander Palace. The photographs range from the 1860s, when Alexander II was Tsar, through the reigns of his son, and grandson to the 1930s, when remaining members of the dynasty could be found in the outposts of Europe. people's perception of the monarchy: for the first time ordinary people could see exactly what their monarch looked like, and they became aware of them as human beings - who were confident or shy before the camera, and whose children frowned, sulked or fidgeted. It was perhaps just such familiarity, rather than the deference of the subject, that contributed in part to their downfall

This splendid album of rare and unpublished photographs from the Romanovs' own albums is an intimate portrait of the private and public lives of the family of Nicholas II, Russia's last tsar. This unique collection is taken from the personal album of the Tsar's daughter, Grand Duchess Maria, and from the Tsarina Alexandra's own commemorative album, both now in the James Blair Lovell Archive. An extraordinary chronicle of a way of life that ended in 1918 with the brutal execution of nearly every member of the Imperial Family pictured here.

In the summer of 1918, Tsar Nicholas II, his Tsarina Alexandra and their five children were executed by firing squad at Ekaterinburg. The unique and revealing photographs in this book illustrate the intimate family life of the last ruling Romanovs from 1896, shortly after the marriage of Nicholas and Alexandra, to the family's house arrest at Tsarskoye Selo palace in 1917, shortly before their death. These photographs have been selected from thousands taken by the Tsarina and her five children, which were mounted in their own and the Tsars personal albums. The albums have until now remained hidden for over seventy years in government archives in Moscow. Whilst researching his book Imperial Palaces of Russia in the Autumn of 1990, Prince Michael of Greece was puzzled by an invitation to view material in the government archives. Thirty thick, leather-bound volumes, embossed with the Imperial monogram, awaited him - the private photograph albums, which the curators wanted to show first to a relative of the Romanov family. Through his selection of images from the family albums, the author here tells the story of the last Tsar, one of the saddest of twentieth-century politics. Nicholas II was a man both unprepared and ill equipped to rule the greatest empire in the world, and under the influence of Alexandra, the wife he so adored, he led Russia to disaster. But theirs was also an extraordinary love story, as the three hundred photographs in this book reveal. Away from the responsibilities of Empire, we see a close and loving family of simple tastes and great candour. The photographs clearly illustrate the personalities of Nicholas and Alexandra and of their four daughters - Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia - and beloved son and heir Alexis, who suffered from haemophilia and whose every move was carefully watched. The family were keen, and sometimes talented, amateur photographers, who took their own cameras with them everywhere, be it on family picnics or on state occasions. The book thus illustrates a fascinating transition from the joy and relaxation of the early years, through the tension caused by the Tsarevich's illness, to the stresses and anxiety of the First World War and the coming Revolution. These photographs provide a new perspective on the life of the Imperial family, and constitute an invaluable historical document.

The dramatic story of Emperor Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna, the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia—A penetrating and deeply personal study that gives profound psychological insight into their marriage and how it shaped the events that engulfed them. There are few characters in history about whom opinion has been more divided than the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, and his wife the Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna. On one hand, they are venerated as saints, innocent victims of Bolshevik assassins, and on the other they are impugned as the unwitting harbingers of revolution and imperial collapse, blamed for all the ills that befell the Russian people in the 20th century. Theirs was also a tragic love story; for whatever else can be said of them, there can be no doubt that Alix and Nicky adored one another. Soon after their engagement, Alix wrote in her fiancé's diary: "Ever true and ever loving, faithful, pure and strong as death"—words which met their fulfillment twenty-four years later in a blood-spattered cellar in Ekaterinburg. Through the letters and diaries written by the couple and by those around them, Virginia Rounding presents an intimate, penetrating, and fresh portrayal of these two complex figures and of their passion—their love and their suffering. She explores the nature and possible causes of the Empress's ill health, and examines in depth the enigmatic triangular relationship between Nicky, Alix and their ‘favourite,' Ania Vyrubova, protégée of the infamous Rasputin, extracting the meaning from words left unsaid, from hints and innuendoes.. The story of Alix and Nicky, of their four daughters known collectively as ‘OTMA' and of their hemophiliac little boy Alexei, is endlessly fascinating, and Rounding makes these characters come alive, presenting them in all their human dimensions and expertly leading the reader into their vanished world.

A searing, emotional and inspiring memoir, The Family Album: Reminiscing About the Past tells the story of a resilient family living in Russia during some of the country’s darkest and most difficult history. With photographs dating from the end of the 19th to the end of the 20th century, the book tells the powerful and sometimes heartbreaking stories of four families trying to survive during the Russian Revolution, the Great Purge and The Great Patriotic War. With skilful and engaging storytelling, this memoir details the rich history of the time through photos while telling personal stories, such as how the author’s own father perished while fighting for his country and how she and her mother survived the Leningrad Blockade. Despite the hardships faced by the family, this book still brims with hope, enthusiasm and patriotism and offers its readers an uplifting lesson in history and the strength of the human spirit.

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 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.