![]() ![]() ![]() What results when meticulous research meets an uncommon penchant for storytelling is an engaging and informative tale of the fall of the Romanov dynasty. The tragic fate of this odd aristocratic couple seems immutably influenced by their son’s hemophilia, Nicholas’s inability to recognize growing discontent among the Russian populace and Alexandra’s unshakable faith in Grigori Rasputin’s mystical healing powers. But it also provides piercing, if incomplete, insight into the fall of the Russian empire and the rise of notable figures such as Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky and Josef Stalin. ![]() At its core, this is a dual-biography of Nicholas II (1868-1918) and his German-born wife (1872-1918). With a sweeping and often colorful 562-page narrative, “Nicholas and Alexandra” adroitly fuses two genres of non-fiction: biography and history. Massie was a journalist and historian who earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for his book “ Peter the Great: His Life and World.” He is also the author of “ Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman.” Massie died in 2019 at the age of ninety. Published in 1967, Robert Massie’s “ Nicholas and Alexandra: The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty” is the classic biography of Tsar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra – the last Emperor and Empress of the Russian empire. ![]()
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