Bought at the British Library gift shop after attending the Russian Revolution exhibition.

This is a very good, well written account outlining the final two weeks of the lives of the Romanovs after they had been taken from Tobolsz to the House of Special Purpose in Ekaterinburg. It gives a history of the individuals involved, including the Tsar, Tsarina, their children, and the Bolsheviks guarding them as well as the political wrangling surrounding attempts to rescue the family and also Lenin's manipulating information to keep his name out of any orders enforcing their murders. The shooting itself is explained, horrifically, along with the almost farcical attempts at burial and disposal. This book outlines as close to the truth as possible given the varied lies, half truths and "fake news" published at the time.

This has now been offered up as a bookring here http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/20/547019 - check on the forum post for next person to send to

Mailed to the first person on the bookray list!

And the book is here!
Thanks for sharing; I have always been very interested in this historic period, and won't take long reading it. :)

Currently reading it.
Here is the list so far:

1 Bookworm-Lady (Spain)
2 penelopewanders (Switzerland)
2 Mankyi (Switzerland)
4 Lizzy-stardust (UK) -
5....... send back to Andrea99

I will be contacting penelopewanders soon, because this is a thrilling read and I don't think I will take long.

I finished reading it last night; in fact, it kept me awake until 4 a.m., because I found the last chapters riveting and yes, horrific...
There is a lot of research into this book, which shows throughout.
I enjoyed mostly the psychological insights into the characters, with flaws and all (not the sugar-coated version presented to us by Mr Massey in "Nicholas and Alexandra"). But in the end, we get to understand the Tsar and Tsaritsa as human beings thrown into a whirlpool they had no abilities to control, and ultimately dragging their innocent children with them.
The question remains: Could any of their royal relatives save them, but decided to look the other way? As the writer puts it, finally the Romanovs became a political pawn rather than human beings.
Thank you for sharing this, Andrea99, I really enjoyed reading it... well, I'm not sure if this is the right word, as sometimes it was uncomfortable to read...
I have already asked Penelopewanders to confirm her address, just in case, and the book will be on its way to her shortly.

Sent today to Penelopewanders, in Switzerland, who is next in line. :)

This has arrived safely - Thanks for the cards and other information! I'll try to get to it soon, but have a few other books to read first. Thanks for making it available.

This is here as a bookcrossing ring, and once again I probably would not have read it if it were not for that. I found the book interesting - I really knew embarrassingly little about those first days after the Russian revolution and had accepted far more heroic and romantic versions of the Bolsheviks. While I can't say I found the Romanov family particularly endearing, as trapped as they were in their version of divine right and entitlement, their end reads like a farce, with all the players caged in their own stereotypes and preconceived notions. Ironically this feels like a continuation of the total disaster of WWI, with nothing really redeeming anything. Albeit depressing, an interesting read. This stays in Switzerland, but will head off the mountain in a few days. Thanks for making it available.

Busy times up here in the mountains... I did finally manage to parcel this one though, and now it's left the Alps and heads down (or up - it's heading north) to the big city. Enjoy!
Thanks for making this book available.

Found this book in my mailbox today. Looking forward to reading it!:)

UPDATE:

I was expecting more out of this book. Well, they say don't have high expectations and then you won't get disappointed... I was under the impression that the author would share, perhaps, the contents of personal diaries of the Romanovs, their perpetrators and other people involved in their lives, but what I have read were rather dry facts about places that housed them, a bit of information about people who were holding them captive, Lenin and tiny bits of information from the family's personal diaries.
The actual scene of the execution is very graphically described, so if you're sensitive to such scenes, I recommend skipping the last few chapters or not reading this book at all.

The book is now ready to travel to its new temporary home in England.


If you aren't familiar with Bookcrossing, take a few minutes to check out this very cool site. Bookcrossers LOVE books, and more than anything, they love to read books and then set them free for other people to find and enjoy. I would love it if you would leave a journal entry -- you can say where you found the book or how you liked it when you read it.

Received in today's post. Will read it as quickly as possible and get it on its way! Thanks for sharing!

Omg, just realised I forgot to make a journal entry after reading this!

It was an okay read, though drier than expected. I enjoyed the parts about the family's personal lives, though like others before me was hoping for more insight, via diaries or letters into how they were actually feeling. I admit that I found myself losing steam on this one until the final execution scene where it finally picked up. I was so done with this by the time I got through it that I even skipped the epilogue, which I very rarely do. But thank you for sharing it nonetheless. There were a few diamonds in the rough of this tome which made it somewhat worth the struggle to read.

Re-jiggled the final entry so everything's in the "correct order" as it were.... this has arrived home with me as of yesterday - thanks again to everyone for a successful bookring!!!