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A review by tetiana
The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg by Helen Rappaport
4.0
A fascinating account of the last 14 days in the lives of the Russian Imperial family. I’m always on the look-out for quality history books, but to find a reliable historian is extremely difficult, especially when it comes to Russian and Soviet history. So it’s always great to find a new author to add to the library, and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more of Helen Rappaport’s work.
Rappaport is an amazingly engaging writer and a diligent historian, and The Last Days of the Romanovs proves an absolutely cracking read. She handles her subjects with empathy, but doesn’t sanitize them, doesn't turn the Romanovs into saints. She also provides an incredibly astute historical context which helps to better understand the situation in Russia in 1917-1918 in general, and in Ekaterinburg in particular, providing an insight into the inner workings of the Ipatiev house, but not concentrating exclusively on it.
I have to remark on the chapter that details the execution of Nicholas and the family: in a pretty grim book, this one is downright devastating. Rappaport doesn’t savor or glamorize it, she categorizes all the horrors with almost clinical detachment, but she’s not unkind about it. It’s like she says, “Here’s the truth as I researched it and put together. Do with it what you see fit.”
Look, I’m really not a fan of any monarchy as a way of governance, and especially not a fan of Russian monarchy (I’m Ukrainian, anti-tsarism is in our blood), but I also have such a deep, burning, passionate hatred for Bolsheviks that even my distaste for monarchy can’t eclipse it. And the way Rappaport describes Bolsheviks, the Cheka, the whole sordid affair of the Revolution is so close to the way I learned about it listening to the stories of my parents and grandparents. The way the Bolsheviks killed 11 people, 5 of whom were practically children, mutilated their bodies, and then pilfered their possessions (all in the name of the Revolution, of course) just reminded me about tons of people in numerous countries under the Soviet regime who shared in the same fate at the hands of these thugs and murderers who called what they were doing a “will of the people”.
And today’s Russia functions on absolutely the same principles filled to the brim with propagandists and rabid bigoted Orthodox Christians, with a murderous tsar-batyushka as their leader. And it’s maddening and frustrating to see how Western Europe and America simply continue to believe the lies of this dangerous, destructive country.
Rappaport is an amazingly engaging writer and a diligent historian, and The Last Days of the Romanovs proves an absolutely cracking read. She handles her subjects with empathy, but doesn’t sanitize them, doesn't turn the Romanovs into saints. She also provides an incredibly astute historical context which helps to better understand the situation in Russia in 1917-1918 in general, and in Ekaterinburg in particular, providing an insight into the inner workings of the Ipatiev house, but not concentrating exclusively on it.
I have to remark on the chapter that details the execution of Nicholas and the family: in a pretty grim book, this one is downright devastating. Rappaport doesn’t savor or glamorize it, she categorizes all the horrors with almost clinical detachment, but she’s not unkind about it. It’s like she says, “Here’s the truth as I researched it and put together. Do with it what you see fit.”
Look, I’m really not a fan of any monarchy as a way of governance, and especially not a fan of Russian monarchy (I’m Ukrainian, anti-tsarism is in our blood), but I also have such a deep, burning, passionate hatred for Bolsheviks that even my distaste for monarchy can’t eclipse it. And the way Rappaport describes Bolsheviks, the Cheka, the whole sordid affair of the Revolution is so close to the way I learned about it listening to the stories of my parents and grandparents. The way the Bolsheviks killed 11 people, 5 of whom were practically children, mutilated their bodies, and then pilfered their possessions (all in the name of the Revolution, of course) just reminded me about tons of people in numerous countries under the Soviet regime who shared in the same fate at the hands of these thugs and murderers who called what they were doing a “will of the people”.
And today’s Russia functions on absolutely the same principles filled to the brim with propagandists and rabid bigoted Orthodox Christians, with a murderous tsar-batyushka as their leader. And it’s maddening and frustrating to see how Western Europe and America simply continue to believe the lies of this dangerous, destructive country.