The Last Tsar. The Life and Death of Nicholas II: Edvard Radzinsky

The execution of Tsar Nicholas II and his family at the hands of revolutionaries in 1918 is one of the pivotal events of the twentieth century, an event that brought the three-hundred-year rule of the house of Romanov to a brutal and tragic end and set the tone for the Stalinist atrocities that would follow. The truth behind these murders has long remained hidden, buried under more than seventy years of myth, legend, and speculation. Now, in a sensational biography that could not have been written before glasnost, noted Russian playwright and historian Edvard Radzinsky unearths solutions to many of the questions that have remained unanswered since the terrible events in Ekaterinburg on the night of July 16-17, 1918. Mining sources long unavailable-including firsthand accounts of the slaying--he creates both a fascinating portrait of the monarchy and a minute-by-minute account of his terrifying last days. Included is documentation linking the order of execution directly to Lenin, as well as the suggestion that two family members may have survived the ordeal. Included, too, is the testimony of ordinary Russians who have at last felt free to contribute their own recollections, documents, and handed-down secrets. Radzinsky weaves together scores of firsthand accounts into a brilliant and hauntingly personal narrative that evokes the epic sweep of Tolstoy and the disturbing insights of Dostoevsky. The Last Tsar is an important and momentous work, one that will stand as the definitive account of the terrible last days of one of Europe's greatest dynasties.