The Fate of the Romanovs

by King, Greg; Wilson, Penny

• ISBN13: 9780471207689
• ISBN10: 0471207683
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-09-12
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

It is the stuff of legend: a great Imperial love affair, played out against a background of war and revolution; a brutal massacre of women and children; an enduring mystery of missing corpses, and claims of survival. Tsar Nicholas II and his family continue to fascinate the world, and debate over their fate continues unabated, even after recent DNA tests on the imperial remains. In this new book, two noted historians offer readers the most detailed account yet of the Imperial Family?s last months and their murder by the Bolsheviks. Analyzing more than 500 previously unpublished documents, and including previously unseen photos, the authors reconstruct the daily life of the prisoners in the Ipatiev House, shattering the decades-old depiction of hardened, brutal guards who delighted in deliberate torment. They offer new interpretations, fresh evidence, and careful examination of the murder, the disposal of the bodies, and the quest to identify the remains, based on their years of extensive research.

Author Biography

GREG KING is the author of five previous books. A noted historian on Imperial Russia and the Romanov Dynasty, he is a frequent contributor to television specials in the United States, Canada, and Britain. PENNY WILSON is a historian who specializes in Russias late Imperial period. The authors Web site is thefateoftheromanovs.com.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Cast of Characters	1	(9)
Introduction	10	(16)
Authors' Note	26	(2)
1 The Ruin of an Empire	28	(43)
2 A Traitor to the Revolution	71	(32)
3 The House of Special Purpose	103	(26)
4 "It Was Dreadful, What They Did..."	129	(25)
5 The Seventy-eight Days	154	(29)
6 Russia in Chaos	183	(18)
7 The First to Die	201	(11)
8 The June Conspiracies	212	(21)
9 "A Happy Hour with the Grandest People in the World"	233	(30)
10 The Coming Storm: Enter Yurovsky	263	(19)
11 Murderous Intentions	282	(14)
12 Gotterdammerung	296	(20)
13 The Four Brothers	316	(16)
14 Aftermath	332	(14)
15 The Investigations	346	(22)
16 "Holy Relics of Our Saints"	368	(13)
17 Unearthing the Past	381	(19)
18 "An Unknown Grave from the Soviet Period"	400	(17)
19 Bones of Contention	417	(18)
20 "It's All Secret, All Political"	435	(23)
21 The Secret of Koptyaki Forest	458	(14)
22 "Drowned in This Mist of Holiness"	472	(32)
Epilogue	504	(25)
Appendix 1 Ekaterinburg Guards	529	(4)
Appendix 2 Inventory of Romannu Possessions in Ekaterinburg	533	(8)
Appendix 3 The Romanovn' Jewels	541	(5)
Acknowledgments	546	(10)
Notes	556	(63)
Bibliography	619	(15)
Index	634