Helen Rappaport sets the scene in her introduction, from the evening of 29 April 1918 when a heavily-guarded train was moving Nicholas and his family on what they did not realize was their final journey, from Tobolsk in Western Siberia to the violently anti-Tsarist Ekaterinburg in the Ural mountains. Many of you are probably as familiar with the bare outlines of what happened soon after midnight on 17 July 1918 as you are with the sinking of the Titanic or the assassination of President Kennedy, so that's the danger of spoilers herewith out of the way. But this is the first book I have come across which does so in such detail. This grim story has been told many times before.
In 1918 it became symbolic with one of the most savage executions, or might one say liquidations, ever recorded in history – the cold-blooded annihilation of the former Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, their children, the last remaining servants who had stayed with them in captivity, and their pet dogs. The city of Ekaterinburg was once regarded as imperial Russia's gateway to the east. (Though the basic story is familiar, readers may find some of the descriptions and detail upsetting). Summary: A detailed and chilling account of the last few weeks in captivity of ex-Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family.
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