Ekaterinburg: The Last Days of the Romanovs - Hardcover

Rappaport, Helen

4.05

5,807 ratings by Goodreads

9780091921156: Ekaterinburg: The Last Days of the Romanovs

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0091921155 ISBN 13: 9780091921156

Publisher: Hutchinson, 2008

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On July 4, 1918, a new commandant took control of a closely guarded house in the Russian town of Ekaterinburg. His name was Yakov Yurovsky, and his prisoners were the Imperial family: the former Tsar Nicholas, his wife Alexandra and their children, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexey. Thirteen days later, at Yurovsky's command, and on direct orders from Moscow, the family was gunned down in a blaze of bullets in a basement room.

This is the story of those murders, which ended 300 years of Romanov rule and set their stamp on an era of state-orchestrated terror and brutal repression.

Ekaterinburg: The Last Days of the Romanovs counts down to the last , tense hours of the family's lives, stripping away the over-romanticised versions of previous accounts. The story focuses on the family inside the Ipatiev House, capturing the oppressive atmosphere and the dynamics of a group - the Romanovs, their servants and guards - thrown together by extraordinary events.

Marshalling overlooked evidence from key witnesses such as the British consul to Ekaterinburg Sir Thomas Preston, British and American travellers in Siberia and the now-forgotten American journalist Herman Bernstein, Helen Rappaport gives a brilliant account of the political forces swirling through the remote Urals town. She conveys the tension of the watching world: the Kaiser of Germany and George V, King of England - both, like Alexandra, grandchildren of Queen Victoria - their nations locked in combat as the first world war drew to its bitter end. And she draws on recent releases from the Russian archives to challenge the view that the deaths were a unilateral act by a maverick group of the Ekaterinburg Bolsheviks, identifying a chain of command that stretches directly, she believes, to Moscow - and to Lenin himself.

Telling the story in a compellingly new and dramatic way, Ekaterinburg brings those final tragic days vividly alive against the backdrop of Russia in turmoil, on the brink of a devastating civil war.

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Product Description:

Ekaterinburg: The Last Days of the Romanovs

Review:

"That perfect but rare blend of history, sense of place, human tragedy, drama and atmosphere" (Susan Hill)

"A moving and factual account of the family's last days... Helen Rappaport has brought her subjects back to life with a sombre intensity, focusing on the last fortnight of their verifiable existence in their claustrophobic mansion prison... A deeply touching anniversary tribute." (Independent on Sunday)

"Helen Rappaport follows the principal characters over the 13 days leading up to the murders. She skilfully weaves together the grimly repetitive routine of the doomed family with the high drama engulfing the killers as they added the finishing touches to their terrible plan... Rappaport's countdown format makes Ekaterinburg freshly compelling..." (New Statesman)

"Rappaport has uncovered fascinating details of the local politicking and pressures to apply a final coup de grace. She shows how Lenin was closely consulted on the decision to kill the family, but took great care to cover his links... Rappaport has succeeded in capturing a frenetic, terrifying period of modern history and showing how a brutal, but human, man and his family became victims of the pent-up fury of the people he had systematically ground underfoot." (Sunday Tribune (Ireland))

"... Well researched...Helen Rappenport successfully evokes the claustrophobic atmosphere within the house." (Saturday Telegraph)

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