The Fate of the Romanovs

by Penny Wilson, Greg King

Release Date: 05 September, 2003

Edition: Hardcover

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LUMINOUS

ILLUMINATE: to clarify or enlighten. OBFUSCATE: to obscure or confuse. The recent spate of books written about the end of the Romanov dynasty and the fate of the imperial family do both. Some, the products of tortured logic and silly speculation, reduce this enormous historical event to Grand Guignol. Others do indeed shed light and unravel the twisted threads of the mysteries surrounding the collapse of a ruling house and the sad end of its last members.
The Fate of the Romanovs by King and Wilson is a tour de force, a brilliant book, the product of years of research in previously unexamined archives here and abroad. Flowing in style and meticulously documented, this history marches at its own relentless pace taking the reader week by week, night by night through the final months of the lives of the imperial family and their servants.
Although many readers will be familiar with the horrendous outcome of the Romanovs' imprisonment, the suspense leading inexorably to the slaughter is almost unbearable. No longer are we witnessing the massacre of cardboard figures but vulnerable, living human beings. No longer are the guards drunken louts but fully fleshed-out young men with conflicting passions and ideals.
But The Fate of the Romanovs is more than compelling historical drama. The authors have managed, in the course of their narrative, to document and illuminate such puzzling aspects of the Romanovs' last days as the purpose of Yakovlev's transport of the family to Ekaterinburg, the forgery of the Officer Lettrs, the control exercised by the Ural Soviet, the relationship between the family and guards, and the complex nature of Yurovsky, so often portrayed as a calculating murderer without conscience.
The epilogue is gripping in itself and a masterpiece of sleuthing. Not a mere compendium of characters and events, it tracks the waves of violence that wracked Russia for decades and tellingly describes how atrocities -- from the White Army's wholesale slaughter of Jews to the Soviets' killing camps -- decimated a population already ravaged by war and revolution. It is interesting to note how few of those men and women involved, even peripherally with the Romanov saga, lived out their lives in peace.
Especially for those students of history who believe they've read the final (and often fallacious) word on the fall of the
Romanov dynasty, The Fate of The Romanovs will be enthralling reading.

Gretchen Haskin

Author: "Imperial Affair"

Authors cheat at reviews, then take at swipe at others

Look, I haven't read this book, but I notice some of the reviews are from the authors or their friends. Fair enough, all of us are able to log onto Amazon under different accounts and vote for our own reviews. A lot of people do it, and if the authors wanted a good rating, perhaps they should have done that.

Instead, they openly acknowledge who they are in their review (Penny Wilson aka TomandPenny, Peter Kurth), give the book 5 stars, but instead of telling us how they wrote it or what it is about (which would have been fine):

THEY TAKE OFFENSE AT EVERY CRITICAL REVIEW AND VEHEMENTLY REFUTE THEM in an "I'll show you" manner.

If there ever was a reason not to buy a book, this is it. If the authors think that denigrating the opinions of their readers, in a forum designed to SELL THE BOOK is a wise idea, they have another thing coming. Cut off their noses to spite their faces. Shot themselves in the foot. Whatever. But their personalities don't recommend their book to me, and I certainly won't be buying it, even though I am an avid reader on this topic.