Michael and Natasha : The Life And Love Of Michael Ii, The Last Of The Romanov Tsars

by Donald Crawford, Rosemary A. Crawford

Release Date: 01 February, 2000

Edition: Paperback

Price:

More Info

A love story that transcends time.

As an avid fan of Russian history and letters, I was delighted by the publication of Michael and Natasha: The Life and Love of Michael II, the Last of the Romanov Tsars, by Rosemary and Donald Crawford. I was first intrigued by Michael Romanov and Natasha Wulfert through Kyril FitzLyon and Tatiana Browning's superb pictorial volume, Before the Revolution: Russia and Its People Under the Czar, where the couple appears photographed together on the occasion of Natasha's birthday. Somehow, and despite the grandeur of their surroundings and attire -- the epitome of that majestic and romantic age -- they came across as very appealing and almost modern individuals. Their story is the moving saga of a love that was doomed, not merely due to differences in pedigree and status, but because of historic forces they (particularly Michael, with his unswerving belief in human kindness) unfortunately underestimated. Throughout this engaging work, the quality that most vividly comes across is the couple's deep and abiding love for one another -- a love that survived ostracism, political cataclysms, and, one is convinced, even the alleged finality of death. The lifestyle they exemplified, spent amid the grandeur of vast country estates, brilliant St. Petersburg salons, and the intrigues of the Romanov court, has been faithfully preserved by Russia's leading authors in enduring works of fiction, and, in fact, striking parallels exist between Natasha and Tolstoi's immortal Anna Karenina. That Natasha herself may have examined the similarities, with perhaps a mixture of dread and amusement, is a clear possibility, as she was a cultivated woman who, moreoever, moved in artistic circles. Status, rank, and privileged position notwithstanding, both Michael and Natasha reveal themselves, through letters and contemporary testimonies, as thoroughly decent human beings who found themselves (proverbially) at the wrong place and time in history, and whose love, courage, and integrity alone were no match against a harsh age. Foreknowledge of the events that conspired and ultimately triumphed over their hopes for happiness and, indeed, their very existence, is not a damper to the reader's obstinate hope that, despite history's well known verdict, they and their private world will endure. Natasha, noted for the beauty of her "sad eyes," perhaps always sensed that tragedy would one day overtake her, even when tangible evidence of that fact was still far in the future. Michael, an avid photographer, left behind a rich pictorial record of their brief time together, so as to capture and preserve moments that, in their poignancy, he perhaps sensed were too lovely and fragile to endure. Reading this excellent work of biography, one is again moved to sorrow by the fate of the Romanovs who, despite their political blindness, did not deserve the cruel and bloody end which, with rare exceptions, befell most of their lineage. If there is a flaw to the biography at all, it is that a story that was so consistently rich in intimate detail for nearly 400 pages is abruptly cut off with Natasha's acceptance of Michael's tragic fate six years after his disappearance in 1918. Her own later life, which encompassed nearly three decades, is quickly summarized in a few terse paragraphs that leave the curious reader somewhat disoriented. Though her own ending in poverty, loneliness, and illness is almost too disturbing to absorb after all she has had to endure, I believe Natasha (and those interested in her fate) deserved a more gradual and gentle farewell.

Wonderful "historical novel"

It's official-I've lost my mind! I'm in love with a man who's been dead for 60 years. Michael Romanov was everything, apparently, a high-born nobelman was born to be; handsome, loyal, intelligent and completely besotted and in love with his bride. Unfortunately, she was a twice-divorced commoner. Therein the problems lay.

This wonderful and tragic story is so intriguing and meticulously researched that it reads like a novel rather than a biography. Donald and Rosemary Crawford play off each other's experience in journalism writing (she wrote about society, he is a hard-nosed newspaper man) to bring about an intriguing story of love and politics that takes us back to this gilded age where the rich, beautiful and tragic central figures play at being the second Russian court in exile. They have so much material (personal letters, telegrams, pictures, etc.) to use that you feel like you're a part of Michael and Natasha's lives. It's a pleasure to read and will definately be read again by me.