At one point I almost shouted aloud at the book, "Alexandra, you idiot!!!!" Alexandra, the tsarina, rejected a viable rescue attempt because it was proposed by Germany, saying "I would rather die in Russia than be rescued by the Germans". As the day of their death approaches, there is quite a lot of information about the inner workings of the Bolshevik party, the effects of communism on Russia, international opinions on the fate of the Romanovs, and the various attempts to rescue the family from their house arrest in Ekaterinburg. Instead, most chapters contain a mini-biography of each member of the family, with a few details about that day at the end based on their diary entries or comments made by their guards. I should have known that there isn't much detailed information about their activities, what they thought, how they felt (wishful thinking). However, it was not exactly what I had been expecting, being eager as I was to know all the details of their final days. The book is literally a day-by-day account, with each chapter covering its own day. Rappaport's obvious expertise in, and passion for, Russian history makes her a wonderful guide into this complicated and fascinating period and the doomed family that lived within it.
The Last Days of the Romanovs documents the final two weeks of the famous imperial family in Russia before their murder in 1918.
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