Customer Reviews

The Romanovs: The Final Chapter

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Massie wrote an excellent and very detail book on the quest to find and identify the last Romanovs. The book began with the finding and identification of the bones and then went into the Anna Anderson mystery. Massie is a great writer which he nonetheless proved in this book.

Robert Massie wrote the book Nicholas and Alexandra years before the fall of the Soviet Union. Now that he has had access to more information, he continues the story to it's end. Since this is an area of history that has always fascinated me, I was anxious to read this book. It seems as if it had to have happened much longer than the short span of time that has passed since the Romanov family was executed. They lived in an unreal world, isolated from the events surrounding them.

Massie does another excellent job of writing what could be a very dry, detail oriented book so that it is enjoyable to read, and leaves no stone unturned.

I'm guessing that most people buying "The Romanovs: The Final Chapter" have already read Massie's "Nicholas and Alexandra" (first published in 1967) but if you haven't, I highly recommend it as "The Romanov's" is basically a final update to the family's tragic tale. Also, Massie's first book on Russia's last Tsar will make this book more personal to the reader as one gets a sentimental appreciation of who Nicholas and his family were from "Nicholas and Alexandra."
This book is far different than Massie's other historical epics as he takes on the role of an investigative journalist rather than a historian. Massie is on the front-lines, from DNA labs to court rooms, searching for a final answer as to whose skeletons were unearthed by an Ekaterinburg resident in the late 70's.
Massie leaves the reader with a plethora of factual information that all but ends one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century. Using DNA tests, Massie proves, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Russia's royal family and servants are the ones that were buried beneath the road outside Ekaterinburg. He also proves beyond a reasonable doubt, that Anna Anderson, who was the 20th century's greatest con artist, was not Anastasia, Tsarevna of Russia, but a mere Polish peasant.
With all the crime solving, the book at times gets bogged down into quotes, lengthy (but pertinent) explanations of scientific facts and petty arguments between scientists and lawyers, which limits Massie's masterful writing-style to a minimum. After reading all his books, the only sections that come close to capturing his colorful and accomplished style of prose are the first and last chapters.
That said, I'm very glad Massie was the one to tell the Tsar's final story and I highly recommend it to any reader of "Nicholas and Alexandra."

Here's a few items of note:

- A previous reviewer said that Massie does not explain what happened to the last two bodies, presumably of Alexei and either Anastasia or Marie, but in fact, Massie does with quotes of Yurovsky's writings on page 31 and again on page 68. By burning the two bodies and spreading the ashes and embers around, their remains were not preserved like the remaining nine bodies by being entombed in clay, so the final two missing family members in all likelihood will never be found. Another reviewer wished they had a family tree to keep the Romanovs straight. In my edition of "Nicholas and Alexandra", there is a family tree that shows all of Nicholas II's brothers and sister and one could make a photo copy from that book and add in all the nephews, nieces, cousins, etc.

- Also, since this book was published in 1995, a few things have happened in Russia regarding the Romanovs. On July 17, 1998, Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra, three of their children and four family servants were buried in the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg. The Russian Orthodox Church still questions the legitimacy of the bones as being the Tsar but the church did partake in the funeral march and burial. In a poll taken at the time, only 47 percent of Russians believed they remains were of Nicholas II and his family. And in 2001, the Dowager Empress Marie Fedorovna, was exhumed in Denmark and reburied alongside her husband, Tsar Alexander III, in the same cathedral.

Another well-written book by Robert K. Massie about the Romanov family and their tragic fate. The book begins at the death of the romanovs and explaining in great detail their death, and how their bodys were hidden for so many years. It present's evidence about people claiming to be the romanovs themself - even one of the most famous - Anna Anderson. It points out both sides to those who do and do not believe she was Anastasia Romanov. I myself do not velieve that she was due to the evidence this book presents - DNA, and how her story does not hold up at all. This is a wonderful book!

Check out Nicholas & Alexandra, Anastasia'a Album, and the Last Tsar as well.

This book appealed to the forensic scientist in me. Rober K Massie had already written one marvelous book on the Romanov's and this book is the epilogue. After 7 decades, the truth is revealed. There is maybe still a little tiny bit of room for conspiracy theories to run amok in, but...

The first half of the book details the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the Romanov's and then the startling truth revealed in the dying years of someone who KNEW what really happened that fateful night in Ekaterinburg. Interesting also, is the current Russian governments reluctance to put this issue to rest, preferring to the last to believe that the Romanov's did not perish at Ekaterinburg rather than admit to destroying the Russian empire. The second half of the book is about the many people who claimed to be surviving Romanov's of the Ekaterinburg disaster. It takes skill to deceive people for 7 decades! Probably not as exhilerating as the first half of the book, but interesting nontheless.

I loved this book for wrapping up a tragic tale spanning nearly 1 century. Maybe some people won't like that, but I for one am glad that this great tragedy has been revealed for all that it is and documented as best and sympathetically as one can. Thank you Mr. Massie!

This excellent book does a great job of recounting the story of the demise of the Romanovs, as well as the tale of how their remains were discovered. Additionally, the book gives much information about various pretenders to the Romanov throne, as well as the imposters who claimed to be the lost children of the Czar in the years following the executions.

While I did throughly enjoy this book, I felt that some loose ends were not tied up. While the author did conclusively prove (to me, at least) that Alexis and Anastasia were executed with the rest of their family and that all of the people who claimed to be them in later years were imposters, absolutely no discussion or conjecture is made concerning their final whereabouts. This is very important as their remains were the only two not recovered from the graves.

Even though I did have this one issue with the book, I did thoroughly enjoy the read, and felt that it is a great introduction to the sad saga of the end of the Romanov dynasty.

this book lays out some of the findings, theories, and arguments presented regarding the true fate of the Romanovs. Which grand duchess is missing? Where is Alexei? Could anyone have lived? A good starting point for those interested in deducing for themselves which set of remains belongs to which family member...

This book contains alot of information about the fate of the Romanov family and their companions. There are documents from Russian archives, eyewitness accounts and more. It is sometimes difficult reading, but well worth the effort.

In the early morning hours of July 17, 1918, in Ekaterinburg (formerly Tobolsk), Siberia, the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, and his immediate family and three close friends were killed in a cellar room. It happened to destroy the past, to pave way toward a new future, as a new order was sweeping through Russia. In that cellar room in the Ipatiev House, where the Romanovs had been held captive for 78 days and later executed, a new mystery was born, for no one knew what really happened to the last Tsar of Russia and his family. Rumors soon began spreading: there were survivors, there were sightings of people in the Imperial family. The investigations of the day, carried out in good faith by a legal expert named Nicholas Sokolov, made it clear that no remains of the Romanovs were ever found. Robert K. Massie, in this phenomenal book, writes about these mysteries, beginning with an account of what happened to the Romanovs on that fateful night, when they were roused from their sleep by the man who turned out to be their executioner, Yakov Yurovsky. He later examines the events and efforts of several key personalities of the early 1990s that culminated in solving this old mystery.

The bulk of his book is devoted to two issues: (1) An account of what happened to the remains of the Romanovs, and the efforts of post-Communist Russia and the West to scientifically determine if nine skeletons exhumed from a mass grave in Siberia in July 1991 really were the remains of the Imperial family (pp. 3-139). (2) The issue of Anna Anderson, the woman who claimed, for over sixty years, that she was Grand Duchess Anastasia and had escaped from the carnage at the Ipatiev House. Was she really a Romanov? Massie recalls the secluded and bizarre life of Anna Anderson (one of her many known names) and the efforts to do DNA testing on a sample of her tissue and with those of the real Romanovs. The scientists' and Massie's conclusion is shocking...sorry to break this news: this woman perpetrated the biggest and longest lie in the 20th Century - she was not even remotely related to the Romanovs! (pp. 144-251).

Throughout the book, Massie places a lot of emphasis on the academic and legal bickering that took place over these controversial efforts to solve this mystery. It makes for very frustrating reading, to learn about the stubbornness and bizarre grounds upon which different parties based their agendas and stances in the form of legal wrangling. What is satisfying, however, is the happy ending in this story: ghosts of the past are laid to rest and the ongoing mystery is solved, even though there remain those who refuse to accept this fact.

In the last two parts of the book, Massie addresses the Romanov émigrés throughout the world and their stances on these controversial issues. Many of them are current pretenders to the Russian throne; a source of even more infighting among the existing descendants of the Imperial family. The book tops off with an account of what the Imperial family did and experienced in their 78-day stay at the Ipatiev House, leading up to that fateful night when the end came for them all. In all, Massie's book is a wonderful combination of history and current events (now to be called 'recent history' in light of when the book came out, in 1995), a perfect tribute to the history of Russia and the benefits and meaning of science in unraveling issues long thought dead.

Robert K. Massie's The Romanovs (the Final Chapter) was less about what finally happened than about the search by various people into the truth about what finally happened. This makes the book a fascinating addition to the legends and truths about the Romanovs and concludes their story quite conclusively. There is more than enough historical background for the reader not familiar with the story of the Romanovs but the true interest of this story will be for the readers who are fully steeped in this story. The author has a sure touch in making this book as interesting in the saga of terror and betrayal as he does he in the parts concerning scientific investigation. A wonderful and mandatory addition to the cache of Romanov books on the market.