Day 134 – 52 Books in 52 Weeks

I finished another book by Robert K. Massie on the Romanovs, appropriately titled: The Romanovs, The Final Chapter. This is his follow-up book to Nicholas and Alexandra.

This book is vastly different from Nicholas and Alexandra in that it is almost a detective/csi-like novel. The first book was written in 1967, this one was published in 1995. During that time period the bones of the massacred family were found and all kinds of intrigues popped up regarding them.

Massie carefully goes through, bit by bit, how the bones were found (and then hid again for ten years); how people fought for the right to examine the bones to determine if they were indeed those of the Russian Tsar and his family; and the mystery around the two missing bodies (only bones from 9 of the 11 people murdered were found in the grave – this included the Tsar, the Empress, 3 of their 4 daughters, and four ‘servants’).

He goes to great length to give the reader the background of the scientists (and their facilities) involved in the DNA sampling… then the mudslinging that ensued between the different scientists – apparently something never seen before in the scientific community.

Then there was the fight over where the now confirmed bones of the Tsar should be buried.

After Massie gets all of that sorted out for the reader, he then dives into all of the “imposters.” Because two bodies were not recovered, legends spread that Anastasia and Alexis survived – and thus hundreds of people through the years tried to convince the world that they were one of the missing children.

Massie particularly focuses on Anna Anderson. She was a woman who was saved after jumping off of a bridge in Germany. She bore a bit of a resemblance to Anastasia, and from 1925 to her death in 1984, she swore she was Anastasia. She met a few of the remaining Romanovs – most of whom denied her claim – and she was treated like royalty. Even after her death, there were still fights, and one enormous law suit, over her. The lawsuit involved getting a tissue sample from a hospital that had done surgery on her four years prior to her death. This sample could then be compared with the DNA from Nicholas and Alexandra Romanov as well as Prince Philip (Queen Elizabeth’s husband) who had provided a sample to identify the Romanov bones.

The court battle would have been almost comical if it had not been real. Not only did it involve people from around the world, there was big money behind one group to get the sole rights to the tissue samples and anything transpiring from them (i.e. DNA sampling, documentaries, etc). The amount of money and resources put into proving that this was or was not Anastasia was just enormous.

In the end, of course, it was proven that Anna Anderson was just another fake.

Then Massie concludes his book with the latest (circa 1995) Romanov quandary: who is the rightful heir to the throne. He goes through the right of succession and who is alive today who would have a rightful claim should Russia decide to go back to a tsarist rule. Again, fights abound, and probably won’t ever end.

Though I’m usually not one to read detective/crime stories, this was a book I had trouble putting down. Probably because it was real, it did happen, and it still continues 90+ years after the Tsar was murdered.

As I mentioned, this book was published in 1995. It wasn’t until 2007 (and not confirmed until 2008 by DNA testing) that the bones of Alexis and one of his sisters were finally found. All 11 prisoners of the Ipatiev House, Ekaterinburg were executed in the early hours of July 17, 1918 and their bodies have now all been accounted for, but the fight over the Romanov family (and amongst themselves) still continues.

In looking for more “authoritative” books on the Romanovs, most reference Massie’s Nicholas and Alexandra as the definitive book. I loved that book and though this one is entirely different in its scope, it is as well researched and documented as his previous book on the family.

If you love detective stories or are into CSI, even if you haven’t read Nicholas and Alexandra, you will still love this book. Massie covers the basic background as he goes through the various aspects of uncovering the bones, the lawsuits, the impostors, etc. And you couldn’t come up with more plot twists than what happened in this real life drama.