European Royalty discussion

Please discuss The Last Days of the Romanovs, chapter 8 through the end (including epilogue) here.

I am in the middle of chapter 12 right now and feel like this second half of the book is dragging on more than the first half. It is sad how many world leaders realized that the Romanovs were likely in danger but had too many political issues holding them back from assisting them. I am touched by the family's devotion to each other in refusing any escape plan that does not include all of them.

Yeah, I was surprised by how well-known the Romanovs' plight was and that still nobody was able or willing to do anything effective...

Just finished this. The murder scene is written with the coldness of an investigative report but can't help but evoke emotion. Unfortunately, theirs is just one if many tragedies taking place in Russia at that time (and for a long time after that). I was glad that I had read some about the revolution before this or I would have been confused by the way the author assumes knowledge of surrounding events and attitudes.

I loved this book! I learned a lot and am curious to find out more about Russia during that time. The chapter about the murders was the best and the most chilling part of the book. Now that I know how the family was actually murdered, I have to agree with Rappaport that there really was no chance of escape and that it would have been next to impossible for Anastasia to have survived. (I've written a full review of the book at my blog if anyone is interested: http://ahorseandacarrot.wordpress.com...)
This is the first group read that I've done with this group and I really enjoyed it- I can't wait to do another one!

I love this book, although it was very difficult to read because of the cruelty and violence involved. Having said that, I liked that the author chose a time line--the last 14 days the Romanov spent on earth-- one that needed to be written about for the sake of history, and stuck to it. It seems that although many other books were written about this event, the truth about the final days of the Romanovs were lost, buried for that matter, by layer upon layers of misinforamtion put out by the Soviets. This approach provided the reader a sense of the who the Romanovs were, even if you had no prior knowledge of them; a sense of what lead up to this event; and the people involved in the annihilation of this family and the Romanov dynasty. This book has me wanting to continue to read about the history of Russia before and after the Revolution.

Even though we knew what the outcome was to be, it was still very disturbing. I still cannot believe the hatred that these men felt for the tsar, his family and their entourage. what brutality and cruelty. I honestly cannot wrap my head around what they did to the children. I can understand wanting to execute the tsar for his "crimes" against the russian people but his children, how horrible.