The Last Tsar : The Life and Death of Nicholas II

Russian playwright and historian Radzinsky mines sources never before available to create a fascinating portrait of the monarch, and a minute-by-minute account of his terrifying last days. Updated For The Paperback Edition. From the Trade Paperback edition.

russian Playwright And Historian Radzinsky Mines  sources Never Before Available To Create A  fascinating Portrait Of The Monarch, And A  minute-by-minute Account Of His Terrifying Last Days.  updated For The Paperback Edition.

publishers Weekly

historians Have Long Believed That Lenin Personally Ordered The Murder Of Czar Nicholas Ii And His Family In July 1918; This Contradicts The Official Soviet Version, In Which Siberian Bolsheviks Ordered The Executions Without Moscow's Clearance. Radzinsky, A Russian Playwright, Adds Many Valuable Pieces To The Jigsaw Puzzle In An Hour-by-hour Reconstruction Of The Slaying, Based On Royal Diaries And Newly Uncovered Eyewitness Accounts From The Executioners. The Author Unearthed The Testimony Of Lenin's Bodyguard, Who Said That Lenin Had Ordered Him To Destroy A Secret Telegram (and Its Transmittal Ribbon), Which Contained The Top Bolshevik's Order To Carry Out The Executions. Oral Testimony By A Soldier Who Participated In The Killings, Given Decades Later To An Informant Whom Radzinsky Interviewed, Alleges That Two Bodies Were Missing From The Truck That Took The Executed Royal Family To An Unmarked Grave; This Will Fuel Speculation That Anastasia And Alexei, Heir To The Throne, Survived The Fatal Night. Using The Diaries Of Czar Nicholas And Empress Alexandra, Radzinsky Also Presents A Fragmentary Account Of Romanov Family Life, Their Kidnapping And The Abortive Plots To Save Them. Photos. (july)

The execution of Tsar Nicholas II and his family at the hands of revolutionaries in 1918 is one of the pivotal events of the 20th century, an event that brought the 300-year rule of the House of Romanov to a brutal and tragic end and set the tone for the Stalinist atrocities that would follow. The truth behind these murders remained long buried under more than seventy years of myth, legend, and speculation. Then, in a sensational biography that could not have been written before glasnost, noted Russian historian Edvard Radzinsky unearthed solutions to many of the questions that had remained unanswered since the terrible events in Ekaterinburg on the night of July 16-17, 1918. Mining sources long unavailable -- including firsthand accounts of the slaying -- he creates both a fascinating portrait of the monarch and a minute-by-minute account of his terrifying last days. Included is documentation linking the order of execution directly to Lenin, as well as the suggestion that two family members may have survived the ordeal. Included, too, is the testimony of ordinary Russians who at last felt free to contribute their own recollections, documents, and handed-down secrets. Radzinsky weaves together scores of firsthand accounts into a haunting, epic narrative. The Last Tsar is an important and momentous work, one that will stand as the definitive account of the terrible last days of one of Europe's greatest dynasties. - Adapted from dust jacket. An account of the life, reign, and final days of the last Russian tsar draws on Nicholas II's personal diaries and other sources The author of the diary was born on May 6,1868.