In the Steps of the Romanovs

IN THE STEPS OF THE ROMANOVS: Author’s/Translator’s Note

Latest Book Translated directly from diary entries and personal papers of Romanov Family Members during the last two years of their lives.

The story of the downfall of the last ruling Romanov family is fairly well-known: following the Russian revolution, members of the family were arrested, imprisoned and ultimately executed without a trial. For many years, mystery surrounded the details around their murders, but after the fall of the Soviet Union, archives were gradually opened and investigations began. Around that time, the remains of the last Tsar and his family were found, and later, thorough scientific testing confirmed that the bodies of the entire family were accounted for (although the Russian Orthodox Church has not accepted them as authentic at the time of this writing).

Introduction by George Hawkins

July 17, 2018 is the hundredth anniversary of the murder of the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, their only son, the Heir-Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, daughters – the Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia Nikolaevna and their remaining servants: Dr Eugene Sergeyevich Botkin, chambermaid Anna Stepanovna Demidova, footman Alexei Yegorovich Trupp and cook Ivan Mikhailovich Kharitonov in Yekaterinburg.
The story of the Russian Revolution and the exile and execution of the Romanovs has been the subject of many books but here for the first time, author/translator Helen Azar has compiled the writings of the Imperial Family themselves, presenting in their own words the momentous events they lived through in the last two years of their lives.
Importantly this book is presented without subjective commentary from the author – leaving it to the reader to form their own impressions of the Imperial Family, their personalities and lives. For many years, the children – in particular the Tsar’s daughters – have been presented as somewhat sheltered, naïve and childish side-notes of history. This book shows this to be far from the reality. The diaries of the Grand Duchesses show that they led busy socially active lives, interacting with a wide range of people.