Simon Sebag Montefiore

The Romanovs were the most successful dynasty of modern times, ruling a sixth of the world's surface. How did one family turn a war-ruined principality into the world's greatest empire? And how did they lose it all? This is the intimate story of twenty tsars and tsarinas, some touched by genius, some by madness, but all inspired by holy autocracy and imperial ambition. Montefiore's gripping chronicle reveals their secret world of unlimited power and ruthless empire-building, overshadowed by palace conspiracy, family rivalries, sexual decadence and wild extravagance, and peopled by a cast of adventurers, courtesans, revolutionaries and poets. Written with dazzling literary flair, drawing on new archival research, THE ROMANOVS is at once an enthralling chronicle of triumph and tragedy, love and death, a universal study of power, and an essential portrait of the empire that still defines Russia today.

1613-1918

The Romanovs

The Romanovs were the most successful dynasty of modern times, ruling a sixth of the world's surface. How did one family turn a war-ruined principality into the world's greatest empire? And how did they lose it all? This is the intimate story of twenty tsars and tsarinas, some touched by genius, some by madness, but all inspired by holy autocracy and imperial ambition. Montefiore's gripping chronicle reveals their secret world of unlimited power and ruthless empire-building, overshadowed by palace conspiracy, family rivalries, sexual decadence and wild extravagance, and peopled by a cast of adventurers, courtesans, revolutionaries and poets, from Ivan the Terrible to Tolstoy, from Queen Victoria to Lenin. To rule Russia was both imperial-sacred mission and poisoned chalice: six tsars were murdered and all the Romanovs lived under constant threat to their lives. Peter the Great tortured his own son to death while making Russia an empire, and dominated his court with a dining club notable for compulsory drunkenness, naked dwarfs and fancy dress. Catherine the Great overthrew her own husband - who was murdered soon afterwards - loved her young male favourites, conquered Ukraine and fascinated Europe. Paul was strangled by courtiers backed by his own son, Alexander I, who faced Napoleon's invasion and the burning of Moscow, then went on to take Paris. Alexander II liberated the serfs, survived five assassination attempts, and wrote perhaps the most explicit love letters ever written by a ruler. THE ROMANOVS climaxes with a fresh, unforgettable portrayal of Nicholas and Alexandra, the rise and murder of Rasputin, war and revolution - and the harrowing massacre of the entire family. Written with dazzling literary flair, drawing on new archival research, THE ROMANOVS is at once an enthralling story of triumph and tragedy, love and death, a universal study of power, and an essential portrait of the empire that still defines Russia today.

Wynter

I've had this book sitting on my current reads shelf for over two years now, and after all this time I am dreading to pick it up again and give it another chance. Sorry, Simon, you are not my cup of tea. The Romanovs is a sensationalized piece of crap history book taken straight out of a supermarket checkout aisle. To put forth an analogy, imagine that I decided to write a book about the history of American presidents and then proceeded to focus on their sex lives and scandals, instead of biographical notes, policies, and contributions to the nation. Gettysburg address? Who cares, let me tell you about Lincoln's foot fetish! I'd be banished to a gossip column of some yellow rag for this sort of journalism. 

This is no history, but exploitative fluff. I have no patience for it, and I feel so cheated because I was truly looking forward to reading an informative account of an intriguing dynasty. And the saddest part is, readers in English-speaking world will take this word for word and think this is what history in Romanov times was like. Might as well go binge on Reign and use it in your next history paper.

Gavin

Long, shallow parade of the tsars from 1600 onwards. Focusses on the wars, the mistresses and the lulz, not on welfare or data. Still good if you're completely ignorant, like me. 

One insight: when you read "Peter the Great", or "Catherine the Great" (or indeed Frederick), remember that this epithet only holds if you append "...For an Warmongering Autocrat" in your head. I wanted to like Catherine II, but on gaining power she of course betrays the ideals of her powerless writing.

In lieu of analysis, here's Peter the Great:
 
She was notoriously wanton and untameable. Even after he had married her off to Chernyshev, she was said to have given the tsar VD.
...Peter, suffering from a bladder infection possibly caused by VD, retreated to Astrakhan, but his troops took the key port of Baku.
...back in Petersburg Maria resumed her place as Peter's favourite. Rumours spread that she had given him VD.

Elda Mengisto

"The Romanovs inhabit a world of family rivalry, imperial ambition, lurid glamour, sexual excess and depraved sadism; this is a world where obscure strangers suddenly claim to be dead monarchs reborn, brides are poisoned, fathers tortured their sons to death, sons kill fathers, wives murder husbands, a holy man, poisoned and shot, arises, apparently, from the dead...here are fashion-mad nymphomanical empresses, lesbian menages a trois, and an emperor who wrote the most erotic correspondence ever written by a head of state. Yet this is also the empire built by flinty conquistadors and brilliant statesmen that conquered Siberia and Ukraine, took Berlin and Paris, and produced Pushkin, Tolstoy, Tchaikovsky and Dostoevsky; a civilization of towering culture and exquisite beauty"

This quote in the introduction encapsulates what the Romanov dynasty throughout its 305 year reign; on the one hand, it was very successful; at one point, it grew 20,000 miles a year, taking 1/6 of the world's surface by the 19th century. On the other hand, like other tales about royals, fictional or real, there is a bunch of intrigue lying within the surface. Some of the praise of the book compares the indecency, violence, and lust to "Game of Thrones"; based on the opening quote (which was too long to fit here), it further proof that truth is stranger than fiction.

The book is organized into acts and scenes, like a theatrical production--Act 1 focuses on the Romanovs' rise (1613-circa 1700); act 2 focuses on their peak (circa 1700-1825), and Act 3 their downfall (1825-1918). Fitting to this theatrical theme, Montefiore lists the cast of characters before each chapter, getting into whos whom. Once there, we enter the scenes of the dynasty.

The writing style, initially, is quite dry. I was quite overwhelmed by the lot of information--Montefiore frequently uses primary sources to color the dialogue and convey the personalities of not only the tsars and tsarinas, but the world around them. The result is the prose tends to drag on, which could tire some people. In terms of telling the grandiose story of the Romanovs, from its beginnings in one Time of Troubles to another, it ends up enlightening the entire story.

One thing I found interesting was how Montefiore includes other characters within Russian history into the text, mostly through addendums at the bottom of the page. Naturally, one of the most notable figures was Alexander Pushkin, considered to be more royalty than Nicholas I himself! It slowly starts out through Hannibal's arrival from Africa in the Peter the Great chapter and slowly emerges through other arcs. Another interesting one was of Yakov Yuvosky, who would later execute Nicholas II and his entire family. One doesn't recognize this right out of the spot, but it's intriguing to see how these arcs intertwine.

And that's what Montefiore seeks to tell: how the Romanovs defined modern Russia as we know it. As much as it is crafted as a family story, it is also a historical epic on how Russia expanded and became an empire, yet was entrenched in its own autocracy. This was emphasized by the epilogue "Red Tsars/White Tsars", where he argues,

"Looking back over the four centruies covered in this book, it is curious that each of Russia's Times of Troubles--1610-13, 1917/18 and 1991-99,--ended with a new version of the old autocracy, eased by the habits and traditions of its fallen predecessor, and justified by the urgent need to restore order, modernize radically and regain Russia's place as a great power" (654).

What would that say about Russia's future, then?

As someone who loves reading about the Romanovs (mostly OTMA and also Catherine the Great), it was the first time I got a whole scope of the entire dynasty and their influence. For all its dryness, it still stands strong on its own as an ambitious work of history and intrigue. Coming towards the 100th anniversary of the Romanovs' murders, it was invigorating and dense to see what made it great before. (7.5/10)

P.S. I also love this eight-part Russian documentary about the Romanovs, which sort of gave me a scaffolding of the tsars' reigns prior to reading. Take a look: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USUA_... (Part I)

Stephen Gill 

A really well written history of the Romanov dynasty.

Brian Alderman

Slow to start then gets going in the nineteenth century. The writing really brings the romanov characters to life!

Kaylee Z

Definitely need a physical copy of this book. I'd love to see the documents and images that accompanied the text

Allyson McMillen

Emily Akerman

Jemima Scott

Sparrow Hall

Joline Hordijk

"The acclaimed author of Young Stalin and Jerusalem gives readers an accessible, lively account--based in part on new archival material--of the extraordinary men and women who ruled Russia for three centuries."--NoveList.

The Romanovs 1613-1918

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