A lifelong Passion
by Sergei Mironenko & Andrei Maylunas
The book, based on more than 150,000 documents
released by the Russian State Archive, is, on
the one hand, a rich chronological account of
the family workings of the Romanov dynasty. England's
Queen Victoria, grandmother of Alexandra, corresponded
regularly with her ``dear little Alixy'' and with
``Nicky'' from their childhoods until the queen's
death. Cousin ``Willy,'' otherwise known as Kaiser
Wilhelm II of Germany, was also a family confidante
and occasional adviser to Nicky and Alix.
Heads of state, Russia's top politics and such
shadowy historical figures as Siberian peasant
Grigory Rasputin share their thoughts with the
Russian emperor and empress over 37 years of tumultuous
Russian history. It's an intriguing view, but
it also means wading through what has to be some
of the most inane, often sappy drivel ever written
by heads of state.There's no delicate method to
put it. Nicholas and Alexandra, good parents and
deeply religious and loving people, would probably
have made nice neighbors, they in their castle
and yacht and you in your tract home and dinghy.
But, as monarchs ruling a good sixth of the world,
they come off as leaders who ran their empire
with as much polish and panache as Marge Schott
running the Cincinnati Reds.
A century after the bloody French Revolution,
the Romanovs, especially Nicholas and Alexandra,
seemed to have learned very little. Kaiser Wilhelm,
Queen Victoria and Nicky's older sister Xenia
occasionally allude to rumblings and other ``unpleasantries''
among students and peasants as the kinds of things
that once led to beheadings.
But young Nicky seems too thick or convinced of
his ``divine right'' as a monarch to be concerned
about such stirrings. In hundreds of diary entries,
it slowly becomes evident this is a man slavishly
concerned with his own peace of mind and daily
comforts to the exclusion of anything so mundane
as the concerns of peasants or welfare of his
country. His daily diary includes dozens and dozens
of entries no more penetrating than: ``Had tea
. . . Ate dinner . . . Weather marvelous.''
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