Today The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion & The Fall of Imperial Russia, written by Candace Fleming, hits the shelves of your local bookstore. Perfect summer reading—accessible and well-written, a story full of intrigue and excitement, and it’s history, so you learn something! Take a look at the book trailer!
Outtakes
Q: What got cut from the book? I cut so much from the story—anecdotes and photographs. The biggest reason was length. I simply couldn’t tell the reader everything. But I sure wanted to! So I’ll tell a few of those stories here. One day in 1909, an old peasant couple arrived at the palace. Clutching […]
The Sailor Nannies
Alexei had hemophilia, a genetic disease that affects only males. Hemophilia is transmitted by the mother. The disease was wide-spread in Alexandra’s family—her own brother had died of it. She suffered tremendous guilt over having passed the disease on to her son. There was no cure (there’s still no cure) and there was no treatment […]
Researching the Romanovs
1991 was a seminal year for Romanov researchers. Many documents previously held private under the Soviet Union were released for scholarly access. I have to thank experts for my access to those recently released documents. They did the legwork, compiling, translating and putting them into the context of history. I merely stood on their shoulders, […]
Language Lesson
Did you know? The Romanov family’s language was not Russian. Tsar Nicholas spoke Russian, but no one else in his immediate family did. Alexandra was German. As a family, they spoke English. Many primary historical documents about the Romanovs are accessible to the English speaker/reader (without a Russian translator) because Nicholas and Alexandra wrote in […]
It’s a Boy! Boom!
Russia’s law of succession specified that only males could inherit the throne. The tradition at a royal birth dictated that three hundred thunderous rounds of cannon fire would announce the birth of a future tsar, a son. If a girl was born, one hundred and one shots would serve as the announcement. The Russian people […]
Russian Names
From “Before You Begin,” in The Family Romanov: “Russians have three names: a first name, a father’s name with –ovich or –evich added (meaning “son of”) if male, or –evna or –ovna (meaning “daughter of” if female); and a last, or family name. “Therefore, Nicholas II’s daughter’s full name was Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova; his son’s full […]
Writing The Family Romanov
I was recently interviewed about writing The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion & the Fall of Imperial Russia. Join us for the next few weeks as we share my answers with you. Q: What drew you to writing the Romanovs’ story? A: I first read Robert Massie’s Nicholas and Alexandra the summer between my 7th and […]
The Family Romanov Book Cover
Wanted to share the cover of my new book: The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion & The Fall of Imperial Russia. It will be on the shelves of your local bookstore in a couple of weeks!