The Family Romanov

The Family Romanov; Murder, Rebellion & the Fall of Imperial Russia
by Candace Fleming

I also read this book before I visited Russia last summer, along with Symphony for the City of the Dead.
Tsar Nicholas Romanov II of Russia was shot and killed along with his entire family--his wife and five children--during the Russian Revolution, in 1917.
Leading up to that, the Romanov family was one of the wealthiest royal families in the world, ruling over 130 million people, most of whom were poverty stricken. Tsar Nicholas--the last emperor of Russia--barely acknowledged the hardships people were living with, while his own family frolicked in luxury.
This nonfiction narrative describes the rise and fall of the House of Romanov, complete with their bizarre connection to a mystic, Rasputin. The photographs in the book are fascinating, as is the story!