This book was ghostwritten by someone hoping to make a name for himself, and he tells the story of one Vasily Filatov, who claimed to be Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia.
The Tsarevich Alexei died, along with the rest of his family and their servants, by firing squad in the basement of the Ipatiev House on the night of 16-17 July, 1918.
There’s only one word to describe this travesty of a book:
Ridiculous.
…especially in the light of discovering the remains of the last two missing Romanov children – Tsarevich Alexei and one of his sisters in 2007.
Although this book was written before that discovery, the premise that a sickly haemophiliac thirteen-year-old boy could have survived being shot several times and then finished off by a shot directly into his ear (see Robert K. Massie’s “Nicholas and Alexandra” or his follow up “The Romanovs – The Last Chapter” for further, infinitely more accurate information*) could have survived the massacre of his family in the basement of the Ipatiev House defies credibility and common sense.
I hope that the authors feel significantly chastised, or at least regret being pulled into ghostwriting this nonsense. There have been many pretenders, over the years, claiming to be one or more of Nicholas’ children that “survived”, and now, at last, those stories can be put to rest. This book only adds fuel to the fire of the extremely bad taste of people who have wanted to capitalize on fame at the expense of historical accuracy.
Here is a picture of where the Romanovs’ bodies, along with that of their faithful servants and doctor, were thrown down into a mineshaft on the night of 16-17 July 1918. Five churches have now been built there in memory of them, all without the use of nails.
It’s pretty hard to claim you’re still alive when your bones are lying buried in a shallow grave.
Alexei Nikolaevich’s remains, and those of one of the missing daughter’s (I believe it was Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna), have been re-interred with the family’s at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg.
I’ve been there, and it’s a moving place to visit. All of the tsars and tsaritsas (empresses) are buried there, beneath the floor. Over each grave is a massive marble block that resembles a coffin. When I saw them, I assumed first that the bodies were actually inside those structures, but I was told that the bodies are under the floor.
Here is a photo I took of the tomb of Peter the Great.
He was seven feet tall. You did not mess with this tsar.
Something amused me greatly while I was there in 2003: I noticed that Tsar Peter III is buried next to his wife, Empress Catherine the Great.
They hated each other in life; she is rumored to have ordered his execution soon after she seized power from him. Now, alas, they are lying next to each other for all eternity. I wonder what they'd have to say about that?
Nearby is the tomb of Empress Elizabeth, aunt of Peter III, who doted on Catherine.
Nicholas and his family are interred in a separate room from the main hall; you can’t actually go in because it’s cordoned off, perhaps out of respect, or perhaps because the room is so small.
The plaques on the wall list the family members' names and perhaps also some religious dedication or blessing. The servants' names may also appear; I remember reading somewhere that it was decided that since they died together in the service of their sovereigns, it was deemed appropriate that their remains stay with them.
(*So far as I’m aware, when “The Romanovs: The Last Chapter” was written, Alexei Nikolaevich’s and Maria Nikolaevna’s remains had not yet been discovered, and at the end of “Nicholas and Alexandra”, Massie addressed the “Anastasia controversy” as well. Since all the remains have now been identified, we can now say for certain that none of the children ever survived. Anyone claiming to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia, or any of the Imperial children, was either delusional or a liar.)
