"After all, the nursery was the center of all Russia's Trouble" this quote by Sir Bernard Pares was the line that caught my attention when I decided to go through this 1967 biography of the last royal family of Russia by historian Robert K. Massie. Being not much of a fan of non fiction literature I was a little reluctant when my mother recommended this book to me and told me that this book was one of a kind. But all my reservations was removed the moment I came across this line. What part does a nursery play in determining the fate of a nation and that to a nation such as Russia?. But this book illustrates that this is exactly what happened in the case of Russia and the last of the Romanov dynasty. Before reading this book my knowledge of Russia and its Imperial family was confined to what I have learned in my history classes and read from popular fiction books. Songs like Rasputin by Boney M and movies like 'Anastasia' have only done its part in increasing my misconceptions about the royal family. I never had before read the inside account about the lives of all those historical characters that has played their part in shaping the world as we know it. Suffix to say this book was all I needed to set things straight. Having a son diagnosed with hemophilia Massie's attempt to learn how other families dealt with the problems raised by this unique disease turned in to curiosity about the response of the parents of the boy who was the most famous hemophiliac of all, the Tsarevich Alexis, the only son and heir of Nicholas II, the last Tsar of all of Russias and his wife Empress Alexandra. The birth of the Tsarvich more than anything else determined the later course of Russian History. The effort to deal with the agonies inflicted on her son by this disease the Empress turned to Gregory Rasputin, the Siberian starlet and whose influence on the royal family and through them on the government of Russia helped to bring about to the fall of the dynasty. Weaving together the vast wealth of information left in the form of diaries, letters and memoirs by the men and women who were intimately involved in this drama Massie brings to life the story of the last Romanov Family, mainly that of Nicholas II not as a Tsar that lead to the downfall of Tsarism but as man, a husband and a father. A few see him as the symbol of fading age and even idolize him while others insist that he was "Bloody Nicholas" stupid and shallow. But he was a good man with personal charm, gentleness, love of family and Russian patriotism too overwhelming to be denied. But the author himself quotes that the tragedy of Nicholas II was that he appeared in the wrong place at the wrong time. Caught in a web Nicholas paid for his mistakes by forsaking everything he held dear. Thrust with responsibilities he never wanted in the first place. Fated to play a the part history has reserved for him Nicholas II was an exceptional man. The author through this book empathizes with a father who is forced to play out a role of the father of a handicapped boy while trying to do justice to the million who sees him as their father. This book indeed is a tribute to the man who tried to do what was right always but ended up making mistakes all along the way. But this is not just a story about hemophilia but so much more than that. It is a love story with all the political intricacies, a story of self sacrifice and outstanding courage, it is the story of a family whose simplest actions was brought under public scrutiny, story of those human beings whose actions would have been deemed normal and worthy of understanding if not for the positions they occupied. This book shows the other side of what we presume as a royal and luxurious life and should not be missed by anyone who seeks the truth.