Meredith’s Reviews > The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra > Status Update

Elizaveta Naryshkina: How splendid his reign could have been if only [Tsar Nicholas II] had understood the needs of an era!

Rappaport: Prime Minister Rodzianko continued to urge that the children be got away to safety, but Alexandra was adamant: ‘We’re not going anywhere. Let them do what they will...’
Me: Alas, Alexandra couldn’t read the writing on the wall. Measles or no, she should have had the children smuggled out of the country even if she chose to stay behind to be martyred with her husband.

It’s a shame that the Romanovs didn’t convince one of their daughters to marry Prince Carol of Romania. Then she, at least, would have survived the revolution.

Rappaport: [Tsar Nicholas II was] a man who, far from the blood-thirsty image projected, was kindly, sincere, and modest, a devoted husband and loving father, but who, as tsar, was utterly ill equipped emotionally and morally for the task with which accident of birth had charged him.
Me: Ain’t that the truth. More’s the pity.