Meredith’s Reviews > The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia > Status Update

Nero allegedly played the violin as Rome burned, and Tsar Nicholas II played dominoes on the eve of the revolution.

Mumps or not, Alexandra should have evacuated the children when she had the chance.

Rasputin's prediction may have been prophetic or self-serving, but he was certainly right that if Russia entered World War I, it would be a bloodbath for the people and bring the end of the imperil family.

What I never understood is why Tsar Nicholas II didn’t abdicate to another male Romanov relative since he felt unqualified to rule and didn’t want to rule. Then he and Alex could have happily lived in simple pious seclusion on a country estate somewhere. If they had become landed gentry in Great Britain where Alix’s grandmother was queen, then they could have avoided the revolution and lived happily ever after.

Correction: The tsar is not the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia is the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.