Tatiana was the “absolutely linchpin” of the family who was next in line as their “protector” after Alexandra. “The railings of the Alexander Park had now become a public sideshow where people gathered in order to catch a glimpse of the former tsar and his family whenever they emerged in the garden,” Rappaport writes.Įventually, house arrest in a palace dwindled into house arrest in a two-story house in Tobolsk, further limiting the family’s movement and demoralizing them.Īgain, Rappaport zeroes in on the distinct individuals, this time through the perspective of Klavdiya Bitner, a recent addition to the household.

Guards roamed the halls, and the public was often peeking into the property. As the parents strove to protect him, they wound up sheltering all the children, which made them less worldly and perhaps more innocent.īut after Nicholas abdicated in 1917, the family found itself essentially under house arrest in the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoe Selo, without any guarantee of privacy or kindness. The youngest child, Alexey, the heir apparent, suffered from hemophilia. Rappaport adds that Anastasia “was an impossible pupil inattentive, always eager to be doing anything other than sit still, yet despite not being academically bright she had an instinctive gift for dealing with people.”Įven before the Russian Revolution, the Romanovs’ world had become more insular.

Maria “was the least affected by any sense of her station” and “was the most open-hearted and sincere.”Īs for Anastasia, “the youngest Romanov daughter was a force of nature to whose presence it was impossible to remain indifferent,” Rappaport writes.

Tatiana at the same time “seemed an extraordinarily self-possessed young girl, but she was in fact emotionally cautious and reserved, like her mother. The oldest, Olga, was 10 in 1905, and Rappaport describes the child as “curious and full of questions” and says that “her flashes of anger revealed a dark side that she sometimes found difficult to control.” The public often perceived them as virtually interchangeable, but Rappaport presents each as a unique individual. Throughout the book, we get to know Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia, from birth through their very young deaths.

The romanov sisters book review