Nicholas: The Last Tsar :: essays research papers

In his book, The Last Tsar, Edvard Radzinsky describes a very interesting base of the life and death of Nicholas Alexandrovich, the last Russian Tsar. Radzinskys illustration of this ill-fated monarch butterfly follows the diaries of Nicholas from their beginning on March 1, 1881, to the final entry on July 16, 1918.1 Radzinsky principally goes over pre-marital relationship between Nicholas and Alexandra, the medical condition of Nicholas word of honor, Alexei, and the imprisonment and performance of Nicholas and his family. The relationship between Nicholas II and Alexandra began in 1884. Alexandra, the daughter of Louis IV, the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, a tiny state in Germany, was born in 1872.2 Her grandmother was nance Victoria of England, her oldest sister hook up with an English prince, her second sister married a Russian Grand Duke and her third sister married a German prince. Nicholas and Alexandra met during the wedding of her second sister, Ella, to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. Alexandra was nevertheless twelve and Nicholas was only sixteen, but he stated in his diary that he omit in love with her a first sight. Nicholas father, Tsar Alexander III, did non approve of Alexandra, because of the fact that she was the granddaughter of the English Queen. Instead, he suggested that Nicholas marry a princess from the provide of Orleans. His decision was basely mainly on politics, as he was nisus for an alliance between Russia and France. Alexanders suggestion did not have any accomplishment on Nicholas, as he seemed certain to marry his childhood sweetheart, Alexandra. That day came in 1894, when Alexander was on his deathbed, suffering from a kidney disease that he had contracted in a train wreck six eld earlier. On April 8, 1894, at the wedding of Alexandras brother, her and Nicholas were engaged.3 On November 14, 1894, a month aft(prenominal) the death of his father Nicholas married Alexandra and officially became the tsar of Rus sia.Alexei Nikolaevich, the first son of Nicholas and Alexandra was born on July 30, 1904, following the births of four daughters. The problem of who would rule Russia in case of an accident to Nicholas was solved. However, there was a new problem, as Alexei was diagnosed with hemophilia. bleeders disease is a disease that weakened the walls of the arteries so that "any blow or intense pressure stinkpot cause the blood vessels to burst and can mean the end."4 Rumours of a holy man, named Grigory Rasputin, however, living in the backwoods of Siberia gave rise to Alexanders hopes that her sons hemophilia could be cured.