Read The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia Online
Authors: Candace Fleming
The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia
Text copyright © 2014 by Candace Fleming
Jacket photographs courtesy of the Library of Congress
Map of Russia and family tree by Holly Pribble
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Schwartz & Wade Books, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fleming, Candace.
The family Romanov : murder, rebellion, and the fall of imperial Russia / Candace Fleming.
pages; cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-375-86782-8 (hc) — ISBN 978-0-375-96782-5 (glb) —
ISBN 978-0-375-89864-8 (ebook)
1. Russia—History—Nicholas II, 1894–1917. 2. Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia, 1868–1918—Family. 3. Romanov, House of. 4. Soviet Union—History—Revolution,
1917–1921. I. Title.
DK258.F5725 2014
947.08′30922—dc23
[B]
2013037904
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ANDACE
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EFORE
Y
OU
B
EGIN …
The ruler of Russia is called the tsar or emperor (the titles are interchangeable), his wife is either the tsaritsa or empress, and his male heir is called the tsarevich. His other children are given the title of grand duke if male or grand duchess if female. These last titles are passed down just one more generation, so a tsar’s grandchildren are also grand dukes and grand duchesses. But a tsar’s great-grandchildren hold only the rank of prince or princess. Thus grand dukes and grand duchesses outrank princes and princesses.
Russians have three names: a first name; a father’s name with
-ovich
or
-evich
(meaning “son of”) added if male, or
-evna
or
-ovna
(meaning “daughter of”) if female; and a last, or family, name. Therefore, Nicholas II’s daughter’s full name was Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova; his son’s full name was Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov.
Russian dates can be bewildering. That’s because during Nicholas’s reign, Russia used the old-style Julian calendar to record dates, when most of the world was using the new-style Gregorian calendar. This meant Russian dates lagged twelve days behind during the nineteenth century, and thirteen days behind during the twentieth. Thus Anastasia was born June 5, 1901, according to the Julian calendar, but June 18, 1901, by the Gregorian calendar. Since readers of this book are familiar with the Gregorian calendar, all dates in this book are given in the new style.
