Romanoviana

What is it about the Romanovs?

Is it their royalty? Their tragic end? Their 300-year-long rule? The Rasputin thing? The fact that not all the bones were accounted for?

Whatever the explanation, scarcely a year goes by without another Romanov book of some sort making it to at least the outskirts of public awareness. This year is no different. At the time of this writing in late January, a new biography of Catherine the Great (by Robert Massie, an author made famous for his biography of Nicholas and Alexandra) had been on the New York Times bestseller list for 11 weeks. And three new works of Romanoviana had landed in our review pile. All of them works of fiction.

The Fallen Queen

By Jane Kindred (Entangled Publishing, $15.99)

This is the most “fun” of the three. A fantasy thriller, it isn’t about the Romanovs per se, but about a sort of Romanovian dynasty, if said Romanovs were supernal rulers in Heaven and all their number (The House of Arkhangel’sk) were killed off by a power-hungry, possessed cousin. One – Anazakia – escapes by a boredom-invoked fluke of fate, and is chased about Earth (i.e. modern day Russia) by Seraph assassins while being protected by a pair of fallen angels with all sorts of hidden agendas.

This is a tense, engaging fantasy thriller that is just a bit sassy or tongue in cheek and chock full of Russian flavor (not the least of which is the numerous Russian words dropped into the text with little or no explanation). A great read for a long winter weekend.

The Last Romanov

Dora Levy Mossanen (Sourcebooks, $14.99)

Speaking of last surviving members of a dynastic family… The Last Romanov is also a fantasy, but it branches off in a more romantic direction – think bodice-ripping historical fiction stirred up with a bit of magic.

Mossanen’s is a richly imagined tale that centers on the long and tumultuous life of a century-old woman, Darya – daughter of a grand duke and a circus dancer, whose fate is bound up with the Romanovs in ways she herself does not fully comprehend. She feels responsible for their fate, and especially for that of the tsarevich.

Somehow convinced that the Tsarevich Alexei survived the family’s mass execution in Yekaterinburg (which she herself miraculously survived, whisked away by her Jewish lover), Darya spends her life searching for the heir, egged on by the incongruously powerful Russian Nobility Association, and by the prophesies of Rasputin.

The Winter Palace

Eva Stachniak (Bantam, $26)

This is unquestionably the finest among this troika of Romanoviana.

It is the life story of Varvara, the facile, observant daughter of a Polish bookbinder who, after her father’s death, gets a modest position in Empress Elizabeth’s Winter Palace. Laboring away haplessly as a seamstress, her keen eye and memory, to say nothing of her fluency in German, are soon discovered by the unscrupulous Bestuzhev, who then personally trains her in all the wiles of a “tongue” or court spy.

Young Varvara is in the right place at the right time, first serving as a chambermaid for Elizabeth’s handpicked heir – the incompetent Peter III, then as the friend and confidante of Peter’s bride, Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg – the future Catherine II (a.k.a. “The Great”).

Stachniak crafts a wonderful tale of court intrigue that is rich in detail, bringing to life the sights, sounds and smells of eighteenth century Russia. Varvara is a compelling heroine who endures numerous plots and counterplots, and the book charts her life just through Catherine’s coup, ending on some satisfyingly unexpected twists. Yet clearly this is just the beginning, as we are told Stachniak is working on a sequel about Catherine’s reign.

Given that Catherine ruled for 34 years, we can expect the Romanoviana to continue for some time to come.

Not Romanoviana

Notes on the Cuff & Other Stories

Mikhail Bulgakov (Ardis, $17.95) Translated by Alison Rice

This Ardis reissue collects several of Bulgakov’s short prose works – including a fantastic and funny autobiographical account of his start as a writer, against all odds – mainly light reportage that predates his playwriting and longer fiction. The genius is here in full view.

The Russian Origins of the First World War

Sean McMeekin (Belknap Harvard, $29.95)

For nearly 100 years, historians have blamed Germany for the start of World War I, saying that Bismarck ordered mobilization to preempt Russia, which was expected to come to the aid of Serbia, which in turn had been issued an untenable ultimatum by Austria, Germany’s ally. But McMeekin looks more deeply into the historical record, uncovering convincing proof in previously closed archives that in fact Germany’s mobilization was in response to unequivocal evidence of a not-so-secret Russian mobilization throughout Poland and western Russia.

What is more, McMeekin delves into Russia’s motives for war. Questioning the common notion of Russian concern for Serbia, he shows that the real driver behind Russian actions was a long-standing desire to gain control of the Black Sea straits, or at least to keep it out of German hands.

A thorough and convention-shattering account, albeit one that often assumes a bit too much reader knowledge of related history.

Russia: A 1000-Year Chronicle of the Wild East

Martin Sixsmith (Overlook, $37.95)

You would think there was not much need for yet another history of Russia. Think again.

Sixsmith turns his journalist’s eye on the full span of Russian history and delivers an immensely entertaining and readable tome. The work is enriched by his deep and long-term involvement in the country as a BBC reporter (we find out he was, among other things, with General Gromov and the last Soviet convey to leave Afghanistan, and with Sinyavsky after Daniel’s funeral) and even the earlier sections of the book are made lively by his intermixing of historical narrative with personal visits to the sites where important events took place.

The chapters are short and dense, yet thorough enough for the general reader. Throughout, Sixsmith continually returns to the theme of Russia’s millennial struggle between autocracy and democracy, a struggle which recent events shows continues unabated.