map end-papers in colour (Russia in the reign of Nikolai I); b/w. frontis. photo. (Tsar Nicholas II with son Alexei) colour illust. of Romanov family crest; titles; contents; & cast of characters in the tragedy, to the front. For almost eight decades, the world has been fascinated by the tragic fate of the Romanovs - the last Tsar and Tsarina who were murdered, with their five Children, by the Bolsheviks in 1918. With the advent of perestroika and the crumbling of Soviet rule, the opportunity arose to' delve into hitherto forbidden rchives buried deep within the crypt of secrecy that was the Soviet system. This book is the product of years of work to shed more light on the tragic deaths in Yekaterinburg all those years ago. As well as unearthing material which sheds more light on their deaths, it provides an enthralling description of the last Romanovs as people. With hundreds of unique and historic photographs from the personal albums of Tsar Nicholas - an early camera enthusiast - and the whole family, here at last it's possible to put flesh on the bones of those tragic historic skeletons unearthed from their resting place in the Russian soil.