The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion and the Fall of Imperial Russia

The Russian autocracy of which Tsar Nicholas is head rules under the authority of the Russian Orthodox Church, a sect steeped in centuries of “the miraculous and mystical” (28). Russian Orthodoxy relies on religious icons, worship of saints, and the council of holy men to affect almost magical results. Empress Alexandra, who grew up Lutheran but particularly “devout” (27), eagerly “embrace[s]” (27) Russian Orthodoxy after her marriage. She hangs more than 700 religious images on the wall of her bedroom, and when her son is born with hemophilia, she fills his nursery with hundreds of religious icons as well. Alexandra believes that praying to a holy man and making him a saint helps her to give birth to a son, and her faith leaves her vulnerable to “many a strange or shady character who claimed to have holy powers” (53). Of course, these “shady” figures include Rasputin, who plays up his own mystical power by appearing to mumble spells and predicting the future. Alexandra’s reliance on Rasputin—stemming from her lifelong devotion to religious mysticism—leads to her own and her country’s downfall.

Religious mysticism reappears in a different context at the end of The Family Romanov, as the Orthodox Church questions whether to canonize the Romanovs as saints.