106 pages • 3 hours read
The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion and the Fall of Imperial Russia
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Symbols & Motifs
Religious Mysticism
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. While the church outside of Russia pronounces the Romanovs “martyred saints” (251), the church within Russia chooses the lesser designation of “passion bearers” (252). Both inside and outside of Russia, the Romanovs’ legacy lives on, as these former monarchs have become religious icons of their own, each with their own “individual shrines” (253).
Bloody Nicholas
Tsar Nicholas II first earns the epithet “Bloody Nicholas” after the political uprisings of 1905. Nicholas is determined to make his subjects “‘feel the whip’” (79) by authorizing countless arrests and executions, and establishing “Punitive Expeditions” where soldiers murder civilians “at random” and burn “entire communities without mercy” (80). The image of the “Bloody” tsar is a sea change in the Russian people’s relationship with their ruler: no longer seeing the tsar as a benevolent figure worthy of their respect and worship, they now submit only through “fear alone” (80). This loss of faith in their tsar ultimately leads to revolution, and the end of the Russian autocracy.
Batiushka Tsar
In contrast to the tsar’s reputation as “Bloody Nicholas,” the idea of the Batiushka Tsar, or “little father” tsar, forms a very different part of Nicholas’s public image. For generations, the Russian people have believed that the “good and loving father” (61) tsar will support them and help with any problems they bring to his attention. Nicholas hopes to draw on this legacy during World War I, when he takes on the role of military commander, believing that merely his “presence—symbolic and emotional—would spur the soldiers to even fiercer fighting” (142). However, Nicholas’s failure to lead effectively has destroyed the people’s belief in their “father” tsar, and even centuries of symbolic tradition can’t save Nicholas from being overthrown.
The Winter Palace in St. Petersburg
From the opening pages of The Family Romanov, Fleming establishes the Winter Palace as a symbol of the Romanovs’ wealth and power. The three-mile-long palace is full of gold chandeliers, marble statues, and “cathedral-size” rooms (1). It is from this palace that the Romanovs assert their authority—Nicholas travels there to announce Russia’s declaration of war during World War I, and the huge crowd surrounding the palace proclaims, “God save the Tsar” (132). Later, when the Bolsheviks take control of Petrograd during the October Revolution, revolutionaries sack the great palace and cry, “‘Property of the People!’” (203) Thus the palace, which represented the strength of the tsardom, now symbolizes its downfall as well.
The Imperial Park at Tsarkoe Selo
The Imperial Park, located fifteen miles from St. Petersburg and containing two palaces amid an idyllic country setting, is where Nicholas and Alexandra make their home for most of their reign. Alexandra encourages Nicholas to move from the Winter Palace, where the Romanovs have ruled for centuries, to this “‘enchanted fairyland’” where they can live “‘quietly, without seeing anyone’” (34), as Nicholas puts it. As Nicholas joins his growing family in country walks, photography excursions, and daily lunches and teas, he lives in what one historian calls “‘a sort of everlasting cozy tea-party’” (34). Clearly, Nicholas and his family’s life at Tsarkoe Selo represents their complete separation from the reality of Russia and its people. Choosing a fairy-tale existence over his duty to his people, Nicholas symbolically removes himself from the politics and events of the Russian capital. Willfully isolating and blinding himself, Nicholas shirks his responsibilities, and lays the groundwork for his own eventual downfall.
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