List of Illustrations

1.   Nicholas II and son Alexei (Bridgeman Images)

2.   Nicholas in Muscovite garb (Hoover Institution Archives)

3.   Grigori Rasputin, the one man who could settle young Alexei in his bouts of haemophilia (Hoover Institution Archives)

4.   The imperial train in which Nicholas II signed his act of abdication (Hoover Institution Archives)

5.   General Mikhail Alexeev (Hoover Institution Archives)

6.   Grand Duke Mikhail (Hoover Institution Archives)

7.   Abdication draft (Hoover Institution Archives)

8.   Nicholas, Alexandra, their four daughters and son (Bridgeman Images)

9.   Alexandra nursing her son Alexei (Hoover Institution Archives)

10.   Alexandra in her wheelchair at Tsarskoe Selo (Hoover Institution Archives)

11.   Letter from ‘Niki’ to his mother Maria Fëdorovna from Tsarskoe Selo (Hoover Institution Archives)

12.   Olga Romanova and Anna Vyrubova (General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, Romanov Family Album 3, page 53, image no. 7)

13.   Nicholas II and George V (Hoover Institution Archives)

14.   Alexander Guchkov (Hoover Institution Archives)

15.   Alexander Kerensky (Hoover Institution Archives)

16.   Pavel Milyukov (Hoover Institution Archives)

17.   Sir George Buchanan (Hoover Institution Archives)

18.   General Lavr Kornilov (Hoover Institution Archives)

19.   Alexander Kerensky among army officers and troops (Hoover Institution Archives)

20.   Freedom House, Tobolsk (Hoover Institution Archives)

21.   Guard detachment section at Freedom House (Hoover Institution Archives)

22.   Nicholas and Alexandra on their Tobolsk balcony (Hoover Institution Archives)

23.   Letter to his mother two days after October Revolution (Hoover Institution Archives)

24.   Nicholas and Alexei tending the hens at Freedom House (Bridgeman Images)

25.   Olga Romanova pulling her brother Alexei on a sledge (Hoover Institution Archives)

26.   Vasili Pankratov (Hoover Institution Archives)

27.   Evgeni Botkin, the Romanovs’ devoted personal physician (Bridgeman Images)

28.   Sydney Gibbes (Original photograph, photographer unknown)

29.   Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden (Original photograph, photographer unknown)

30.   Pierre Gilliard (Private Collection)

31.   Ekaterinburg station no. 1 (Hoover Institution Archives)

32.   The Ipatev house (Hoover Institution Archives)

33.   Alexander Beloborodov (By courtesy of the author)

34.   Filipp Goloshchëkin (By courtesy of the author)

35.   Yakov Yurovski (By courtesy of the author)

36.   Vladimir Lenin (By courtesy of the author)

37.   Yakov Sverdlov (By courtesy of the author)

38.   Bloodstained wall, Ipatev house (Hoover Institution Archives)

39.   Armoured train used by Czechoslovak unit (Hoover Institution Archives)

40.   The start of the Mirolyubov file (Hoover Institution Archives)

41.   Dowager Empress Maria Fëdorovna seated in front of her son Nicholas (Bridgeman Images)

42.   Telegram from ‘Alex’ to ‘Minnie’ (Hoover Institution Archives)