Epigraph

"I have a firm, an absolute conviction that the fate of Russia—that my own fate and that of my family—is in the hands of God who has placed me where I am. Whatever may happen to me, I shall bow to His will with the consciousness of never having had any thought other than that of serving the country which He has entrusted to me."



NICHOLAS II "After all, the nursery was the center of all Russia's troubles."



SIR BERNARD PARES "The Empress refused to surrender to fate. She talked incessantly of the ignorance of the physicians . . . She turned towards religion, and her prayers were tainted with a certain hysteria. The stage was ready for the appearance of a miracle worker . . ."



GRAND DUKE ALEXANDER "The illness of the Tsarevich cast its shadow over the whole of the concluding period of Tsar Nicholas II's reign and alone can explain it. Without appearing to be, it was one of the main causes of his fall, for it made possible the phenomenon of Rasputin and resulted in the fatal isolation of the sovereigns who lived in a world apart, wholly absorbed in a tragic anxiety which had to be concealed from all eyes."



PIERRE GILLIARD

Tutor of Tsarevich Alexis "Without Rasputin, there could have been no Lenin."



ALEXANDER KERENSKY