The World went to War, our kingdom being no exception. For a long time nothing happened (except, you know, some wars, pogroms, assassinations)-until a bullet flew into the archduke of Austria. As anybody could see, the family was in a bit of a bind. But the wizard had come to be reviled throughout the kingdom. An entourage of doctors was helpless-only the wizard could bring the boy back from the brink of death.
But what nobody knew was that the little tsarevich was gravely ill with a royal disease of the blood: A bang on the knee could lead to death. Though he was “uncouth” and “sexually intimidating,” he granted their wish-at last there was a cause to launch 301 gun salutes (girls warranted only 101), and the kingdom rejoiced. At wit’s end, they sought the help of a wizard. They needed an heir, but instead kept popping out princesses. We see, almost for the first time, their journey from a childhood of enormous privilege, throughout which they led a very sheltered and largely simple life, to young womanhood – their first romantic crushes, their hopes and dreams, the difficulty of coping with a mother who was a chronic invalid and a haemophiliac brother, and, latterly, the trauma of the revolution and its terrible consequences.Ĭompellingly readable, meticulously researched and deeply moving, Four Sisters gives these young women a voice, and allows their story to resonate for readers almost a century after their death.Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, there lived an inept king and a scorned queen (versions vary in some she may be wicked, insane, abominable, all of the above). Drawing on their own letters and diaries, she paints a vivid picture of their lives in the dying days of the Romanov dynasty.
In Four Sisters acclaimed biographer Helen Rappaport offers readers the most authoritative account yet of the Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia. Their crime: to be the daughters of the last Tsar and Tsaritsa of All the Russias. Together with their parents and their thirteen-year-old brother, they were all brutally murdered. The eldest was twenty-two, the youngest only seventeen. On 17 July 1918, four young women walked down into the cellar of a house in Ekaterinburg.
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