Nicholas and Alexandra Author:Robert K Massie History offers few eras richer in drama than the last years of Imperial Russia. Tsar Nicholas II, ruler of one sixth of the earth and more than 120 million Russians, presided over a glitering world of huge palaces, lavish balls, incomparable luxury. For Nicholas and his wife Alexandra (Queen Victoria's favorite grandaughter)the happiest moment... more » of their reign was the long awaited birth of a male heir, their only son, Alexis. Yet just 6 weeks later, Fate crushed the Imperial parents with a ruthless blow. Semmingly, without cause, Alexis began to hemorrahe from the navel. The diagnosis did not take long: from his great-grandmother Queen Victoria, the tiny Tsarevich had inherited a dread disease, hemophilia. Robert K Massie, having read all the diaries, letters and memoirs left by those who played major roles in this stormy and tragic epoch, has woven together the first detailed, intimate account of an Imperial family, whose struggle with disease and with the disintegration of a dynasty and an empire was to have momentous consequences for the entire world. Told with scrupulous historical accuracy and stunning narrative power, Nicholas and Alexandra is a masterpiece of the biographer's art.« less