History offers few eras richer in drama than the last years of imperial Russia. Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, Empress Alexandra, presided over a glittering world of huge palaces, lavish balls, and incomparable luxury. Then their cherished son Alexis was born. His hemophilia led to their tragic entanglement with the bizarre Siberian mystic Rasputin and eventually to the disintegration of their empire. Nicholas and Alexandra is the unforgettable intimate account of the entire imperial family, now in a trade paperback format for the first time. Told with scrupulous historical accuracy and stunning narrative power, Nicholas and Alexandra is a masterpiece of the biographer's art.

The story of Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra has fired the worlds imagination ever since their violent deaths during the Russian Revolution. In this biography, first published in 1967, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Massie sets out to show how the personal tragedy of the young heirs haemophilia, and the decisive influence it brought Rasputin, became fatally linked with the collapse of Imperial Russia. The book presents an account of one of historys most dramatic episodes, anportrait of the two people caught at the centre of the maelstrom.

«Winner of the Pulitzer Prize Against the monumental canvas of seventeenth — and eighteenth-century Europe and Russia unfolds the magnificent story of Peter the Great, crowned co-tsar at the age of ten. Robert K. Massie delves deep into the life of this captivating historical figure, chronicling the pivotal events that shaped a boy into a legend — including his «incognito» travels in Europe, his unquenchable curiosity about Western ways, his obsession with the sea and establishment of the stupendous Russian navy, his creation of an unbeatable army, his transformation of Russia, and his relationships with those he loved most: Catherine, the robust yet gentle peasant, his loving mistress, wife, and successor; and Menshikov, the charming, bold, unscrupulous prince who rose to wealth and power through Peter's friendship. Impetuous and stubborn, generous and cruel, tender and unforgiving, a man of enormous energy and complexity, Peter the Great is brought fully to life.»