The Complete Wartime Correspondence of Tsar Nicholas II and the Empress Alexandra: April 1914-March 1917 (Documentary Reference Collections)

Nicholas and his German-born wife Alexandra generally used English in writing each other. This is the first complete edition of their letters and telegrams, plus English translations of the few telegrams in Russian. We see in these pages the enormous love the couple shared against the backdrop of a bloody war and the approaching end of the Russian empire. Alexandra offers extensive commentary on hospitals and the wounded (she was a volunteer nurse). Nicholas II reports on the military and the war effort. The growing influence of Rasputin is also thoroughly documented in these texts. The reader sees in detail the crises that led to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the collapse of the tsarist regime. Important for all students of late Imperial Russia and World War I, and essential for those interested in the Romanovs.