The Romanovs summary

On June 25, 1682, an unusual coronation takes place in the Kremlin. Ivan V, Michael Romanov’s grandson, is crowned tsar of Russia. At the same time, his half-brother, Peter I, is also crowned tsar of Russia. In other words, Russia is given two tsars. Why? This strange co-coronation is designed to ease tensions at court. Both new tsars were backed by different factions of the nobility. But 15-year-old Ivan has a mental illness. Peter is a child of ten. Neither can be expected to rule Russia – yet.

Watching the coronation from behind a grille is Sophia, Ivan’s older sister and Peter’s half-sister. As a woman, she’s not allowed to attend. But she has also just been named Regent – this effectively makes her Russia’s first female sovereign.

When it comes to wild, alcohol-fueled antics, Peter the Great makes rock stars like Keith Richards look like amateurs. At any one time his entourage consists of between 80 and 200 members. This ragtag troupe of nobles, soldiers, jesters, dwarves, dancing girls, and circus performers is dubbed the Jolly Company. First rule of the Jolly Company? Never go to bed sober. No coincidence that several members of Peter’s entourage are reported to have died from alcohol poisoning.

No one partakes in the company’s carousing with more gusto than Peter. Yet, Peter also wakes up every morning at dawn, to begin the work of running his tsardom. Despite his wild reputation, Peter the Great is much more than a mere party animal.

Peter the Great doesn’t play by the rules – including the rules of heredity. Before he dies, in 1725, he crowns his second wife Catherine tsarina. Up to now, Russia has never been ruled by a woman. But while Catherine is the first tsarina, she definitely isn’t the last.

When Catherine dies in 1727, Peter II rules for a short time before succumbing to smallpox in 1730. Peter’s reign is undramatic, but his death has drama to spare. Prince Ivan Dolgoruky, the brother of Peter’s wife-to-be Ekaterina, emerges from Peter’s deathbed waving a will that crowns Ekaterina tsarina. This would pave the way for his family, the Dolgorukys, to usurp the throne. But the will is soon found to be a fake! The throne is still up for grabs.

From Elizabeth I to Hillary Clinton, powerful women throughout history have had to appear feminine while also demonstrating the strength and ambition that leadership demands. In eighteenth century Russia, no woman walks this fine line with more aplomb than Catherine the Great. Catherine cultivated ladylike interests, like watercolor painting and gardening, but is known to have said, “It is necessary to have a wolf’s teeth and a fox’s tail.”

Take, for example, her coronation. Catherine is a vision. She is wearing a sumptuous gown and is dripping with jewels. It is hard to believe that this enchanting woman has recently seized power from her own husband, Tsar Peter III. In his brief, six-month reign, Peter alienated crucial allies like the Russian Orthodox church and the military. Seeing the tide has turned against her husband, Catherine has him arrested, and takes charge of Russia. Her reign proves far more influential than her husband’s.

The nineteenth century dawns on a troubled Russia. The Romanov’s empire now stretches from the Baltic to the Black Sea, but their relations with the rest of Europe are frosty. Domestically, a bloated court makes it hard to get anything done. Meanwhile, millions of serfs are enslaved by landowners – and they’re growing increasingly unhappy with their lot.

In the face of these issues, Tsar Alexander I ascends to the throne in 1801. He has an appetite to reform and modernize.

Liberte, egalite, fraternite: when Russian troops return from Paris, some of them bring French revolutionary ideals home to Russia.

Revolutionary cells form. One is called the Northern Society. They want to abolish Russian autocracy and replace it with a British-style constitutional monarchy. But they have to wait for the right moment. In December 1825, Alexander I dies. His heir Constantin then renounces the throne. This is the chance, and the Northern Society seizes it. The revolutionaries – known as the Decembrists – stage a coup to overthrow the Romanovs. Can they succeed? No, they are soon defeated. The new Tsar Nicholas I, has 5 Decembrists shot, 31 imprisoned, and hundreds more exiled to Siberia. The revolution has been quashed – but Russia’s appetite for revolution isn’t sated.

It’s 1894, and Tsar Nicholas II has ascended the throne. The class struggle is a hot-button issue and socialism is taking root among the proletariat. Nicholas needs to unify the country. But he’s started off on the wrong foot.

At the tsar’s coronation, attendees at the public celebrations are promised a gift: an enamel mug, a sausage, and some gingerbread. 400,000 gifts are prepared. 700,000 people attend. Nearly 3,000 of his subjects, chiefly workers and peasants, die in a crowd crush.

The revolution that brings the Romanovs to their knees starts out small. On International Women’s Day, 1917, the female workers at a St. Petersburg textile factory go on strike. Tsar Nicholas II isn’t concerned. He’s recently had his interior minister arrest prominent socialists. His soldiers are on hand to deal with any troublemakers. Meanwhile, Russia is losing men, and money, at an alarming rate in World War I. Nicholas thinks a few women striking is the least of his problems.

He couldn’t be more wrong.