The story of the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, and his family.

We discuss their early lives, marriage, and the challenges they faced, such as their son Alexei's hemophilia and the introduction of Rasputin into their lives. Following this, we cover the political turmoil and the unrest leading up to World War I, Nicholas's role in the war, and his eventual abdication. Both primary sources, Sophie and Pierre, provide firsthand accounts of the family's final days.

Image

Nicholas II of Russia with the family (left to right): Olga, Maria, Nicholas II, Alexandra Fyodorovna, Anastasia, Alexei, and Tatiana.

Livadiya, Crimea, 1913.

Portrait by the Levitsky Studio, Livadiya. Today the original photograph is held at the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Sources

Buxhoeveden, Sophie. The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia. Original, 1928.

Denikin, Anton. The Russian Turmoil; Memoirs: Military, Social, and Political. The Field Press Ltd. Windsor, London, 1922.

Figes, Orlando. A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924. Penguin Books, 1998.

Gatrell, Peter. A Whole Empire Walking: Refugees in Russia During World War I. Indiana University Press, 1999.

Gillard, Peter. Thirteen Years in a Russian Court. 1920, Wentworth Press.

Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi. The Last Tsar: The Abdication of Nicholas II and the Fall of the Romanovs. Basic Books, 2024.

Lenin, Essential Works of Lenin: ‘What is to be Done?’ and Other Writings. Ed. By Henry M. Christman. Dover, 1929.

Massie, Robert K. Nicholas and Alexandra: The Classic Account of the Fall of the Romanov Dynasty. Random House Trade, 2000.

“Nicolas’s Diaries” https://www.alexanderpalace.org

Pipes, Richard. Three ‘whys’ of the Russian Revolution. A Vintage Original, 1995.

Radzinsky, Edward. The Last Tsar: The Life and Death of Nicholas II. Anchor, 1973.

“Russian Revolution,” https://alphahistory.com/russianrevolution/russian-revolution-quotations-rasputin

Semertzides, Meletios. The Twilight of the Tsars: Russia’s Fall and the Birth of Revolution. Volume 3. Trade Paperback, 2025.

Smith, Douglas. Rasputin: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs. Picador Farrar, Straus and Giroux New York, 2016.

“The Nicky and Willy Telegrams (1914).” https://alphahistory.com/worldwar1/nicky-and-willy-telegrams-1914

Wilhelm II. The Willy-Nicky Correspondence: Being the Secret and Intimate Telegrams Exchanged between the Kaiser and the Tsar. Forward by Theodore Roosevelt. Toronto, 1918.

That time China declared a war on drugs, and found themselves pitted against the narco traffickers of the 19th century - the British Empire. Welcome to the first Opium War.

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Commissioner Lin and the Destruction of the Opium in 1839.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Destruction_of_opium_in_1839.jpg

Sources

Chang, Hsin Pao. Commissioner Lin and the Opium War. The Norton Library. W.W. Norton and Company, inc. New York, 1970.

Cree, Dr. Edward H. Naval Surgeon: The Voyages of Dr. Edward H. Cree, Royal Navy, as Related in his Private Journals, 1837-1856. Dutton Adult, 1982.

Fu, Lo-shu (1966). A Documentary Chronicle of Sino-Western relations, Volume 1. p. 380

Fairbank, John King. Trade and Diplomacy on the Chinese Coast, Vol. 1. The Opening of the Treaty Ports, 1842-1854. Harvard University Press, 1953.

Farooqui, Amar. Smuggling as Subversion: Colonialism, Indian Merchants, and the Politics of Opium, Lexington, 2005.

Fu, Lo-shu (1966). A Documentary Chronicle of Sino-Western relations, Volume 1. p. 380

Haijian, Mao. The Qing Empire and the Opium War: The Collapse of the Heavenly Dynasty. English text edited by Joseph Lawson. Cambridge Univeristy Press, 2016.

Letter to Queen Victoria. Chinese Repository, vol. VIII, no 10 (February 1940): 497-503. Internet Archive

Levanthes, Louise. When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405-1433. Oxford University Press, 1994.

Lovell, Julia. The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams, and the Making of Modern China. Picador, 2011.

Morse, Hosea Ballou. The Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire. London and New York, 1908.

Morse. International Relations of the Chinese Empire, Vol. 1, Appendix A

https://web.archive.org/web/20160502205830/http://chinaforeignrelations.net/node/247

The Times (London). August 19, 1840, p. 3. [An account of the 1839 confinement of the foreign shipping at Whampoa by the surgeon of a detained ship, taken from The Times (London), August 19, 1840, pg. 3] in Hsin-pao Chang. Commissioner Lin and the Opium War. The Norton Library. W.W. Norton and Company, inc. New York, 1964.

“Treaty of Nanking” https://worldjpn.net/documents/texts/pw/18420829.T1E.html

Waley, Arthyr. The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes. Stanford University Press, 1958.

Lin Zezu, Letter to Queen Victoria (1839) https://media.bloomsbury.com/rep/files/Primary%20Source%2013.0%20-%20Lin.pdf

After Kristallnacht, there were few places still taking in Jews fleeing Nazi Germany. One of those was Shanghai, under Japanese occupation. When Japan entered the war as allies of Germany, the fate of these refugees hung in the balance.

Photo

The arrival of Jewish refugees from Austria in Shanghai. The refugees are disembarking from the Italian ship Conte Verde. 1938 December 14

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park

References

German and Austrian Jewish Refugees in Shanghai

Griffiths, James. Shanghei’s Forgotten Jewish Past in The Atlantic. 21 November 2013.

Judgement of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Part B. Chapter VII: The Pacific War. November 1948 https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llmlp/Judgment-IMTFE-Vol-II-PartB-Chapter-VIII/Judgment-IMTFE-Vol-II-PartB-Chapter-VIII.pdf

Kozak, Warren. The Rabbi of 84th Street: The Extraordinary Life of Haskel Besser. Harper Perennial, 2005.

Mitter, Rana. Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II, 1937-1945. Mariner Books, 2014.

National Public Radio. “Where did 20,000 Jews hide from the Holocaust? In Shanghai”. 6 August 2023.

Newman, Amy. The Nuremberg Laws: Institutionalized Anti-Semitism. Lucent Books Inc., 1999.

“Polish Jewish Refugees in the Shanghai Ghetto, 1941-1945”. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

“Proclamation of Restricted Zone in Shanghai for Refugees.” Issued 18 February 1943. From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.

“Research Starters: Worldwide Deaths in World War II”. The National World War II Museum: New Orleans.

Reischauser, Edwin O. Japan: The Story of a Nation. 4th Edition. McGraw-Hill Publishing, 1964.

Tennembaum, Baruch. “Feng-Shan Ho, Chinese Savior”. International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation”

“Good-bye Mr. Ghoya pamphlet”. Accession number 1998.49.1. Friedrich Melchior Collection. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C.

RG-50.477.0391. Oral History Interview with Hans Arons. From the Bay Area Oral History Project donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC

RG-50.477.1231. Oral History Interview with Hella Levi. From the Bay Area Holocaust Oral History Project donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC

RG-50.462.0069 Oral History Interview with Walter Silberstein. Gift of the Gratz College Holocaust Oral History Archive. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C.

RG-50.462.0441. Oral History Interview with Willie Nowak From the Gratz College Oral History Archive donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC