Edvard Radzinsky

From the bestselling author of Stalin and The Last Tsar comes The Rasputin File, a remarkable biography of the mystical monk and bizarre philanderer whose role in the demise of the Romanovs and the start of the revolution can only now be fully known.For almost a century, historians could only speculate about the role Grigory Rasputin played in the downfall of tsarist Russia. But in 1995 a lost file from the State Archives turned up, a file that contained the complete interrogations of Rasputin's inner circle. With this extensive and explicit amplification of the historical record, Edvard Radzinsky has written a definitive biography, reconstructing in full the fascinating life of an improbable holy man who changed the course of Russian history.Translated from the Russian by Judson Rosengrant.From the Trade Paperback edition.

"Drawing on hitherto unpublished material from the Moscow archives, only recently opened up to Western scholars, and on personal testimonies and private papers gathered from all over Russia, Georgia and Abkhazia, Service challenges the conventional view of the Soviet leader as simply a murderous bureaucrat."--BOOK JACKET.

Swashbuckling counter spy Alex Hawke is the only man, both Americans and the Brits agree, who can stop the madness created by the new Russia and its new Tsar, who is pulling strings and pulling them hard.

The execution of Tsar Nicholas II and his family at the hands of revolutionaries in 1918 is one of the pivotal events of the 20th century, an event that brought the 300-year rule of the House of Romanov to a brutal and tragic end and set the tone for the Stalinist atrocities that would follow. The truth behind these murders remained long buried under more than seventy years of myth, legend, and speculation. Then, in a sensational biography that could not have been written before glasnost, noted Russian historian Edvard Radzinsky unearthed solutions to many of the questions that had remained unanswered since the terrible events in Ekaterinburg on the night of July 16-17, 1918. Mining sources long unavailable -- including firsthand accounts of the slaying -- he creates both a fascinating portrait of the monarch and a minute-by-minute account of his terrifying last days. Included is documentation linking the order of execution directly to Lenin, as well as the suggestion that two family members may have survived the ordeal. Included, too, is the testimony of ordinary Russians who at last felt free to contribute their own recollections, documents, and handed-down secrets. Radzinsky weaves together scores of firsthand accounts into a haunting, epic narrative. The Last Tsar is an important and momentous work, one that will stand as the definitive account of the terrible last days of one of Europe's greatest dynasties. - Adapted from dust jacket.

"Legend portrays Rasputin as the 'Mad Monk' who rampaged through St. Petersburg in an alcoholic haze, making love to scores of women. A symbol of excess and religious extremism, he was believed to hold a mysterious power, emanating from his hypnotic eyes, over Tsar Nicholas II and his family. The fact that he was neither mad nor a monk has not stopped scores of writers from repeating these and other bogus claims. In Rasputin: the untold story, Rasputin scholar Joseph Fuhrmann shares the fruits of this two-decade search for the truth about Rasputin through previously closed Soviet archives. The man he discovers is entirely human and even more fascinating than the Svengali-like caricature imagined by millions. This definitive biography unveils the truth behind Gregory Rasputin's storied life, controversial relationships, and much-discussed death. Furhmann unearths previously unknown details from Rasputin's childhood and his early years as a farmer and itinerant preacher to his decade-long relationship with the Romanovs."--Jacket.