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Despite their frequent visits to England, Queen Victoria never quite trusted the Romanovs. In her letters she referred to 'horrid Russia' and was adamant that she did not wish her granddaughters to marry into that barbaric country. 'Russia I could not wish for any of you,' she said. She distrusted Tsar Nicholas I but as a young woman she was bowled over by his son, the future Alexander II, although there could be no question of a marriage. Political questions loomed large and the Crimean War did nothing to improve relations. This distrust started with the story of the Queen's 'Aunt Julie', Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and her disastrous Russian marriage. Starting with this marital catastrophe, Romanov expert Coryne Hall traces sixty years of family feuding that include outright war, inter-marriages, assassination, and the Great Game in Afghanistan, when Alexander III called Victoria 'a pampered, sentimental, selfish old woman'. In the fateful year of 1894, Victoria must come to terms with the fact that her granddaughter has become Nicholas II's wife, the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Eventually, distrust of the German Kaiser brings Victoria and the Tsar closer together.Permission has kindly been granted by the Royal Archives at Windsor to use extracts from Queen Victoria's journals to tell this fascinating story of family relations played out on the world stage.… (more)
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While there's nothing new to be read here, it's a more complete look than the bits and pieces we pick up from various other books. It's nice to have all the accounts together in one volume. Queen Victoria definitely mistrusted her Russian counterparts. The treatment of her aunt at their hands definitely colored her views.
All in all, a worthy installment in the story of Queen Victoria and the Romanovs.
The most interesting parts of the book are detailed descriptions of visits and correspondence between those involved, many not available in other published sources. On the whole, too, the book is well-edited and has been properly fact checked. The author takes a balanced view of even the less reputable characters. It is a pity that she ends the book with the claim that by passing haemophilia into the Romanov family, Queen Victoria was partly responsible for the downfall of the dynasty and the two Russian revolutions of 1917. The idea that the revolutions would not have occurred had the tsarevitch Alexi not had haemophilia is farcical (especially as he was only 13 at the time).