Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Release Date: February 22, 2022
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Thrillers & Suspense / Historical
In this harrowing novel perfect for fans of Ruta Sepetys and Elizabeth Wein, two girls from separate worlds flee across the Russian countryside at the height of the Bolshevik Revolution.
Russia, 1918: With the execution of Tsar Nicholas, the empire
crumbles and Russia is on the edge of civil war—the poor are devouring
the rich. Anna, a bourgeois girl, narrowly escaped the massacre of her
entire family in Yekaterinburg. Desperate to get away from the
Bolsheviks, she offers a peasant girl a diamond to take her as far south
as possible—not realizing that the girl is a communist herself. With
her brother in desperate need of a doctor, Evgenia accepts Anna's offer,
and suddenly finds herself on the wrong side of the war.
Anna is being hunted by the Bolsheviks, and now—regardless of her loyalties—Evgenia is too.
Daughters of a Dead Empire is a harrowing historical thriller and an imaginative retelling of the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanov story. With the execution of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia in July, 1918, the empire crumbles and Russia is on the edge of civil war, and the poor are devouring the rich thanks to Lenin's Bolshevik Rebellion and the mistrust between the rich and poor. 17-year-old Anna, a bourgeois girl, narrowly escaped the massacre of her entire family in Yekaterinburg. Hidden in her clothes/corset are a fortune in diamonds, emeralds and sapphires.
Desperate to get away from the Bolsheviks, she offers a peasant girl a diamond to take her as far south as possible to meet her cousin, a member of the White Army, not realizing that the girl is a communist herself. With her brother, Kostya, in desperate need of a doctor after losing his leg in the war, 16-year-old Evgenia Koltsova accepts Anna's offer, and suddenly finds herself on the wrong side of the war. Anna is being hunted by the Bolsheviks under her families killer, Commander Yurovsky, and now—regardless of her loyalties—Evgenia is too.
As the girls travel together, Evgenia realizes the girls have more in common than she first thought, and takes her to the safety of her home and family. But Anna's past keeps finding ways to catch up to her and the secrets she thought she could hide are about to explode to the surface. The novel is a heavy, pull-no-punches look at the turmoil of the Russian Civil War and the resulting tragedy and destruction. Chapters alternate between Anna and Evgenia's first-person points of view, providing both Tsarist and Bolshevik perspectives.
People who love historical characters will likely never forget about the slaughter of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, his family, and members of his household, by a group of Bolsheviks under Commander Yurovsky, a Soviet Chekist (secret policeman) in July 1918. One could say that Yurovsky worried that the White Army, former loyalists who were upset that the Bolsheviks pulled Russia out of World War I, would reinstall the Tsar and smother their Communist rebellion which will eventually kill millions of Russians, and others races.
According to historical records, Germany wanted to ensure that the youngest Romanov's were kept safe. The Bolsheviks indicated that the 2 youngest Romanov children had survived the massacre because they somehow escaped beforehand. Until the 1990's, romantics had always though that Anastasia Romanov survived her families slaughter at Ipatiev House because two bodily remains were missing.
Allegedly, there was a curse put upon the royal family by Grigori Rasputin, the peasant confidant, mystic, and advisor to the czar who would be killed 1 1/2 years after his curse. Many Russian people blamed Rasputin for their miseries because of his ill advice to the czar, which included getting their country involved in a bloody world conflict which would kill one million Russians.
There have been at least a dozen, if not more, books written about Anastasia. I will give the author credit for doing her own research, and putting an interesting touch on what may have happened had Anna really did survive that brutal day in July of 1918. Here's the bottom line, whether Anastasia actually lived, or not, her disappearance is one of those mysteries that might remain a mystery until the end of time.
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