#robert alexander

[plumduvet]

[fidjiefidjie]

Bonjour ,bonne journée ☕️ ⛩️

Deux lutteurs Sumo à Tokyo 🇯🇵 Japon 1971

Photo de Robert Alexander/ Getty Images

[atlantes96]

🏅 Robert Alexander 💣 💣 💣

28.9.25

[foreverinthepagesofhistoryy]

Romanov Reads; a book review series

Episode 1: “The Kitchen Boy” by Robert Alexander

Pages: 204 -

Published: January 2003

Genre: Historical Fiction

The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander is a brilliant piece of fiction that revolves around the last kitchen boy to the Romanov Family, Leonid Sednev (pronounced Sednyov), and his story of living and working at the Ipatiev House aka “The House of Special Purpose”.

As a preface, this book was written in 2003 which is a key factor you need to know before reading this book. At the time this book was written only one of the two Romanov gravesites had been discovered and this is the grave containing the Imperial Couple (Nicholas and Alexandra), 3 of their daughters (Olga, Tatiana, and Anastasia), and their 4 servants (Botkin, Kharitonov, Trupp, and Demidova). This gravesite was discovered by amateur archaeologists in 1991 and was concealed until after the fall of the Soviet Union before it was shown to the public. Deep analysis and reconstruction of the full skeleton sets were done which concluded who was in these graves and who was not. Skeletal reconstruction shows that only 3 daughters were accounted for and there were no bones belonging to an almost 14 year old boy or a 4th daughter. The remains of the 4th daughter (Maria) and son (Alexei) were found 4 years after this book was published, in 2007, so this book explores what could’ve happened to the missing two bodies. This explains everything that happened in the last third of the book and is significant because it helps you understand the author’s creative purposes. Now knowing and understanding this crucial information, we can now provide a description of the accuracies and inaccuracies of this book.

This book is historical fiction. This is important because it is not the real Lyonka talking but is a reconstruction. This reconstruction is a beautifully and is surprisingly very historically accurate. All of the big details were covered and the author beautifully portrayed the real emotions of the family during their last weeks and even for their lives before that. Besides little specific things about Lyonka’s part in their story and very little factual differences like how the Ipatiev house was torn down in the 1960s vs the 1990s, this book was deeply accurate to its core when focusing on true facts alone.

Obviously the storyline of this book is far different and inaccurate to what happened in real life because of stylistic choices and when it was written. If you are looking for a direct source on what happened on July 17th 1918, this is not the book for that. If you are looking for a creative interpretation on the last weeks and last moments and legacy of the Romanov family then this is for you. Also at the end of the book there is an amazing plot twist that completely matches up with the time it was written when the two sets of remains of Maria and Alexei were not found and made me gasp with excitement. A true marvel for its time, this book is.

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This book was also filled with accurate information on Lyonka Sednyov, the last kitchen boy to the Romanov Family. Here is some more detailed information about him:

Leonid Ivanovich Sednyov (1903-1942) worked as a kitchen boy to the last imperial family of Russia and traveled with the family during their captivity from Tsarskoe Selo to the depths of Siberia. His uncle (Ivan Sednyov) worked alongside imperial cook Kharitonov and that is what helped Leonka eventually to become a close confidant of the imperial family. A similar age to the former Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, he often acted as a playmate and close friend to him. A few hours before the imperial family would be killed, in the evening of the 16th of July Lyonka was told he had to leave the Ipatiev House and was contained at the Popov House next door and was told his uncle was going to bring him back home which was false information because Ivan Sednyov, along with faithful Dyadka (sailor nanny) to Alexei, Klimenty Nagorny, were killed shortly after the family’s arrival at Yekaterinburg which the imperial family including Lyonka did not know about. He later went to live with other relatives in Kaluga and during WWII he died by execution for an unspecified crime.

Here is the diary entry of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna on July 16th 1918, shortly after Lyonka was sent to the Popov house:

“…Suddenly they sent for Lyonka Sednev, for him to go and visit his uncle, and he quickly ran away, we are guessing whether it is true, and whether we will ever see the boy again …”

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I hope you guys choose to read this book because it is an amazing interpretation of a true story!

[sisteroutsiders]

Women are powerful and dangerous. Audre Lorde. Photo by Robert Alexander.

[marq-de-laf]

'General Washington imprudently exposed himself to danger. After a long reconnaissance, he was overtaken by a storm, on a very dark night. He took shelter in a farmhouse, very close to the enemy, and, because of the unwillingness to change his mind, he remained there with General Greene and M. de Lafayette. But when he departed at dawn, he admitted that a single traitor could have betrayed him.'

Lafayette Papers, 1779 - Laf details his memory of Washington, himself, and Greene staying at the home of Robert Alexander, a loyalist.

[evanbukley]

nothing can beat moose's dance scenes in the step up movies. he's the best.

[bookscoffeejesus]

6.25.2021

I don’t know why, but I’ve always been fascinated by the Romanovs. Maybe it’s the drama and mystery that surround their last weeks. Maybe it’s the animated movie about Anastasia that came out when I was a kid. Who knows? 🤷🏼‍♀️

What I do know is that this book is very well written. I enjoyed the story and the fact that it’s from a point of view that most people wouldn’t think about - a lowly kitchen boy who happened to be the companion of Aleksei while the Romanovs were in exile. Real documents were used not just as reference/research but also as part of the book, making it feel like it was the real story and not just based off of what happened during the Russian revolution.

The build up to the night of their execution was astounding as was the depiction of the execution itself. There were so many ways that part of the book could have been told, but Alexander wrote it in a way that I think will stick with everyone who reads this book. It makes it real, something that history books will never be able to do, something I know I’ll never be able to do as a history teacher.

This is probably going to be one of my last books for June, if not the last book for June. There’s so much more that I want to read this month, but the next book on my list is Game of Thrones and, while I’ll start it tomorrow, I won’t be able to finish it right away. Instead, I’ll be away at youth camp, looking for an adult for a good 30 seconds before I realize that I am one of the adults there. (And there will most likely be a post about that when I get back because it will help me sort out my thoughts after being around teenagers for 3 straight days.)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️