Recently, a trio of authors tried to put together a new alternate history story set in WWI. In 1918, the negotiations at Brest-Litovsk are underway and after a chance turn, German General Max Hoffman decides that he must do something to stop the Bolsheviks, so he covertly begins assembling a unit of Russian Imperial Guards to try and save the former royal family from their Bolshevik captors. Thus do the events of The Romanov Rescue unfold. I did a brief spoiler free review, but I'll put more info out below.
Essentially we follow the unit of Imperial Guards and their attempts to learn where the tsar and his family are, and their training to mount a rescue operation with 1918 technology. From that perspective it is pretty interesting, but it does get a bit light on the alternate history context until right near the end. It has a little bit with the kaiser exercising some autonomy from the de-facto rulers of the German Empire, Hindenburg and Ludendorff, and some talk with the Soviets themselves. However, much of it does proceed as a bit of a spy novel thriller.
Spoilers:
That aside, one clever thing the novel did was it had the rescue effort recruited from Imperial Guards who had been imprisoned early on in the war so had not seen the direct mismanagement of the war by Nicholas or Alexandra. It does kinda gloss over though that the tsar and his whole family were pretty firm on the autocratic rule and the tsar and tsarina were unrepentant autocrats who disdained democracy. Meanwhile the Bolsheviks are all just portrayed as corrupt and murderous bastards so make of that what you will.
It is an intriguing idea of what if the Whites had rescued the Imperial Family and had them as a 'unifying' presence to fight the war with rather than the patchwork of de-facto warlords and regional rebels who ended up taking on the Reds. The book may have been better served by having the rescue be the first half, and then dealing with how the newly re-instated royal family comes to grips with the faltering Russia and the looming civil war. That would probably have been an overall better alternate history novel.
Essentially we follow the unit of Imperial Guards and their attempts to learn where the tsar and his family are, and their training to mount a rescue operation with 1918 technology. From that perspective it is pretty interesting, but it does get a bit light on the alternate history context until right near the end. It has a little bit with the kaiser exercising some autonomy from the de-facto rulers of the German Empire, Hindenburg and Ludendorff, and some talk with the Soviets themselves. However, much of it does proceed as a bit of a spy novel thriller.
Spoilers:
In the end the tsar and the tsarevich are killed during the rescue operation, so the princess Tatianna becomes the de-facto (or claimed at least) ruler of the Russian Empire with the implications of a coming brutal civil war.
That aside, one clever thing the novel did was it had the rescue effort recruited from Imperial Guards who had been imprisoned early on in the war so had not seen the direct mismanagement of the war by Nicholas or Alexandra. It does kinda gloss over though that the tsar and his whole family were pretty firm on the autocratic rule and the tsar and tsarina were unrepentant autocrats who disdained democracy. Meanwhile the Bolsheviks are all just portrayed as corrupt and murderous bastards so make of that what you will.
It is an intriguing idea of what if the Whites had rescued the Imperial Family and had them as a 'unifying' presence to fight the war with rather than the patchwork of de-facto warlords and regional rebels who ended up taking on the Reds. The book may have been better served by having the rescue be the first half, and then dealing with how the newly re-instated royal family comes to grips with the faltering Russia and the looming civil war. That would probably have been an overall better alternate history novel.
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