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Living Section of the San Bernardino SUN August 28, 2005 Issue 
The Romanov Prophecy by Steve Berry Random House Publishing Group, 2004  The Lure of the Romanov Murder Mystery
On the night of July 16-17, 1918, in the eastern Ural city of Yekaterinburg, deep into the Russian heartland, with the distant rumble of battle between Reds and Whites, Nicholas II, Tsar of all Russia, his family and the four attendants accompanying them, were executed by a firing squad. The women had hidden jewels in their corsets making the bullets ricochet off their bodies. In order to kill them the solders had to stab them repeatedly with their bayonets and finally shoot them in the head. Death was slow and agonizing. The mutilated bodies were dumped in a secret grave. Immediately following this, rumors that two of the royal children had survived the execution began to circulate. After the fall of communism in the Soviet Union, the Romanov grave was exhumed. The bones for two bodies were missing. First it was thought that the bones of Maria or Tatiana, one of the middle daughters, and those of Alexei, the heir, were the missing ones. Later it was determined that the missing female bones were those of Anastasia. Although after the execution it was reported that two of the bodies were burned, the idea that two of the tsar's children had survived the massacre still persists and continues to provide endless material for books and movies. Steve Berry's "The Romanov Prophecy," briefly on the bestseller list when it was published in 2004, is a book that spins a great story around the possibility of the survival of two Romanov children. Most of "The Romanov Prophecy" is set in the new Russia where the mafiya controls the government and the economy. Most Russians believe that order can be restored only by the return of the tsar. The Tsarist Commission has been created to evaluate the claim to the throne of several Romanovs and to select the one in the most direct line of succession. Hayes Taylor, a lawyer with an Atlanta firm representing American investors in Russia, works with the Tsarist Commission and secretly, with the mafiya. He stands to gain millions if the mafiya candidate is selected. Miles Lord, Taylor's assistant and protégé is a black lawyer with the firm. In addition to a law degree from the University of Virginia, he also has various degrees in Russian language and history. He is in Moscow to search thorough the newly opened Russian archives to assure there is nothing that might impede their candidate's claim to the Russian throne. But Lord stumbles upon new evidence suggesting that indeed, Alexei and Anastasia had survived the massacre. This means that somewhere out there are Romanovs in direct line for the succession. This of course, would disqualify the candidate the mafiya supports, which in turn would curtail their power and eliminate the possibility for Taylor to amass an illegal fortune. A prophecy made by Rasputin shortly before being murdered, is about to be fulfilled with Lord's reluctant help. The only way to stop Lord from unraveling the riddle is to kill him. In a country where everyone can be bought for a handful of rubles, not even dollars, where the mafiya eliminates its obstacles casually in broad daylight and where the police are frequently part of the mafiya, this should not be a difficult task. Yet, Lord eludes his killers a number of times. Fate, in the typical fashion of Slavic fatalism, intervenes by bringing into Lord's life a young Russian woman who is essential for the fulfillment of Rasputin's prophecy. A tender romance blossoms between the two. Controversies about the Romanov murders have flared anew. Today, Stanford scientists are questioning the findings of the two commissions which worked on the exhumed Romanov bones. It is doubtful that this Romanov mystery would ever be solved completely or that we would ever know if anyone had really survived the massacre. But something in us wants us to believe that Anastasia and Alexei survived and lived on and that some day DNA will prove this beyond dispute. Until then, the Romanov mystery will continue to haunt us and to fuel more books and films. Ophelia Georgiev Roop Library Director San Bernardino Public Library |
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