MICHAEL AND NATASHA : The Life and Love of Michael ll the Last of the Romanov Tsars by Donald Crawford and Rosemary Crawford

 Enigmatic and somewhat naive, Grand Duke Michael, the brother of the last Tsar, fell in love with his wife, the beautiful commoner Natasha, at first sight. Unfortunately, Natasha was married to her second husband at the time. He accepted the romance at first and then turned violent, resulting in Michael paying him off in the end. Michael’s affair with Natasha was long and fraught because of the Tsar’s and Alexandra’s disapproval of a twice-divorced commoner - they were even followed about by the Cheka - but eventually they married secretly, and they both paid an extremely heavy price. They were sent into exile and Michael’s affairs were put under administration as if he was insane.

Natasha was certainly the strong one of this couple. She attempted to confront Lenin twice, escaped from imprisonment by the Soviets, and had the foresight to hide her jewellery, which she would sorely need after the Revolution.

This is a long and extremely detailed book but it’s a wonderful, although tragic, love story which reads like a novel. The account of the Revolution is especially interesting. The amount of research involved is stunning.

I read this book for Rose City Reader’s TBR 25 for ‘25 Challenge but I am keeping it so it is not going to make room for more books!