The Tsarina’s Daughter by Carolly Erickson

Review by Mirah W. (mwelday)

There is something about the Romanovs, something that has made many people question what really happened to the family. Were they all executed? Could some members of the family and household have escaped the tragic end? Historical accounts tell us the Romanov family died 1918, executed by the Bolsheviks to keep the Russian people not loyal to Lenin from uniting under Tsar Nicholas, who abdicated the throne in 1917. But there are questions that surround the events of the execution and where there are questions, there will (inevitably) be doubts.  These questions and doubts have led to numerous books and movies about the possibility that not all of the Romanovs died that fateful night in 1918.

I was first drawn to Carolly Erickson when I read her novel The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette many years ago. That novel was based on the ‘what if’ scenario of Marie Antoinette leaving a hidden diary behind to be found after her execution by guillotine. I found it to be a real page turner. Erickson’s The Tsarina’s Daughter is written from the same ‘what if’ perspective. What if one of the Romanov daughters managed to escape? What if she was able to immigrate to the United States under a new name and live a full and meaningful life?

Erickson weaves a love story for Tatiana, daughter of the Tsar. Accustomed to a life of luxury, Tatiana is unexpectedly exposed to the dark reality of life in Russia after World War 1 and the start of the Russian Revolution.  Tatiana begins to go out in disguise and works to help the poor and sick. Tatiana meets people who are strong but struggling with the hardships of Russian life. While she is out from the confines of the walls of the palace, she falls in love with a young doctor. Tatiana also begins to see her father in a different light. He is not the strong leader she thought he was; his choice to turn a blind eye to what is really happening in Russia is doing real damage to the country. Upon his abdication, the family is imprisoned, and their lives quickly degenerate from the life of abundance they have always known.

This is not an accurate historical account of events, but it’s not supposed to be. Erickson clearly states this in her ‘note to the reader’ at the end of the book. She writes, ‘The Tsarina’s Daughter is an imaginative retelling of Tatiana’s story, with many invented characters and events added to the historical background’. Some of the more negative reviews I have read were accusations of the author’s lack of research and that things weren’t based on fact.  I think this is an unfair reason to not offer a positive review. Erikson has written her share of nonfiction works and knows how to do research but The Tsarina’s Daughter wasn’t meant to be an addition to the historical record, it was created to be a fictional, ‘what if’ tale.

This ‘imaginative retelling’, as Erickson calls it, allows the reader to daydream of a situation where an innocent girl finds love, escapes a terrible fate, and goes on to live a full and complete life….and I’m ok with that.  I read the book in two days, so it was another Erickson page turner for me.  I think if you can accept that it’s meant to be a ‘what if’ scenario and not a retelling of fact, you will enjoy this novel by Erickson as much as I did. After all, The Tsarina’s Daughter won the Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Historical Fiction so I can’t be the only one who thinks it is a great read!