The Romanov Prophecy (2004)
By: Steve Berry



- - Synopsis

Ekaterinburg, Russia: July 16, 1918. Ten months have passed since Nicholas II's reign was cut short by revolutionaries. Tonight, the White Army advances on the town where the Tsar and his family are being held captive by the Bolsheviks. Nicholas dares to hope for salvation. Instead, the Romanovs are coldly and methodically executed.

Moscow: Present Day. Atlanta lawyer Miles Lord, fluent in Russian and well versed in the country's history, is thrilled to be in Moscow on the eve of such a momentous event. After the fall of Communism and a succession of weak governments, the Russian people have voted to bring back the monarchy. The new tsar will be chosen from the distant relatives of Nicholas II by a specially appointed commission, and Miles' job is to perform a background check on the Tsarist candidate favored by a powerful group of Western businessmen. But research quickly becomes the least of Miles' concerns when he is nearly killed by gunmen on a city plaza.

Suddenly Miles is racing across continents, shadowed by nefarious henchmen. At first, his only question is why people are pursuing him. But after a strange conversation with a mysterious Russian, who steers Miles toward the writings of Rasputin, he becomes desperate to know more-most important, what really happened to the family of Russia's last tsar?

His only companion is Akilina Petrov, a Russian circus performer sympathetic to his struggle, and his only guide is a cryptic message from Rasputin that implies that the bloody night of so long ago is not the last chapter in the Romanovs' story . . . and that someone might even have survived the massacre. The prophecy's implications are earth-shattering-not only for the future of the tsar and mother Russia, but also for Miles himself.

Steve Berry, national bestselling author of the phenomenal thriller The Amber Room, once again delves into rich historical fact to produce an explosive page-turner. In The Romanov Prophecy, the authentic and the speculative meld into a fascinating and exceptionally suspenseful work of fiction.


Russia-a country in which things that just don't happen happen.
-PETER THE GREAT
A year shall come of Russia's blackest dread;
Then will the crown fall from the royal head,
The throne of tsars will perish in the mud,
The food of many will be death and blood.
-MIKHAIL LERMONTOV (1830)
Russia: mysterious dark continent, "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma" in Winston Churchill's phrase, remote, inaccessible to foreigners, inexplicable even to natives. That is the myth, encouraged by Russians themselves, who would prefer that no one discover who they really are and how they really live.
-ROBERT KAISER, Russia: The People and the Power (1984)
For all its trials, for all its mistakes, the story of Russia at the end of the [twentieth] century must be counted as a kind of revival, a resurrection.
-DAVID REMNICK, Resurrection: The Struggle for a New Russia (1997)

TIMELINE OF RELEVANT EVENTS OF RUSSIAN HISTORY
FEBRUARY 21, 1613 Mikhail Feodorovich proclaimed Tsar
OCTOBER 20, 1894 Nicholas II ascends the throne
APRIL 5, 1898 Nicholas II presents Lilies-of-the-Valley egg, created by Carl Fabergé, to his mother
DECEMBER 16, 1916 Rasputin murdered by Felix Youssoupov
MARCH 15, 1917 Nicholas II abdicates his throne; he and his family are arrested and held
OCTOBER 1917 Bolshevik Revolution; Lenin takes power
1918 Russian civil war begins; Whites fight Reds
JULY 17, 1918 Nicholas II, his wife, Alexandra, and their five children are murdered in Yekaterinburg
APRIL 1919 Felix Youssoupov flees Russia
1921 Russian civil war ends; Reds, led by Lenin, triumph
SEPTEMBER 27, 1967 Felix Youssoupov dies
MAY 1979 Grave site of Nicholas II and his family is located outside Yekaterinburg
DECEMBER 1991 Soviet Union dissolves
JULY 1991 The remains of Nicholas II and his family are exhumed; two of the imperial children are not found in the mass grave
1994 The remains are positively identified, but no evidence of the two missing children is ever found



Writer's Note.

WRITER'S NOTE

The idea for this novel came to me during a tour of the Kremlin. As with my first novel, The Amber Room, I wanted the information to be accurate. The subject of Nicholas II and his family is fascinating. In many ways, the truth of their ultimate fate is far more scintillating than fiction. Ever since 1991, when the royal remains were exhumed from their anonymous grave, there has existed a great debate as to which two children's bodies are actually missing. First a Russian expert examined the bones and concluded, from photographic superimposition, that Maria and Alexei were not there. Then an American expert analyzed dental and bone specimens and determined the missing to be Alexei and Anastasia. I chose Anastasia simply because of the fascination that has developed around her.