Talk: The Race to Save the Romanovs

The Race to Save the Romanovs: Helen Rappaport in Conversation with Frank Althaus

On 17 July 1918, the Russian Imperial Family was murdered.

Published just ahead of the 100-year anniversary of their deaths, Helen Rappaport’s The Race to Save the Romanovs (Hutchinson) is an incredible detective story that uncovers the truth behind the secret plans to rescue Russia’s Imperial family.

Why exactly did their European royal relatives and the Allied governments with whom the Russians were fighting a war all fail to get the Romanovs out to safety?

Join author Helen Rapapport and Frank Althaus of Fontanka publishing for a conversation about the findings of Rapapport’s book which draws on extensive lost and overlooked material in eight languages. The Race to Save the Romanovs overturns 100 years of traditional thinking that the failure to evacuate the Romanovs to England in 1917 was all the fault of King George V. There are many players in this story, several of whose role has never been fully explored. Helen Rappaport sets out to uncover exactly why the Romanovs’ European royal relatives and the Allied governments all failed to get them to safety.

The failure to free the Romanovs was not, ever, a simple case of one British King’s loss of nerve. In this race against time, many other nations and individuals were facing political and personal challenges of the highest order as the Romanovs, imprisoned, awaited their fate.

In English.