The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar

This post first published October 14, 2012.

Author: Robert Alexander
First Published: January 2003
Publisher: Penguin Books
229 pages (paperback)
 
I bought this book quite a while ago, along with some other his-fic on Russian royalty, but I haven’t gotten around to most of them till now. I’ve always been quite interested in the tragic Romanov family. Their story never ceases to pull on my heartstrings. With this book, The Kitchen Boy, I was particularly interested because for once, it wasn’t narrated by, or solely focusing on, the Grand Duchesses. (Maybe there are more books like that out there, but most I’ve come across have one or all of the girls as the main characters). I love the Grand Duchesses and all, but I have read their story from their perspective many times now, and kind of yearned for something a little different.

This novel is, as you you are aware by now, about the tragedy that befell the last royal family of Russia during the Russian Revolution. The time period focused on, in this book, is when the Romanovs were under house arrest in Siberia, up until their murder. What’s different about this book is that it begins by focusing on an old man named Misha, who is living in the United States, 1993. Misha feels so much remorse from the deaths of the Romanovs, even after all these years, and has decided to record his entire story on tapes for his granddaughter, so that she may know the truth. It turns out Misha’s real name is Leonka, and at the time of the Romanov’s imprisonment and death, he was a fourteen year old kitchen boy that voluntarily went into exile with them (along with a cook, a maid and some other servants). Leonka reveals the last days of the Romanov family and how, though he has been relegated to nothing more than a footnote in history books, he played his part in all of this.

It was kind of nice reading about the entire situation from an entirely different perspective. I’ve become quite familiar with the story of the Romanovs, so there’s always that risk, when I pick up a novel about them, that I’ll just be reading about the same things I’ve read about in other books, just slightly different perhaps. And of course, I did find the novel’s events for the most part quite predictable since I’ve read so many books about them and read up on the historical facts as well. So it’s nice reading about things I am familiar with from an unfamiliar perspective.

I really liked this book because the main narrator is not someone from the Romanov family, but rather, a loyal servant. Leonka is just a kid and doesn’t really know what’s going on but he is so fiercely loyal to the Romanovs — not because they are/were royalty (though that certainly plays a role), but because he sees them as genuinely lovely people who don’t deserve this treatment. Leonka also acknowledges that perhaps the Tsar and Tsarita, being the way they are, were not the best rulers, but certainly, they were wonderful people who loved Russia.

What I also really liked about this book was how it incorporated a lot of real diaries and letter entries that the royal family sent and received. Since this book is Misha/Leonka talking to a tape recorder, he is able to include these entries which are now archived in Moscow and the States.  I thought that was really cool. I’m under the impression these are the real, actual diary entries and letters, which add some authenticity to this book.

I also really enjoyed the ending, even though it is obviously completely made up. It did kind of make me feel happier after all that gloom and doom. I don’t want to reveal anything, but the ending is a bit of a twist. It involves Misha’s granddaughter finding the tapes and her own reactions towards it. I really liked that because before the ending, the story seemed too straightforward. When the secret is revealed at the end, it adds to the many layers of complexities, and secrets, that the death of the Romanovs hold.

My Rating: 4/5