Without Rasputin, there could have been no Lenin. --Alexander Kerensky

To Suzanne

From the Baltic city of St. Petersburg, built on a river marsh in a far northern corner of the empire, the Tsar ruled Russia.

Why Lenin triumphed, why Nicholas failed, why Alexandra placed the fate of her son, her husband and his empire in the hands of wandering holy man, why Alexis suffered from hemophilia - these are the true riddles of this historical tale. All of them have answers except, perhaps, the last.