The Last Czars

The past... it is a dangerous place.

So many decisions that can't be undone.

So many ghosts.

In 1905, I accepted a job with the Romanovs,

Russia's royal family.

I saw their incredible wealth.

The palaces, the balls,

the jewelry.

And then I saw the madness.

The revolution.

It all ended here...

in this house

The richest family in the world,

the Emperor and the Empress of Russia, Nicholas and Alexandra...

their five children...

vanished...

without a trace.

Now there are rumors of a survivor...

...a deeply troubled girl in Berlin who claims to be Anastasia,

the Romanovs' youngest daughter.

It is my task to see if she is telling the truth.

I understand they want you to identify her.

I worked in the family for 13 years.

I was the children's tutor.

Please.

Ana. You have a visitor.

She has retrograde amnesia.

Her memories are confused.

It's a common symptom.

Do you remember me?

In 1894...

Czar Alexander III died suddenly at the age of 49.

Russia was in shock.

His heir, Nicholas, was just 26.

Jesus, he's fucking rotting.

Sh!

You can't silence this, sweetheart, they've botched the embalming.

He stinks.

She already looks like an empress.

Let's just hope she's a good breeder.

Are you all right?

I'm sorry there's been no time for us.

- Mother. - Oh!

- Ah, thank you, Alix. - I'll take her outside.

- I'll come. - No, no. You stay.

You'll be all right. I should go back.

Nicky.

I worry about you so.

The wedding, on top of all this.

The young Nicholas II is quiet, indecisive,

and very much living in the shadow

of his great, imposing Grand Duke Uncle Sergei.

To be czar is to be...

field martial, emperor,

prime minister, all of these things,

pope, all rolled into one.

This is like a medieval monarchy

where the czar has ultimate control over everything.

And what man in the world is qualified for such a post?

Get you through the next few hours, eh?

What am I going to do, Sandro?

I'm not ready to be czar.

You were born for this.

I can't run a country.

I have so much more to learn.

And who will teach me now?

You don't need a teacher.

Trust yourself. God chose you.

Divine bloody right.

The Russian Empire that Nicholas II inherits

is one of the largest empires the world has ever seen.

It was colossal, it was a sixth of the world's surface.

There were over 146 nationalities, many languages.

And the Romanovs have ruled Russia for almost 300 years.

Their wealth is beyond computation.

An embarrassment of riches.

Land, gold mines, diamond mines,

the famous Fabergé eggs.

There are palaces everywhere.

Marrying into this world is Alexandra of Hesse,

a shy, religious girl

brought up in a tiny German principality.

Ow.

If Catherine the Great wore them, so can you.

There.

Smile, Sunny.

Mother and father would have been so proud of you.

It's all right.

It's been a hell of a few weeks.

Are you sure it's not bad luck?

Having the wedding while we're all still mourning?

The people say I come to them behind a coffin.

Well, that's not true.

I don't know the customs of this country.

I can't even speak Russian.

I can help with that.

I feel such an outsider.

I was a foreign princess once.

Head up.

Neck straight.

Carry the weight, proudly.

Welcome.

Czarina, and Empress of all Russia.

Now, you're one of us.

Alexandra of Hesse is a granddaughter of Queen Victoria.

She is deeply religious, and this obsession with religion

plays a key role in her marriage to Nicholas

and in her role as Czarina of Russia.

This marriage is unusual as a Romanov marriage,

and for a royal marriage in general in this time period.

And that's because it's very much a love match.

They're one of the only royal couples in Europe

that share a marital bed.

Well, Mrs. Romanov.

Got it.

There.

Sorry.

You know, my father was a great leader.

The people adored him.

It's not the people I worry about.

It's your family.

You need to be strong.

Hm.

You're the Czar.

Master of the land.

The leader of all Russia.

The god-given one.

Nothing will ever come between us.

Yah!

Yah, yah!

Come on.

Come on.

Yah, yah!

You're either on my side...

or in my fucking way.

Rasputin is one of the most remarkable figures of the 20th century.

Okay, we can talk.

But his background is sort of shrouded in mist and and legend.

Shit.

His parents were farmers and church elders.

He was one of eight or nine siblings,

but it would seem that all of them died in his childhood.

Rasputin, he drinks, he fights with his father.

He chases girls.

But, above all...

he's ungovernable. He's fearless.

Quiet!

The horse is safe.

Back in his stable.

I only borrowed it.

You stole it!

Thieves must be punished.

Banish him!

I don't want to be a thief.

But we got to eat. Huh?

You've got to eat. You need to eat.

I did a bad thing.

But I did it...

for my wife...

Mm?

and my son.

What do you want to do with him?

Banish him!

- Punish him! - What about my family?

You can't do this.

Give me a chance, hm?

Give me a chance.

Send me on a pilgrimage, hm?

Come on.

This is my judgment:

go on a pilgrimage, turn to God,

but leave the village, now.

Will you really go to the monastery?

I don't know.

I won't let you down. Promise.

I love you.

Rasputin's wife, Praskovya, is a very long-suffering figure.

It's hard to say if Praskovya loves Rasputin or not.

But she's a constant figure, a supportive figure.

When Rasputin picks up and leaves home as a pilgrim in 1897...

he enters what might be considered his university.

He sleeps out of doors,

he becomes infinitely aware of the beauty of the Russian landscape,

of Russian life, of folk ways.

He walked through all weathers,

being soaked, being frozen, being sunburnt.

It was a really hard, strange, lonely life.

But one that got him closer to God.

Away from the Siberian plains,

Russia is changing ever faster.

The telephone replaces the telegram,

cars replace carriages,

electric lights replace lamps.

Nicholas becomes Czar at the dawn of the modern age.

Russia is industrializing at breakneck speed,

hundreds of thousands of workers flock to the big cities,

creating huge social change.

They're building railways, building factories.

Conditions there are appalling,

workers' rights are nonexistent.