1900-1917

Unveils new facts behind Gregory Rasputin's life, controversial relationships, and much-discussed death. Fuhrmann unearths previously unknown details from Rasputin's childhood and his early years as a farmer and itinerant preacher and his decade-long relationship with the Romanovs.

In 1903, Rachel, a Jew who left Russia with her family on the Trans-Siberian Railway to the coast to board a ship for Shanghai, China, and her friend Sergei, who left home for a factory job in St. Petersburg and joined rebelling workers, write letters to one another, describing the challenges they face and hope for their futures.

The story of the Russian Revolution as it unfolded. Describes both the luxurious lives of the Romanovs and the plight of Russia's peasants and their eventual uprising.