"The beginning of a new reign is a chance to start on a different path."
—Tsar Alexei II Romanov
Triumph of a Tsar is an Alternate History novel by Tamar Anolic.
Set in a world where Russia became a constitutional monarchy in the 1880s, this novel explores how this altered the destiny of the Romanov dynasty, primarily focusing on the post-1918 lives of Nicholas II's children as Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich takes the throne and steers Russia through the interbellum period and World War II. The novel focuses on Alexei, his wife Tsarina Ileananote , their children, and their closest aides and advisers.
Tropes:
- Affably Evil: Hitler is impeccably polite to Alexei, Ileana, and their son Konstantin ("Kostya") when Alexei makes a state visit to try and head off the impending war. He is also no less a frothing anti-Semite and wannabe pan-European fascist dictator in this timeline than he was in ours.
- Age-Gap Romance: Only an issue because of how young they are, but the five-year gap between Tsar Alexei and his future bride Princess Ileana proves a bit of a roadblock. Alexei takes the throne at sixteen — when Ileana is only about twelve — and needs to marry and father heirs as soon as possible. A few people tell him he ought to marry one of the Greek princesses, who are closer to his age, but he insists on waiting for Ileana, with whom he has been close since he was nine. Her parents finally consent to the match when she is sixteen.note After that the age gap isn't a problem, though, and by a decade into their marriage it is no longer remarkable.
- Allohistorical Allusion: When discussing a particular battle during World War II, Alexei snarks that the late and unlamented Josef Stalin had wanted to name the city of Tsaritsyn after himself. Tsaritsyn is most famous today as Stalingrad — as in, "Battle of" — although its current name is actually Volgograd.
- Altar Diplomacy: Several, as expected for royalty.
- Alexei marries Princess Ileana of Romania for love, but likely wouldn't have been able to do so if she hadn't been an Orthodox princess who also provided an alliance with Romania. Fortunately, the only woman he wants to marry is also a perfectly acceptable bride from a political and dynastic perspective.
- Alexei's sisters Olga, Tatiana, and Anastasia all marry to diplomatic advantage, as expected of them, but they do also love their husbands and would not have been forced to marry without affection.
- Alternate History: This universe diverges from history when Tsar Alexander II barely avoids being killed in the 1881 attack that ended his life in "our" universe, allowing his real-life plans to turn Russia into a constitutional monarchy to come to fruition and avert a potential revolution. This works, and though not much of the period between 1881 and 1920 is elaborated upon, the Russian revolution never happens and the whole family makes it through World War I and the aftermath.
- Childhood Friend Romance:
- Alexei falls in love with and marries his childhood friend Princess Ileana of Romania.
- Alexei's sister Anastasia has also known her future husband Prince Henry, son of King George V and Queen Mary, since they were children, as like Alexei and Ileana they are second cousins.
- Embarrassing Nickname: After he takes the throne, Alexei has to tell his mother to stop calling him "Sunbeam"note , because he finds it far too babyish.
- Fictionalized Death Account: Many, considering the basis of the alternate history. Most notably:
- Nicholas II dies of a heart attack in 1920.
- Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin both die much earlier than they do in our timeline. Lenin attempts to assassinate Alexei and is shot point-blank (by Alexei) for his troubles, and Stalin "mysteriously" dies of poisoning, though it's implied that Alexei's security chief Gorvenko was responsible.
- Fix Fic: This novel is basically an attempt to fix the Russian Revolution and give the Romanovs — and Russia as a whole — a much happier ending than the one that happened in real life. It doesn't fix everything — Nicholas and Alexandra are still, well, Nicholas and Alexandra, Khodynka and Bloody Sunday still happen, WWI and WWII both occur — but Russia weathers the storms much better.
- Friendship as Courtship: Alexei and Ileana don't have any sort of courtship period before he proposes, though Ileana admits that she'd been expecting his proposal for awhile. This is because they've been close since they met as children in 1914, and became even more so after he ascended the throne. They don't need a proper courtship to know that they're right for each other, despite their young ages.
- The Good King: Alexei is portrayed as this, in contrast to his father. While Alexei acknowledges that his father and mother were loving parents and absolutely devoted to each other, he is also keenly aware of his father's mistakes in utterly ignoring the Duma and refusing to listen to his capable ministers, and vows not to make the same mistakes.
- Happily Married: Alexei and Ileana have a very happy marriage. Years after their wedding, when they already have four children, he thinks to himself that "she's proven to be my angel".
- Heir Club for Men: One of the reasons Alexei marries so young — barely twenty-one — is because he knows that his hemophilia means he needs an heir sooner rather than later. Fortunately, Ileana conceives very quickly and their first child is a son, Konstantin, who is followed by twins Dmitri and Rostislav. By the time their daughter Anastasia is born, Alexei and Ileana can relax knowing that the succession is more than secure.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despite Russia becoming a constitutional monarchy in the 1880s, Nicholas and Alexandra are still... well, Nicholas and Alexandra, and their son Alexei still has hemophilia. As a result, several of the major tragedies of Nicholas' reign (the massacre at Khodynka, Bloody Sunday, etc) still happen, and the royal family is still deeply unpopular due to both Nicholas' profound reluctance to negotiate with the Duma and the family's reliance on Rasputin to mitigate Alexei's disease. Things are different enough that the revolutions of 1917 never happen, but Alexei knows that he has serious work to do to mitigate the damage his parents' isolation and authoritarianism has done to the Romanov dynasty's reputation.
- Marry for Love:
- Alexei and Ileana have known each other since childhood, and marry for love — but it is also very much relevant that Ileana, as a Princess of Romania, is also a perfectly acceptable bride from a dynastic perspective.
- Of Nicholas and Alexandra's children, only Maria refuses to marry for political advantage, marrying Prince Nikolai Obolensky against her mother's wishes. Fortunately her brother Alexei, by then the Tsar, supports the match, which puts an end to Alexandra's attempted Parental Marriage Veto.
- "Near and Dear" Baby Naming: Alexei and Ileana name their last child after Alexei's favourite sibling, his sister Anastasia. It's noted that Nastia has quite a bit in common with her aunt, especially her mischievous nature.
- Parental Marriage Veto: Attempted by Dowager Tsarina Alexandra, who does not support her daughter Maria foregoing a politically advantageous marriage in favor of a love match with Prince Nikolai Obolensky (who, it must be noted, is still from one of the oldest and most noble Russian aristocratic families). She doesn't manage it though, because her son Tsar Alexei overrules her and, as head of the family, his word is law.
- Point of Divergence: In this novel, history diverges from "our" timeline when Tsar Alexander II just barely escapes the bomb attack that killed him in real life, and lives long enough to follow through on his plans to make Russia a constitutional monarchy.
- Prevent the War: Alexei, like many of his advisers, sees World War II coming and tries to head it off. Sadly, it doesn't work.
- Promoted to Love Interest: The real-life Tsarevich Alexei's childhood friendship with his second cousin Princess Ileana of Romania here blossoms into marriage, thanks to the Romanovs' survival of the revolutions that killed them in "our" timeline. As an Orthodox princess, Ileana would have made a logical and perfectly acceptable bride for Alexei, but of course the Romanovs' fate means that nothing ever came of this in real life.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Tsar Alexei sends his wife Ileana and their three youngest children east to safety in Siberia in the final stages of World War II, but stays in St Petersburg with his son Kostya for the sake of his people (though he of course isn't allowed to fight himself), and is also a very hands-on ruler of his empire. Many of his male relatives take up arms to defend Russia, and Ileana and Grand Duchess Maria, Alexei's sister — along with many women of the extended royal family — train as Red Cross nurses.
- Ruler Protagonist: Tsar Alexei II is both the protagonist of the novel and the ruler of the Russian Empire.
- Ruling Couple: Deliberately averted by Alexei. One of the things he realizes as he takes the throne is that his father Nicholas' reliance on his wife Alexandra's counsel (and by extension Rasputin's) to the exclusion of anyone else did immense damage to the country, particularly as Alexandra was... not all that competent as a ruler. As a result, while he confides everything, including matters of state, to his own wife Ileana and respects her opinions and advice tremendously, hers is not the only voice guiding his decisions; he chooses competent ministers and listens closely to their counsel as well before making final decisions as a ruler.
- Spared By Adaptation:
- The Romanovs themselves, obviously, largely because Alexander II was persuaded by his bodyguard to stay inside his carriage and get back to the Winter Palace, thus evading his would-be assassins.
- Mikhail Tukhachevsky was executed during Stalin's purges. Here, he survives and is eventually promoted to War Minister.
- Taking the Veil: After her daughter Anastasia's wedding, the Dowager Tsarina Alexandra follows the example of her sister Grand Duchess Elizabeth and retires to an Orthodox convent.
- Uptown Girl: Alexei's sister, Grand Duchess Maria, wants to marry Prince Nikolai Obolensky (a member of the highest level of Russian nobility, but not a royal), but her mother Dowager Tsarina Alexandra protests because of his (comparatively) low rank; Alexandra wants all her children to marry foreign royalty, as her eldest daughters Olga and Tatiana already had and as Alexei is hoping to do with Princess Ileana. Maria wins the argument because her brother Alexei — by then the Tsar of Russia, whose word is law in the family — is on her side.
- Wise Beyond Her Years: Alexei says this about his eventual wife Ileana, noting that she acts older than her years, and his relationship with her bears this out as she proves a kind, sensible, and level-headed confidante for him despite the five-year difference in their ages. His uncle Pavel agrees, noting that what Ileana had been through during World War I had forced her to grow up fast.
