The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar

Chapters 4 to 7 are primarily devoted to character development. As the exchange of letters between the Romanovs and the “White Army” continues, Alexander uses these chapters to establish the lifestyle and relationships of the Romanovs. However, even as Alexander writes the Romanovs to life, he consistently employs foreshadowing to remind readers that these historical figures are doomed. This foreshadowing creates an atmosphere of tragedy, as every happy moment the family shares is haunted by the knowledge that they will all perish. As Volodya narrates his experience at Ipatiev House, he describes the Romanovs—particularly, Tsar Nikolai—through rose-colored glasses. Volodya’s deferential tone suggests his guilt, shame, and self-loathing over the fact that he was a Bolshevik responsible for the royal family’s assassination. These chapters thus provide a window not only into the lives of the Romanovs, but the inner life and regrets of the protagonist, Volodya.

Throughout the novel, Alexander seeks to bring the Romanovs to life on the page. Chapters 4 to 7 are crucial to this mission, particularly in regards to Tsar Nikolai’s marriage to Aleksandra. He likens the marriage to Russia itself, knitting together the nation’s history with one of its most infamous couples. Volodya admits that the tsar and his wife were flawed but also considers them warm, sympathetic people. This stands in stark contrast to how they are typically perceived, both historically and by contemporary standards. Volodya (and Alexander’s novel as a whole) purposefully tries to show a different side to the Romanovs in an effort to humanize them. As Volodya reflects in his narration:

[T]he most honest thing one can say about them was that they had a warm, devoted family. And the truest thing one can say about them was that nothing was more important to them than the well-being of Mother Russia. That these two things ended in utter disaster is their tragedy, to be sure (32).

The idea of an intertwined fate between the Romanovs and Russia is reinforced in Chapter 5—where Volodya’s narration suggests that Aleksandra birthing a sickly son, Aleksei, mirrors an “inescapable Russian fate” that hurtles both the royal family and their mother country toward doom (51). Nikolai and Aleksandra’s complexities—their warmth and devotion, their ignorance and tragic demise—thus represent Russia itself in The Kitchen Boy.

Volodya’s attempts to humanize the tsar and his family are significant in another aspect. As previously mentioned, Volodya’s rosy assessment of Tsar Nikolai (i.e., his insistence that Nikolai was a “sweet,” “tender,” “gentle” man; 73) departs from the popular sentiment surrounding him at the time. Tsar Nikolai II was known as a narrow-minded and neglectful leader whose policies repressed the Russian people, infringing on their liberties and causing nation-wide famine. This wide berth between popular opinion and Volodya’s opinion prompts the question as to why Volodya sees Nikolai so positively. This becomes doubly true when one considers Volodya’s past as a Bolshevik. The answer lies precisely in this past. Volodya is desperate to shed his true identity and past association with the Bolsheviks—so much so that he lies to his own granddaughter and takes on the false, innocent, identity of kitchen boy Leonka. Volodya’s resentment toward the Bolsheviks and the violence they made him enact on the Romanovs cause him to take a radical turn in favor of the tsar. Volodya enthusiastically embraces the tsar and his family as he rewrites history—a way to rebel against the Bolshevik ideology that destroyed his life. Thus, his assessment of Tsar Nikolai is not meant to be taken as historical fact. Rather, the novel’s narration is a character-building device used by Alexander to shed light on Volodya’s emotional state.