Extended Reading

Nicholas and Alexandra quotes

  • [as Nagorny is to be executed]

    Tsarevich Alexei: I'd like to kill them.

    Tsar Nicholas II: Wait and see. They'll do what's right.

    Tsarevich Alexei: I know him. He's a murderer.

    Tsar Nicholas II: He's a thoughtful man. He'll send Nagorny back to us. He's not a monster. I've never known a heart without some murder in it. I made these men. They are our Russians. I am responsible for what they are. I let them starve. I put them in prisons. And I shot them. If there's hatred in them now, I put it there. But they ARE filled with love. And mercy, too. You must remember that.

    Tsarevich Alexei: They are all murderers.

    [the execution shot is heard outside]

    Tsarevich Alexei: I'd like to kill them all.

  • Tsar Nicholas II: Nagorny is innocent. He's like a child. You don't shoot children, do you? In your new world, are there penalties for innocence?

    Yurovsky: Sometimes.