The Romanovs Under House Arrest: From the 1917 Diary of a Palace Priest

Archpriest Afanasy Belyaev served as priest and confessor to the former Russian Imperial family.  On the occasion of the Tsarevich’s thirteenth birthday July 1917, he wrote this description of their faith and piety:

…for the last time the former rulers of their own home had gathered to fervently, pray, tearfully, and on bended knee, imploring that the Lord help and intercede for them in all of their sorrows and misfortunes. 

These selected excerpts form the chaplain’s diary open a window into the souls of the now sainted Romanov family and vividly recall the struggles they endured during the first five months of their confinement following the abduction of Tsar Nicholas II.  One sees the love and interdependence of a family whose life was centered on Christ; whose very existence was bound up with the defense of the Orthodox Faith. In the Spirit of the Gospel the Tsar conveyed to the Russian people from captivity “that it is not evil with conquers evil, but only love…”

Russian cultural historian Marilyn Pfeifer Swezey its Fr. Afanasy’s diary in its historical context and offers an epilogue to complete the story of the Romanovs’ journey to martyrdom at the hands of the Bolshevik firing squad in a Siberian basement in July 1918.  Also included is a short life of Fr. Afanasy and biographical information regarding the various persons appearing in the work.