Hi AnastasiaFan-
I'm not quoting your post for reasons of length, but will try to answer your questions. First, I should say, I don't see anything that we wrote as "accusations," as you phrase it; we simply tried to present information and evidence, and couple that with analysis. I guess I would ask you rather specifically to what "accusations made against Alix" you are referring? Everything within the book is either cited and sourced, or the analysis is drawn from those materials cited and sourced, so perhaps you can tell me exactly what the question is? One important thing to keep in mind is that our profiles of the family were largely focused on the final years of the dynasty and the time in captivity, and most of the information about their dynamic between 1916-1918 is drawn from previously unpublished sources like the full depositions of Gilliard, Gibbes, Bitner, Kobylinsky, and others, in the Sokolov Dossiers. It's my guess that you've never read these, since they have never been published in full, and thus are unaware of the opinions on which we drew.
Regarding Olga's relationship with her mother: if you look again, you will see that this information is sourced-it derives from comments made by Vyrubova, Dehn, Bittner, Gilliard, Gibbes, Kobylinsky, and others. For example, in their full depositions, Gilliard, Bittner, Gibbes, and Kobylinsky all remark on the strained relationship between Olga and Alix. By strained we don't mean that they weren't speaking or hated each other, but those around them commented on a notable coolness in their relationship. We certainly don't take the position that they were mortal enemies, and reading this into what we say doesn't reflect our views.
Regarding Tatiana and the reference to Toria: please see page 49; we don't say what you have us saying-our sentence reads "With Tatiana, the Empress mirrored the behavior of her own aunt, Queen Alexandra, and [this should have read who] treated her daughter, Princess Victoria, like a "glorified maid." This quote is cited, and the analysis that AF tended to treat Tatiana in this manner is derived from a number of sources, including those mentioned above, as well as Alix's letters, in which she refers to Tatiana as being the girl who follows her wishes and attends to her.
The edit of Tatiana's letter was for reasons of space; if you read into it that Alix was neglectful, sorry-that's nowhere near to what we say-we included it because on the contrary it shows how the girls longed to have regular contact with their mother, in a normal way, and the fact that they could not was hard on them. We didn't distort anything.
As to Marie: Again, Gilliard, Gibbes, Bitner, and Kobylinsky, in their complete Sokolov depositions, all comment that Marie had little in common with her mother and adored her father, that she was far closer to him. Regarding the letter you mention-again, you've distorted what we actually say-not, as you write, "you claim Marie wrote it because she felt unloved by her mother"-we say nothing of the kind. We say (page 49) "Marie believed she had been unwanted and was unloved, a situation unwittingly exacerbated by the Empress." As to Marie's reply-again, please read the book carefully-her letter of response clearly indicates that she was NOT reassured.
It seems to me that you are trying to read something into what we say that simply isn't there, and (no offense) the examples cited above are actually inaccurate representations of what we wrote, or seem to be your interpretation of what we meant. The latter's fine-everyone forms their own opinions-but please don't distort what we say in the book-it's better if you have further questions like this to simply and accurately quote from the actual text, rather than paraphrase it and add your own interpretation.
Greg King
