Includes bibliographical references (pages 256-265) and index.

Before you begin -- Russia 1903 -- Beyond the palace gates : peasant turned worker -- Before the storm -- "I dreamed that I was loved" -- Beyond the palace gates : a peasant boyhood -- "What a disappointment!" -- Beyond the palace gates : lullabies for peasant babies -- "A small family circle" -- Beyond the palace gates : another family circle -- Dark clouds gathering -- The year of nightmares -- Lenin, the Duma, and a mystic named Rasputin -- Beyond the palace gates : house no. 13 -- "Pig and filth" and family fun -- Beyond the palace gates : an occupation for workers' daughters -- Gathering clouds -- Three centuries of Romanovs -- Beyond the palace gates : a different kind of education for a different kind of boy -- The storm breaks -- "My God! My God! What madness!" -- In defense of mother Russia -- Beyond the palace gates : Vasily's diary -- The reign of Rasputin -- It all comes tumbling down -- Beyond the palace gates : molecule in a storm -- "Ye tyrants quake, your day is over" -- Beyond the palace gates : "ye tyrants quake, your day is over" -- Final days -- "Survivors of a shipwreck" -- Beyond the palace gates : the "Tsar's surprise party" -- Into Siberia -- Beyond the palace gates : swarming the palace -- The house of special purpose -- Deadly intent -- "The world will never know what has become of them" -- Beyond the palace gates : life under Lenin.

When Russia's last tsar, Nicholas II, inherited the throne in 1894, he was unprepared to do so. With their four daughters (including Anastasia) and only son, a hemophiliac, Nicholas and his reclusive wife, Alexandra, buried their heads in the sand, living a life of opulence as World War I raged outside their door and political unrest grew into the Russian Revolution. Maneuvering between the lives of the Romanovs and the plight of Russia's peasants and urban workers -- and their eventual uprising -- Fleming draws a poignant portrait, complete with period photographs and primary source material.

Ages 12-17.

950 Lexile.

Accelerated Reader 7.2.

Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award Honor Book (2015); YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award Finalist (2015)

Boston Globe/Horn Book Nonfiction Award, 2015