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

“...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.”

Thus the Archpriest Afanasy Belyaev described the faith and piety of the Russian Imperial family, whom he served as priest and confessor, on the occasion of the Tsarevich’s thirteenth birthday. These selected excerpts from the chaplain’s diary open a window into the souls of the now sainted Royal Family and reveal surprising details of the daily realities of the family's life in this first period of captivity prior to the overthrow of the Provisional Government in October 1917.

Russian cultural historian Marilyn Pfeifer Swezey sets the diary in its historical context and offers an epilogue to complete the story of the Romanov’s journey to martyrdom at the hands of a Bolshevik firing squad in a Siberian basement.

Archpriest Afanasy Belyaev was the father confessor of the Russian Imperial Family during their first five months of confinement following Nicholas II's abdication in early 1917. Archpriest Victor Potapov is rector of St. John the Baptist Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Over the course of three decades, he ran the "Religion in Our Life" program on Voice of America. Marilyn Pfeifer Swezey is a historian specializing in Russian decorative arts and cultural history, as well as the Russian spiritual and liturgical tradition.