The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2003

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 3

Chapters 4-7

Chapters 8-12

Chapters 13-17

Chapter 18-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 13-17Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 13 Summary

On the nights of July 5 and 6, the Romanovs eagerly await the arrival of the White Army. They never come. Leonka recalls that the Romanovs never received another letter; they never found out why the White Army failed to arrive. On July 11, the Bolshevik guards reseal Ipatiev House’s windows. Leonka describes the despair which began to creep into the household, as “we all realized we were imprisoned, locked in a kind of grand cell from which there might well be no escape” (139).

Chapter 14 Summary

It is July 14, 1918, two days before the Romanovs’ assassination. Tsar Nikolai writes another letter to the White Army to report Ipatiev House’s increasingly oppressive atmosphere. Komendant Yurovsky allows Father Storozhev (from the Church of the Ascension) into the house to lead a religious ceremony for the Romanovs—but bans the family from speaking. Leonka watches as Nikolai tries to give his letter to Father Storozhev, but he never gets the chance. The responsibility for delivering the letter falls to Leonka.

Chapter 15 Summary

On July 15, Leonka plans to deliver the tsar’s letter to Father Storozhev. As he goes to leave, he sees two maids being interrogated by Komendant Yurovsky in the doorway. He tells Leonka that there is a new policy: All who exit the house must be searched before leaving. In a panic, Leonka returns to the kitchen, telling the komendant that he must go to the bathroom. Leonka hides the tsar’s letter under a metal pipe above the bathroom’s toilet. Leonka is subsequently searched without incident and happily returns, eager to find another way to smuggle the tsar’s letter out of Ipatiev House.

However, when he returns to the bathroom, the hidden letter is gone. Panicked, Leonka goes to the tsar and his wife to see if they have the letter. They do not; they expect Leonka to tell them the good news that he successfully delivered the letter. This causes Leonka to become anxious and feverish. Dr. Botkin, Nikolai, and Aleksandra insist that Leonka go to bed and rest.

Leonka wakes up on the 16th and senses nothing out of the ordinary. As he narrates, adult Leonka reflects on his past self’s naivete: Unbeknownst to him, the Bolsheviks found his hidden letter and were secretly concocting the Romanovs’ assassination throughout the 16th.

Chapter 16 Summary

Adult Leonka reflects on how the Romanovs’ assassination opened the door to decades of Bolshevik violence in Russia. He feels guilty for his role in the family’s deaths, the discovery of his hidden letter.

Leonka recalls the morning of July 16, 1918. As his younger self washes the dishes after breakfast, Komendant Yurovsky requests his presence. The komendant tells Leonka that his job as a kitchen boy is over, and that he is being transferred to the Popov House down the lane. Yurovsky does not allow Leonka to say goodbye to the Romanovs.

As Leonka lies awake at night in Popov House, he watches Ipatiev House from his window. Two hours later, an electric bell sounds, signaling “the beginning of the end” for the royal family (160).

Chapter 17 Summary

Although Leonka was not an eyewitness to every detail of the Romanovs’ assassination, he tells Kate that he read so many books that he can thoroughly describe the event: The electric bell woke up everybody in Ipatiev House and caused mass confusion. Komendant Yurovsky tells Dr. Botkin that the house is in danger because of an oncoming invasion. The komendant then instructs Dr. Botkin to gather the Romanovs so they can be moved downstairs to safety.

Dr. Botkin notifies Tsar Nikolai of the Bolsheviks’ plan, and the tsar tells his family to dress in the clothing they stitched up with jewels over the course of the summer. Nikolai’s daughters wear diamond-stitched corsets, while Aleksei wears a hat with gemstones in its seams; Anastasiya also brings along her puppy, Jimmy. The Romanovs meet with Komendant Yurovsky in the front yard, the latter leading them to the cellar.

Leonka leaves Popov House and sneaks over to Ipatiev House. Along the way, he sees a large vehicle drive up the street toward Ipatiev House. Leonka hides behind a shed and sees Komendant Yurovsky lead the Romanovs into the cellar. Leonka moves closer and peers into the cellar through a window, witnessing the Romanovs’ final moments.

Komendant Yurovsky tells the Romanovs to line up along the wall for a photograph. He brings 10 armed men into the cellar. Yurovsky notifies the Romanovs that they are being sentenced to death, which triggers panic. Yurovsky orders his men to fire, and there is a brutal, bloody scene as the Bolsheviks shoot and stab the Romanovs to death—including Anastasiya’s puppy, Jimmy.

Chapters 13-17 Analysis

Chapters 13 through 17 are perhaps the most thematically dense of the novel. Here, Volodya confronts the worst night of his life and the intense shame he feels for his role in the Romanovs’ assassination. While Volodya’s true identity is not yet known at this point of the novel, the way in which he retells history is notable. Volodya’s meditation on Bolshevik violence suggests his self-loathing as much as it does a hatred of the Communist state. His critique of the Bolsheviks’ lies surrounding the Romanovs’ deaths cuts deeper than simple political critique. As he recounts the assassination, Volodya is also critiquing his own narration: Like the Bolsheviks who attempted to cover their tracks, Volodya covers up what truly happened in his tape recordings. These chapters reveal Volodya’s complexities, unveiling a narrator who shares the same flaws as those he condemns.

Chapter 17’s emotional description of the Romanovs’ deaths closely follows the true event that occurred on July 16, 1918; Alexander reconstructs the scene using authoritative accounts written by prominent Russian historians. Volodya’s narration of the assassination reveals his inner turmoil—his account of it being haunting in detail. He depicts the Bolsheviks as animalistic, bloodthirsty, and shockingly brutal; he concludes his account of the Romanov execution with the image of a Bolshevik guard crushing a puppy’s skull with his boot. This emphasis on the Bolsheviks’ violence reflects not only Volodya’s disgust with the party that destroyed his life, but his desire to distance himself from them. By rendering the Bolsheviks as inhuman, Volodya can assure himself that he is nothing like them—all in a desperate attempt to forget his past. Throughout the novel, Volodya critiques the Bolsheviks’ propaganda—while he himself engages in propagandistic descriptions of Bolshevik savagery that paint them in a hyperbolic light.

Chapter 16 opens with Volodya’s condemnation of the Bolsheviks’ leader Vladimir Lenin—denouncing the party as a whole for denying the Romanov execution in order to maintain power. One of Volodya’s main criticisms of the Bolsheviks is that they twisted history as they saw fit. This talk of deception immediately follows Chapter 15, in which Volodya told one of his biggest lies: “Leonka” misplaced the last of the tsar’s letters and inadvertently caused the royal family’s demise. In truth, Volodya was a key player in the discovery and reporting of the tsar’s letters that he was supposedly delivering. This is Volodya’s ultimate tragedy: He rewrites history to maintain favor with others (i.e., Kate) just as the Bolsheviks did.