Overview: Ever since their brutal murders one hundred years ago, the world has been fascinated by Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, the Empress Alexandra.

Through the couple's private and personally revealing letters, this two-part docu-drama, presented by historian Dr. Suzannah Lipscomb, explores Nicholas and Alexandra's complex love story and the couple's role in the lead up to the Russian Revolution of 1917.

DVD Verdict: Nicholas II was born on May 6, 1868 (from the Julian calendar, which was used in Russia until 1918) in Pushkin, Russia.

He inherited the throne when his father, Alexander III, died in 1894. Although he believed in autocracy, he was eventually forced to create an elected legislature. Nicholas II’s handling of Bloody Sunday and World War I incensed his subjects and led to his abdication.

Bolsheviks executed him and his family on the night of July 16-17, 1918, in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

Indeed, Nicholas II was the last tsar of Russia under Romanov rule and it was his poor handling of Bloody Sunday and Russia’s role in World War I that actually led to his abdication and execution.

Nicholas II was the first Russian sovereign to show personal interest in Asia, visiting in 1891, while still tsesarevich, India, China, and Japan; later he nominally supervised the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

His attempt to maintain and strengthen Russian influence in Korea, where Japan also had a foothold, was partly responsible for the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05).

Russia’s defeat not only frustrated Nicholas’s grandiose dreams of making Russia a great Eurasian power, with China, Tibet, and Persia under its control, but also presented him with serious problems at home, where discontent grew into the revolutionary movement of 1905.

Nicholas II considered all who opposed him, regardless of their views, as malicious conspirators. Disregarding the advice of his future prime minister Sergey Yulyevich Witte, he refused to make concessions to the constitutionalists until events forced him to yield more than might have been necessary had he been more flexible.

On March 3, 1905, he reluctantly agreed to create a national representative assembly, or Duma, with consultative powers, and by the manifesto of October 30 he promised a constitutional regime under which no law was to take effect without the Duma’s consent, as well as a democratic franchise and civil liberties.

Nicholas II, however, cared little for keeping promises extracted from him under duress. He strove to regain his former powers and ensured that in the new Fundamental Laws (May 1906) he was still designated an autocrat.

He furthermore patronized an extremist right-wing organization, the Union of the Russian People, which sanctioned terrorist methods and disseminated anti-Semitic propaganda.

Witte, whom he blamed for the October Manifesto, was soon dismissed, and the first two Dumas were prematurely dissolved as “insubordinate.”

Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin, who replaced Witte and carried out the coup of June 16, 1907, dissolving the second Duma, was loyal to the dynasty and a capable statesman. But the emperor distrusted him and allowed his position to be undermined by intrigue.

Stolypin was one of those who dared to speak out about Rasputin’s influence and thereby incurred the displeasure of the empress.

In such cases Nicholas II generally hesitated but ultimately yielded to Alexandra’s pressure.

To prevent exposure of the scandalous hold Rasputin had on the imperial family, Nicholas interfered arbitrarily in matters properly within the competence of the Holy Synod, backing reactionary elements against those concerned about the Orthodox church’s prestige.

When riots broke out in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) on March 8, 1917, Nicholas instructed the city commandant to take firm measures and sent troops to restore order. It was too late.

The government resigned, and the Duma, supported by the army, called on the emperor to abdicate. At Pskov on March 15, with fatalistic composure, Nicholas II renounced the throne—not, as he had originally intended, in favor of his son, Alexis, but in favor of his brother Michael, who refused the crown.

Nicholas II was detained at Tsarskoye Selo by Prince Lvov’s provisional government. It was planned that he and his family would be sent to England, but instead, mainly because of the opposition of the Petrograd Soviet, the revolutionary Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council, they were removed to Tobolsk in Western Siberia.

This step sealed their doom. In April 1918 they were taken to Yekaterinburg in the Urals.

When anti-Bolshevik “White” Russian forces approached the area, the local authorities were ordered to prevent a rescue. In the early hours of July 17, 1918, the prisoners were all slaughtered in the cellar of the house where they had been confined.

Although there is some uncertainty over whether the family was killed on July 16 or 17, most sources indicate that the executions took place on July 17.

The bodies were burned, cast into an abandoned mine shaft, and then hastily buried elsewhere.

A team of Russian scientists located the remains in 1976 but kept the discovery secret until after the collapse of the Soviet Union. By 1994 genetic analyses had positively identified the remains as those of Nicholas, Alexandra, three of their daughters (Anastasia, Tatiana, and Olga), and four servants.

The remains were given a state funeral on July 17, 1998, and reburied in St. Petersburg in the crypt of the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul. The remains of Alexis and of another daughter (Maria) were not found until 2007, and the following year DNA testing confirmed their identity.

Through the couple's politically damning, sexually intimate and personally revealing letters, this two-part docu-drama, presented by historian Dr. Suzannah Lipscomb, we get to hear of thousands of love letters that reveal the intimate details of their affection, sex life, delusions, and above all the road to revolution.

Inclusive of more information and finds and discussions, these and other many fascinating facts are all to be found here on the enthralling 'Nicholas and Alexandra: The Letters' out May 21st, 2019 via PBS. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.78:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.