#robert alexander

The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander is a brilliant piece of fiction that revolves around the last kitchen boy to the Romanov Family, Leonid Sednev (pronounced Sednyov), and his story of living and working at the Ipatiev House aka “The House of Special Purpose”.

As a preface, this book was written in 2003 which is a key factor you need to know before reading this book. At the time this book was written only one of the two Romanov gravesites had been discovered and this is the grave containing the Imperial Couple (Nicholas and Alexandra), 3 of their daughters (Olga, Tatiana, and Anastasia), and their 4 servants (Botkin, Kharitonov, Trupp, and Demidova). This gravesite was discovered by amateur archaeologists in 1991 and was concealed until after the fall of the Soviet Union before it was shown to the public. Deep analysis and reconstruction of the full skeleton sets were done which concluded who was in these graves and who was not. Skeletal reconstruction shows that only 3 daughters were accounted for and there were no bones belonging to an almost 14 year old boy or a 4th daughter. The remains of the 4th daughter (Maria) and son (Alexei) were found 4 years after this book was published, in 2007, so this book explores what could’ve happened to the missing two bodies. This explains everything that happened in the last third of the book and is significant because it helps you understand the author’s creative purposes. Now knowing and understanding this crucial information, we can now provide a description of the accuracies and inaccuracies of this book.

This book is historical fiction. This is important because it is not the real Lyonka talking but is a reconstruction. This reconstruction is a beautifully and is surprisingly very historically accurate. All of the big details were covered and the author beautifully portrayed the real emotions of the family during their last weeks and even for their lives before that. Besides little specific things about Lyonka’s part in their story and very little factual differences like how the Ipatiev house was torn down in the 1960s vs the 1990s, this book was deeply accurate to its core when focusing on true facts alone.

Obviously the storyline of this book is far different and inaccurate to what happened in real life because of stylistic choices and when it was written. If you are looking for a direct source on what happened on July 17th 1918, this is not the book for that. If you are looking for a creative interpretation on the last weeks and last moments and legacy of the Romanov family then this is for you. Also at the end of the book there is an amazing plot twist that completely matches up with the time it was written when the two sets of remains of Maria and Alexei were not found and made me gasp with excitement. A true marvel for its time, this book is.

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This book was also filled with accurate information on Lyonka Sednyov, the last kitchen boy to the Romanov Family. Here is some more detailed information about him:

Leonid Ivanovich Sednyov (1903-1942) worked as a kitchen boy to the last imperial family of Russia and traveled with the family during their captivity from Tsarskoe Selo to the depths of Siberia. His uncle (Ivan Sednyov) worked alongside imperial cook Kharitonov and that is what helped Leonka eventually to become a close confidant of the imperial family. A similar age to the former Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, he often acted as a playmate and close friend to him. A few hours before the imperial family would be killed, in the evening of the 16th of July Lyonka was told he had to leave the Ipatiev House and was contained at the Popov House next door and was told his uncle was going to bring him back home which was false information because Ivan Sednyov, along with faithful Dyadka (sailor nanny) to Alexei, Klimenty Nagorny, were killed shortly after the family’s arrival at Yekaterinburg which the imperial family including Lyonka did not know about. He later went to live with other relatives in Kaluga and during WWII he died by execution for an unspecified crime.

Here is the diary entry of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna on July 16th 1918, shortly after Lyonka was sent to the Popov house:

“…Suddenly they sent for Lyonka Sednev, for him to go and visit his uncle, and he quickly ran away, we are guessing whether it is true, and whether we will ever see the boy again …”

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