Nicholas II

NOTE: back issues of Nos. 1 to 12 are now out of print.
Second-hand copies are available on AMAZON and eBay.

Sovereign: The Life and Reign of Emperor Nicholas II

Posted on June 28 by Paul Gilbert

CLICK on the LINK below for more details, including a full list of the articles found
in each issue + links to ORDER copies of the issues which interest you most:

No. 16 Winter 2026

No. 15 Summer 2025

SOVEREIGN was launched in 2015, by Paul Gilbert, a British-born historian and writer, who has dedicated more than 30 years to researching and writing about Emperor Nicholas II, his family, the Romanov Dynasty and Imperial Russia. Now retired, he focuses his work on clearing the name of Russia’s much slandered Tsar.

He is able to achieve this through his blog, social media, conferences and SOVEREIGN, that he challenges the negative myths and lies about Nicholas II, which have existed for more than a century. He is the author of more than a dozen books, which explore the life and reign of Nicholas II, based on research from Russian archival and media sources.

From 1986 to 2018, he travelled to Russia 29 times, visiting St. Petersburg, Moscow, Ekaterinburg and Crimea. In the 1990s, shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, Gilbert organized annual Romanov Tours, which offered visits to the Imperial Palaces, palaces of the grand dukes and grand duchesses in and around St. Petersburg, museums, among others.

PHOTO: SOVEREIGN publisher and editor Paul Gilbert. Ekaterinburg. July 2018

These tours featured lectures by leading authors and Romanov historians and museum curators. Several tours included visits to the State Archives of the Russian Federation (GARF) in Moscow, to view photo albums, letters, diaries and personal items of Nicholas II and his family.

Some of the highlights of these tours included the Alexander Palace in 1996 – one of the first groups from the West to explore the interiors of Nicholas and Alexandra’s private apartments; the Grand Kremlin Museum in Moscow; Livadia Palace in Crimea, among others.

One of the highlights of his career, was organizing and hosting the 1st International Nicholas II Conference, held on 27th October 2018, in Colchester, England. It was a memorable event, which brought together more than 100 people from almost a dozen countries. A second conference is in the works.

About SOVEREIGN

There are few monarchs in history about whom opinion has been more divided than the last Emperor and Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II (1868-1918).

Myths and lies about the “weak-willed”, “incompetent”, “bloody” tsar, were created on the basis of gossip, slanderous fabrications and Bolshevik propaganda in the early 20th century. For more than 70 years, the Bolsheviks and the Soviets were perfectly content to allow these myths and lies to stand. Sadly, they remain deeply rooted in the minds of both Westerners and the Russian people to this day.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Nicholas II has undergone nothing short of a renaissance in modern-day Russia. Much of this is thanks to the efforts of the Russian Orthodox Church and monarchist groups. He has been the subject of hundreds of new biographies and historical studies, documentaries, exhibitions, discussion forums, etc. In 2002, Tsar’s Days was revived in Ekaterinburg, an annual event which draws tens of thousands from across Russia and abroad to honour the memory of Nicholas II and his family.

Despite this, many of today’s academically lazy, British and American historians and biographers, prefer to rehash the popular negative myths and lies of Nicholas II’s early 20th century detractors. Few – if any of these “experts” – have traveled to Russia to utilize the vast archival sources now available to researchers. Instead they focus on Nicholas II’s failures, and seldom reflect on the many accomplishments he made during his 22+ year reign.

It was these very myths and lies, which compelled Gilbert to launch SOVEREIGN in 2015.

In 2024, SOVEREIGN was relaunched with a new format, which now features articles researched and written by Paul Gilbert and published on this blog. Gilbert has researched these works from Russian archival and media sources. Beginning with the No. 12 Winter 2024 issue of SOVEREIGN, these articles are now available in a printed format for the first time!

In addition, are a number of First English language works by Russian historians and experts, based on new archival documents discovered since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Thanks to this new generation of post-Soviet historian, we can now review the life and reign of Russia’s last Emperor and Tsar through Russian eyes, instead of Soviet ones! They challenge and put to rest many of the lies and myths presented over the past century by their Western counterparts. Their works are based on facts and information from reliable Russian sources.

***

SOVEREIGN was launched in 2015, and has published a total of 15 issues. Please note, that issues No. 1 through 11 are now out of print, although used and second-hand copies are available on eBay and Amazon.

Issues No. 12 to 15 are available exclusively from Amazon – please refer to the links below. The No. 16 Winter 2026 issue will be published in December 2025.

Current issues of SOVEREIGN

– CLICK on the LINK below for more details, including a full list of the articles found in each issue + links to ORDER copies of the issues which interest you most:

No. 16 Winter 2026

No. 15 Summer 2025

NEW BOOK – Sovereign No. 15 (Summer 2025)

Posted on May 30 by Paul Gilbert

*You can order this title from most AMAZON outlets, including
the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia,
France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and Japan
*Note: prices are quoted in local currencies

CLICK HERE TO ORDER THE PAPERBACK EDITION @ $20.00 USD

English. Large format 8-1/2″ x 11-1/2″. 130 pages. 131 Black & White photos

The No. 15 Summer 2025 issue of SOVEREIGN features more than 20 articles about Russia’s last Tsar, his family, the Romanov dynasty and the history of Imperial Russia. These articles have been researched and written by independent historian and author Paul Gilbert. His works are based on new research from Russian archival and media sources.

In an effort to preserve his 30+ years of research, the author has reproduced a selection of the nearly 900 articles he has written for his blog. They are made available in a printed format for the first time. The author has updated many of the articles in this issue with additional information and photos. In addition, this issue features one new First English translation.

The No. 15 issue features the following 23 articles:

[1] Film Review: Nicholas and Alexandra

[2] Smoking: the Tsar’s bad habit

[3] St. Catherine’s Chapel. The Final Resting Place of Nicholas II

[4] What were Lenin’s plans on Nicholas II’s fate?

[5] The “Imperial Palace” of Emperor Nicholas II in Paris – October 1896

[6] The hidden wealth of the Bolshevik devil Yakov Sverdlov

[7] In 1897 Nicholas II approved the Winter Palace to be painted red

[8] Romanov archives of Charles Sydney Gibbes

[9] The Tsar’s Railway Pavilion in Nizhny Novgorod

[10] Ministers of Foreign Affairs During the Reign of Nicholas II

[11] Nicholas II’s little known third brother: Alexander (1869-1870)

[12] Nicholas II’s Diaries 1894-1918

[13] God, Save the Tsar! Боже, Царя храни!

[14] Emperor Nicholas II Foundation Marks 4th Anniversary

[15] Serov Portrait of Nicholas II to be exhibited in London

[16] Faithful to the Tsar and His Family: Pierre Gilliard (1879-1962)

[17] Portrait of Nicholas II returned to Russia from America

[18] What is Nicholas II’s correct date of birth?

[19] New museum dedicated to Nicholas II and his family opens in Pskov region

[20] Reconstruction of the Imperial Train Pavilion at Tsarskoye Selo

[21] The human side of the Tsar

[22] Father Vasiliev: Confessor to the Imperial Family

[23] Obituary: Zurab Konstantinovich Tsereteli (1934-2025)

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Back issues of SOVEREIGN

CLICK HERE TO ORDER THE PAPERBACK EDITION @ $20.00 USD

NOTE: back issues of Nos. 1 to 12 are now out of print.
Second-hand copies are available on AMAZAON eBay.

NEW BOOK – Sovereign No. 14 (Winter 2025)

Posted on January 8 by Paul Gilbert

English. Large format 8-1/2″ x 11-1/2″. 130 pages. 124 Black & White photos

The No. 14 Winter 2025 issue of SOVEREIGN features articles about Russia’s last Tsar, his family, the Romanov dynasty and the history of Imperial Russia. These articles have been researched and written by independent historian and author Paul Gilbert. His works are based on new research from Russian archival and media sources.

In an effort to preserve his 30+ years of research, the author has reproduced a selection of the more than 800 articles he has written for his blog in a printed format for the first time. The author has updated many of these articles with additional facts and photos. In addition, this issue features 2 new works translated from Russian, and published in English for the first time.

In less than 24 hours of its release on AMAZON ON 8th January 2025, the No. 14 issue of my semi-annual publication SOVEREIGN is the ‘#1 NEW RELEASE in the RUSSIAN HISTORY’ category!

The No. 14 issue features the following 18 articles:

[1] 120th anniversary of Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich’s baptism

[2] 130th anniversary Nicholas II ascension to the throne

[3] 130th anniversary of the wedding of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna

[4] Protecting the Tsar

[5] Nicholas II attends consecration of monument to his father in Moscow, 1912

[6] Monuments of Nicholas II and his family in and around Ekaterinburg

[7] Redevelopment of the Russian Imperial Navy During the Reign of Nicholas II

[8] The myth of hunger during the reign of Nicholas II

[9] The fate of Nicholas II favourite motorcar

[10] Emperor Nicholas II and King Edward VII Meet at Reval,1908

[11] Queen Elizabeth II receives Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, 1959

[12] Telephones in the Alexander Palace during the reign of Nicholas II

[13] How British Intelligence tried to get Nicholas II out of Russia

[14] “The daughters were wearing diamond shields” – Yakov Yurovsky

[15] Nicholas II and his canine companions

[16] Those who served the Tsar: Vladimir Voeikov (1868-1947)

[17] A typical work day for Nicholas II

[18] Tsar Nicholas II Men’s Choir

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Back issues of SOVEREIGN