The Dying Boy and the Fall of an Empire

Chesterton Radio · Aug 25, 2026 · 36m

In October 1912, the Imperial Family of Russia retreated to a hunting lodge in the forests of Spała, Poland.

It was supposed to be a holiday.

Instead, eight-year-old Tsarevich Alexei—the only son of Nicholas II and heir to the Russian throne—suffered a catastrophic hemorrhage. The doctors could do almost nothing. His mother, Empress Alexandra, prepared herself for the possibility that her son was dying.

Then came a telegram from Grigori Rasputin.

Alexei recovered.

In this episode of The Common Room, we use Royce Ryton’s remarkable BBC radio drama Holiday in Spała as the doorway into the true…