Tsar Nicholas II and his family lived in luxury but faced revolution in 1917. Instead of execution in 1918, they escaped with the help of monarchist allies and the Czech Legion, fleeing Russia via Vladivostok. Granted asylum in England, they lived in quiet exile—Nicholas as a writer, Alexandra in religious devotion, and their children adapting to new lives across Europe and America. Though they never regained the throne, they became a symbol of lost Russia and monarchist hope.