The written word is so important in everyday life that there can be few more radical acts than forcing an entire nation to learn a new script. Yet that is what happened in Turkey in 1928 when Mustafa Kemal decreed that the Arabic script would be replaced by the letters of the Latin alphabet. Communication with computers using human language is usually made with Latin letters. This is how most Chinese people interact with their computers and smart phones, using a Latin-based phonetic script called Pinyin. As a result, even highly educated Chinese are losing the ability to write using Chinese characters. Could what is happening in China be the future of writing everywhere?

Nicholas felt enormous pressure to continue the dynasty and expand the empire. He saw his opportunity in the Far East. This brought him into conflict with a rising power, Japan. Russia's disastrous war against Japan prompts civil unrest. The birth of Prince Alexei is incredibly important. He's the long-awaited son that they had hoped so much for. But when Alexei is diagnosed with haemophilia, Siberian mystic Rasputin steps in. He's very good at realizing when something is open that will enable him to increase his power and wealth. The pressure of keeping the secret of Alexei's illness affects the political decisions that Nicky and Alix made for the rest of their reign.

The Romanovs retreat into a bubble of luxury while the czar's forces brutally suppress protests by a starving populace. Rasputin's influence grows, never mind the rumors and scandals. Many people believe Prime minister Peter Stolypin is the last hope of the Romanov Dynasty as reformer-in-chief. He is horrified by the rise of Rasputin. The fight between Stolypin and Rasputin is a battle for influence over Nicholas II. But Stolypin is shot in the Kiev Opera in 1911.

In 1914, Russia entered World War I in response to Austria-Hungary's declaration of war on Russia's ally Serbia. This was fought across multiple fronts while isolated from its allies. The Battle of Tannenberg, where the entire Russian Second Army was annihilated, cast an ominous shadow over the empire's future. The already-existing public distrust of the regime was deepened by the rising costs of the war and rumours of corruption. World War I takes Nicholas to the front. Back home, outrage grows over high casualties and Alexandra and Rasputin's political intrigues.

Rasputin is gone, but Nicholas II continues his catastrophic policies in war and at home. When Nicholas goes back to military headquarters, he is in fact leaving control of government, exactly when Russia needed to be held together by its Czar. The war by this time is deeply unpopular. It's not only unpopular, it's also arguably the engine that's causing enormous economic crisis, that's causing general unrest. Deprivation pushes the population from unrest to revolution.

Nicholas II abdicates, and civil war erupts. In May 1918, a year after the revolution, the Bolsheviks sent Anastasia, Alexei, Tatiana and Olga to join the rest of the family in Ekaterinburg. They're put in the Ipatiev mansion and It's given the name 'The House of Special Purpose.' As pro-royalist forces close in on the house where the Romanovs are imprisoned, the family's fate is sealed.