IMPERIAL LEGEND:THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF TSAR ALEXANDER I By Alexis S. Troubetzkoy Arcade, $27.95, 300 pages, illus. Tsar Alexander I, the towering 19th-century Russian ruler who defeated ...

Alexis died in 1676 and his sickly son Feodor III ... Alexander III, Russia avoided any major wars—as well as enacting any reforms that would test the tsar's power in any way.