Alexei Nikolaevich was born August 12, 1904, into a world of privilege and extravagance, the youngest of five children and the only son of Tsar Nicholas and Alexandra Romanov, the Russian Empire’s ruling couple. But there was a darker side to Alexei’s lineage:  he inherited hemophilia, a rare blood disorder, from his mother.

When his wife gave birth to a son with the same illness, this deepened author Robert Massie’s fascination with the Romanovs. Now widely regarded as the foremost expert on the last Russian royal family, with more than 6 million books sold worldwide, Massie will appear at the University of Missouri-Kansas City to speak about the influences of the Romanovs on the “Great War.”

Massie’s presentation is at 7 p.m. October 28 in Pierson Auditorium, Atterbury Student Success Center, 51st and Holmes. Tickets are available through the Central Ticket Office. There is no cost, but reservations are requested. Free parking is available in the lot north of the Student Success Center or in the Cherry Street Parking structure, where free event parking is on levels 5 & 6.

Massie’s first book, “Nicholas and Alexandra,” claimed a New York Times bestseller spot for almost a year. The movie version received nine Academy Award nominations. Massie was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for biography for “Peter the Great,” and this book, too, was adapted for television.

Massie has written for Newsweek, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, Saturday Review, Life and other publications. He taught at Princeton and Tulane, and was a Vassar trustee. He was a juror for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award; and from 1987 to 1991, he was president of the Authors Guild of America.

2014 marks the 100th anniversary of World War I, an area of emphasis for the Cockefair Chair programs this year.