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Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar

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In Alexander II, as in his earlier biographies of Nicholas II, Rasputin, and Stalin, Edvard Radzinsky has written a biography of a Russian which only a Russian could write. His story of Alexander II's life and reign and its impact on Russia is filled with omens, fatalistic musings and asides, and wry commentaries on present day Russian life. At first this can be somewhat distracting if you are used to a more straightforward approach to biography, but as you read on you begin to grasp the rhythm and appreciate the literary style.

Alexander II was responsible for one of the longest periods of reform Tsarist Russia ever experienced. The 1860s and 1870s were a period of ferment and rapid change, as serfdom came to an end, censorship was relaxed, and Russians began to have wider contacts with the industrialized West. At the same time terrorism increased dramatically as many Russians demanded more change than the Tsar was willing to permit. Radzinsky does a good job of detailing the Tsar's vacillations as he made one move towards liberalism, then took two steps back towards reaction, then sidled back towards reform. Students of Russian history will recognize this as the same character flaw that doomed Alexander II's grandson Nicholas II. They will also realize that Radzinsky is also drawing parallels between the perestroika/glasnost period of 1985-1991 in the former Soviet Union and Alexander's 19th century reforms. (I was interested to see the word "glasnost" used by some of the Tsar's reformers.)

Radzinsky also covers the "Russian Renaissance", as Alexander II's early reign was known, with good descriptions of the careers of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, among many others. The Tsar's private life, including his early love for his wife Marie of Hesse-Darmstadt and his later affair/marriage with Princess Catherine Yurievskaya, is also well covered, as is Alexander's sometimes troubled relationships with his six sons and one daughter. Finally, Radzinsky does an excellent job describing the Tsar's assassination and the intricate plots and attempts that led up to it, with a nice summation of the successes and failures of the reign and their impact on future Russian history.

This is an excellent read which not only illuminates a period of Russian history which is often overlooked, but also helps the reader grasp something of the Russian character.

Radzinsky paints a compelling portrait of Alexander II, who he terms as Russia's Last Great Tsar, and, implicitly, the last figure with a chance to prevent the Russian Revolution to come.

Radzinsky deals with Alexander's formative years, as the tsarevich under the conservative Nicholas I. Russia in its final years seemed to be the epitome as thesis begets antithesis as reformists tsars were followed by conservative ones.

One of Alexander's first actions after being crowned was to free the Russian serfs. Unfortunately, in what was to become a theme of his reign, he attempted to chart a middle course, and the serfs were "freed" but not given full control over the land that they owned, he started political liberalization, than drew back from it.

Unwilling to either crack down on rebellion fully, or eliminate the conservative elements, Russia began to build up steam internally as the anarchists began to organize. The Liberalizing element, seeing little hope from the regime, was faced with either accomadting to the current path or to go into violent plotting against the regime.

After Alexander's first round of reforms, he shifted into idle. It is at the point that Radzinsky deviates from his following of the tsar, and dives into the story of the plotters and revolutionaries that would ultimately commit regicide. This deviation may seem like a distraction, but it shows the complete inertia of St. Petersburg as to what was actually going on in the country.

As he entered his late 50's Alexander prepared a second round of reforms, including a constitution. However, at this point the radicals were gaining strength and preparing their plots. The reforms would be aborted by the tsar's death before they could be put in place.

Alexander III, would prove to be the conservative opposite of his father and hold down the boiling pot that was Russia until it finally erupted under Nicholas II.

I have been an avid consumer of Russian history books since I was a small child. (My father taught Russian history). I had always admired Emperor Alexander II, who freed the peasants from centuries-old enslavement, and tried to steer Russia on a moderate course. I had always wondered why this handsome, kindly, romantic and very able ruler never got a good modern biography like Russia's other two great rulers, Peter the Great, and Catherine the Great.

Edvard Radzinsky's book definitely meets the need for a readable, dramatic account of Alexander II's life. It reads like a historical novel, filled with drama and intrigue.

But it is the true story of a hero who was eventually murdered -- just as he was preparing Russsia's first constitution -- and who may have been betrayed to his death through an odd alliance between his opponents on the extreme left and the extreme right, neither of whom wanted Alexander to create a moderate, constitutional government.

I had not known that Alexander's court also feared that he would replace the heir to the throne -- his very conservative, reactionary oldest son, Grand Duke Alexander, with his much younger half-brother, Gregory, Alexander's son by a mistress that he had recently married.

It is a valuable cautionary tale for anyone seeking to create major societal change -- or anyone seeking an absorbing, eventful story as fascinating as any of the novels of Tolstoy or Dostoevsky that were written during Alexander's reign.

Finally a biography has done justice to Alexander II. In the past Russian biography of the Tsars focused on Nicholas II, and Peter the Great and perhaps Catherine the Great. Alexander II, the great reformer was passed over as boring, since he didnt die at the hands of the Communists and didnt consider murdering his own son or have sex with his greatest generals. THis book sheds light on 19th century russia, the freeing of the Serfs and heady times in the end of the Romanov period. Good reading, excellent scholarship, something new.

Seth J. Frantzman

Very informative and exciting biography on Alexander II. Defiently and interesting person. The one who freed the serfs, lowered censorship, and promised a Constitution for Russia. Every big step he took Alexander then took two steps back. He certainly realized Russia needed changes and came up with good ideas on how to change Russia for the better but never completely followed through whether he was unwilling or unable to follow through because of himself, the people around him or the revolutionists or a mixture of all three at he was trying. You can't help but wonder what would of happened if Aexander had actually gone through with each of his plans. The author gave good descriptions of everyone in the book from Alexander, his family and even the revolutionists. His private life was just as messy with between his two marriages and two families. I thought it was a little cold and cruel to move in his mistress and later second wife and their children while his wife was dying. Other then that it was a great bio.

...also a very interesting examination of Russian history in the 19th century. Radzinky's purpose is less concerned with making the reader intimately familiar with Alexander as a "person" (although all the biographical essentials are here) as it is to demonstrate Alexander's place in Russian history. Here we see the son of one of Russia's most repressive tsars launching an era of great reforms. Nodding to inevitabilities that many around him couldn't see, Alexander was Russia's first author of "glasnost" and "perestroika" but like Mikhail Gorbachev a century later, he underestimated the energy of forces he released and overestimated his ability to continue to control and influence events. Consequently, he became the enemy of both Russia's impatient, overeducated, and arrogant youth-who quickly resorted to ruthless terrorism to hasten the end of autocracy-as well as the "retrogrades" who longed for a return to the peaceful dictatorship of Nicholas I. History books talk a lot about the socialist revolutionaries. Yet it may be through the complicity of the retrogrades that Alexander II was assassinated. (The retrogrades were further alienated by Alexander's open cavorting with his beloved mistress--it wasn't that Tsars weren't supposed to have affairs, it's just they were expected to be more discrete about it; after the death of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, Alexander could not wait to secretly wed his mistress despite public mourning, a scandal that many members of the court would not forgive. At the end of his life, Alexander was preparing to make his new wife empress and possibly even preparing to name a new heir from among their children!)

As Radzinsky writes: "Getting rid of unsuitable tsars was a tradition that went back to the palace coups of the guards. Usually the people closest to the sovereign were involved in the conspiracies." Radzinsky admits he cannot prove a conspiracy with the documentation available but the circumstantial evidence he presents is very persuasive. Conveniently for his enemies, Alexander's assassination came as he was preparing-despite typical vacillation-to launch Russia on an historic course change towards constitutional monarchy. Instead, he was succeeded by a dim-witted and reactionary son who turned Russia back towards absolutism, thus ensuring a future revolution. One of tragic flukes of Russian history is that Alexander III was not the original heir to the throne. Grand Duke Nicholas Alexandrovich ("Niks")-the first son of Alexander II-was by all accounts a very gifted young man, dedicated to continuing his father's reforms. Unfortunately, he died of an infection in 1865. Even Alexander himself had little confidence in the new heir. How much bloodshed and misery might have been later avoided had an earlier and completely different Nicholas II become Tsar after the death of Alexander II.

Does Alexander II deserve to be called "Russia's Lincoln" as Razinsky argues? There is no one else in Russian history who comes any closer to deserving such an honorific (although any comparison between Lincoln and Alexander as men and as statesmen is bound to favor the American). Nevertheless, Russia and the world owe Alexander a debt of gratitude, not only for ending serfdom but for unleashing (even if unintentionally) the "Russian renaissance" that gave us such literary giants as Tolstoy and Dostoevsky (the latter, 19 century Russia's most fascinating personality, plays a prominent role in Radzinsky's narrative). The fact that Alexander's reforms might have ultimately saved Russia and the world from the scourge of Soviet communism-but didn't-is an indictment not of the author of the reforms but of many of Alexander's short-sighted contemporaries and successors. Yet another in a long line of "what ifs" in Russian history that ended badly.

An entertaining and informative read, highly recommended for anyone with an interest in Russian history.

This is more of a sweep of Russian history 1820's to 1881 than a biography. It's the compelling story of how the revolution brewed for so many years. A short search of Amazon will show a lot of treatments of the reigns of Catherine the Great and Nicholas II with not much in the middle. This book fills that gap. Once you read about this period, you see that understanding it is critical to understanding the aftermath.

It's a little hard to get into. Some of it is the unfamiliar Russian names and material. Once a neophyte accepts not understanding all the points, (i.e. Gorchakov has a "brilliant career", and several paragraphs later his "inflexible backbone ended his career" without explanation), and that it is not a biography, the reader will be rivited to this amazing story.

Radzinsky puts us right inside 19th century Russia. We come to understand the cultures of the palace, the nobles, the countryside, the youth. Alexander sees, rightly so, that for the monarchy to last it has to give up power. We see this in the world today with Britain and Japan having the most lasting dynasties... neither weilding much power.

Alexander's major accomplishment, freeing the serfs (for which the retrogrades hated him), was so clumsily accomplished that it was hard for the sympathetic liberals to defend the result. He did not seize the initiative in framing his military success. In elevating his mistress and suggesting that his new family provide his heir, he turned off his family and the court. He knows Russia needs a constitution, but with so many enemies, and the limited autocracy that he himself created, how can he ever make the change?

Count Loris-Melikov grasps what Alexander cannot. He forms a partnership with the press, he gets a new education commissioner, he gets an effective policing agency (Radzinsky's research suggests that the terrorists were an unwitting tool of the retrogrades that ran the "spy" services) and executes a few terrorists. It seems that the Count arrived too late, attitudes may have been too entrenched, and the Tsar's myopia about his 2nd marriage too complete.

Radzinsky reminds us of how prophetic Dostoevsky was... the revolution would not save Russia. Radzinsky hints at how Dostoevsky might know this: while he suffered at the hands of the tsar, he also lived next door to those plotting revolution.

This work covers a period of Russian history often overlooked and of which I personally knew little of. I cannot honestly rank it among the top biographies I have read simply due to the fact that Alexander II himself was not covered as completely as he might have been and what I am accustom to. I have to agree with one other reviewer who apparently felt that this was a book concerned itself more with a particular period in Russian History, rather than a particular Russian leader. That being said, I did feel the book was quite informative and I learned much, which for me, is always a good thing. Sorting out the various Alexander's, Nicholas's, Nikes and Sashes, et al was sort of daunting, but the various Russian names were presented much better in this book than in several others I have read. The book though did give me a better overview of what was to come and a good overview of the results of what had taken place in the past. I suppose I would have to say that it have me a better perspective. All in all I would recommend this one for those whose interest lean in this direction. If you collect such works, this is one you will want to add to your collection.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

This book basically covers Alexander's father; the political situation during Alexander's reign; and the group that orchestrated his assassination. This book does not address his birth, growing up/relationships with siblings; tutoring; how he met his wife; his marriage; how he related to his children when they were adults, etc. You never get a sense of what made him "tick" or what kind of person he really was because no detail is provided on his personal life. I have read other books by this author and that is why I was surprised that this book is even called a biography. Why was Alexander the Last Great Tsar? -- I still don't know because nothing is mentioned to address this. If you think that this is a real biography, do not buy it. If you are interested in how a small group of people coordinated his assassination - then this is the book for you.

This English translation by Antonina W. Bouis of this Russian work is quite good. Within these 463 pages, you'll learn pretty much everything there is to know about Romanov Tsar Alexander II of Russia who reigned between 1855 and 1881.

Alexander was generally regarded as a reformer, keeping in mind that prior Russian rule by his father, Nicholas I, was draconian at best; thus any liberal change was significant. Alexander's most significant reform was to free the serfs (1861). Subsequent to multiple attempts during his rule, Alexander was ultimately assassinated by revolutionaries (proto-communists) in 1881 and he was succeeded by his son, Alexander III who returned Russia to oppression, but this autocratic action came along too late to reverse the flywheel of massive political unrest.

Author Edvard Radzinsky departs somewhat from the tradition of most other Russian writers who have simply told their stories with little or no concern as to the "marketability" of their finished works. The yield of this text is pretty much limited to factual information with not a huge amount of insightful speculation about Alexander's thoughts (other than political ones for which there were clearly stated motivations). This writing style is neither bad nor good in itself but simply manifests a particular reader's personal preferences.

This 2005 book is illustrated with some very relevant and helpful black-and-white photographs and artwork. As a contemporary work, the author had the advantage over earlier-period authors who were forced to garner their facts under the Soviet Union's communist regime -- Radzinsky was clearly afforded full access to information about his subject.

The book's subtitle ("The Last Great Tsar") is somewhat misleading in that Alexander could be pretty rotten when he so desired, especially regarding the Romanov propensity to bed any woman who struck their fancy.

If I have a critical comment about this work it would be that newbies to Russian culture and to the royals in particular will have difficulty in keeping the principals straight since so many family names were used and re-used to the extreme. I've read piles of books about Russia, its people, and its leadership and I still had to "go back" from time to time and re-read what Radzinsky had said.

Overall, for those folks who are particularly interested in Russia and its people, I can definitely recommend this book.