Customer Reviews

Nicholas II: Twilight of the Empire

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Well-written book on Nicholas II and the last days of the Russian Empire... The last Russian Tsar is shown in this book with sympathy and good understanding of the Russian history. The author has done a very good research of Russian and foreign sources, including many official documents and private diaries of Nicholas himself, his wife Alexandra and many top officials including Witte, Benckendorff, Durnovo and others. The author is a scholar of the Russian studies of the London School of Economics and his account is well supported by the thorough analysis of the political and economic situation in Russia in the last years of the Russian Empire 1880 - 1917.

The account of Nicholas is fairly balanced, he is shown as a decent man dedicated to his family, country and its people, but neither equipped with character needed to run the huge country, nor even trained for that. Despite the fact the author clearly sympathize with Nicholas and his huge burden; there are numerous accounts in the book describing Nicholas glaring lack of vision, lack of assertiveness and simply managerial skills. For example, after the World War I started in 1914, Nicholas II, the "chief executive of Russia", for several months continued to lead a life of the country gentlemen, riding horses, playing tennis, visiting relatives for tea.

For his credit Nicholas did in the end assumed the supreme command of the Russian army, but not until after it suffered several disastrous defeats. He was on the one hand, an intelligent and decent, but soft and indecisive man trying to play a role of iron-willed autocrat, and on the other hand a member of a leisure class, a country gentleman trying to play a role of a hands-on CEO of a huge corporation called Russia. As Mr. Lieven showed, Nicholas had honestly tried, but unfortunately because of his own mistakes and disastrous external circumstances failed in both roles. Despite that, to the author's credit the collapse of the Russian Empire and fall of the Romanov dynasty is mostly attributed to the inability of the Russian State to quickly modernize itself, rather than to other coincidental factors as the presence of Rasputin or tolerated by the Tsar widespread involvement to the politics of his family and relatives.

Lieven offers a different perspective of the usual account
of the devoted family man and "puppet of history." The author
goes beyone the familiar recounting of the path to the Ipatiev
House with his richly detailed explanation of the reasons why
the last Tsar and his family were brought to their inevitable
end.

This is one of the best books I've read on Tsar Nicholas II. The author is very thorough and knows his subject well.

Great book to read to get a balanced view of Imperial Russia and the immense problems faced by the Imperial government.