Nicholas II: Last of the Tsars
by Marc Ferro
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Description
One of the world's preeminent historians, Marc Ferro is a leading member of the Annales School of France and a recognized authority on early twentieth-century European history. For well over two decades, in volumes such as The February Revolution of 1917 and October 1917, he has demonstrated an unsurpassed skill in capturing the social and political forces that led to the Russian Revolution. Now Ferro turns his considerable talents to the biography of one of the pivotal figures of that era, show more Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia. For this important new biography, Ferro has searched extensively in Russian archives to illuminate Nicholas's character. What emerges is a vivid portrait of a reluctant leader, a young man forced by the death of his father into a role for which he was ill-equipped. A conformist and traditionalist, Nicholas admired the order, ritual, and ceremony identified with the intangible grandeur of autocracy, and he hated everything that might shake that autocracy - the intelligentsia, the Jews, the religious sects. His reign, as Ferro documents, was one of continual trouble: a humiliating war with Japan; the 1905 revolution that forced Nicholas to accept a constitutional assembly, the Duma; the international crisis of 1914, leading to World War I; and finally the Revolution of 1917, forcing his abdication. Throughout, we see a Tsar who was utterly opposed to change and to the ferment of ideas that stirred his country, who felt it was his duty to preserve intact the powers God had entrusted in him. Ferro also provides an intimate portrait of Nicholas's personal life: his wife Alexandra; his four daughters, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia, sisters so close they signed letters "OTMA," the initials of their Christian names; his son and heir Alexis, who suffered from hemophilia; and the various figures in the court, most notably Rasputin, whose ability to revive the frequently ailing Alexis made him indispensable to the Tsaritsa. (Ferro recounts that, when Alexandra heard of Rasputin's murder, she collapsed in anguish, certain her son was lost; but when Nicholas heard the news while with the army, he simply walked off whistling cheerfully.) Perhaps most intriguing is Ferro's chapter on the fate of the Tsar and his family, examining all the rumors and contradictory testimony that swirl around this still cloudy event. Ferro concludes that Alexandra and her daughters may have survived the revolution, and the woman who later surfaced in Europe claiming to be Anastasia may well have been so. This authoritative biography by one of the world's great historians shines a bright light on an ordinary man raised to an extraordinary station, who carried an unwanted burden, which crushed him. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
it was very detailed and made you wonder if one of the girls survived. this gave you a new theory on how one of them could have survived. it really made you wonder.
Tells of the events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917.
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All Things Russia
459 works; 11 members
Author Information
92+ Works 1,221 Members
Marc Ferro is Director of Studies in Social Sciences at the cole des Hautes tudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Nicolas II
- Original title
- Nicolas II
- Original publication date
- 1990 (1e édition originale française, Payot) (1e édition originale française, Payot)
- People/Characters
- Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia
- Important places
- Russia
- Dedication
- To Martine Godet and Annie Goldmann
- First words
- Young "Nicky" was thirteen when he saw his grandfather Alexander II, his legs smashed by a nihilist's bomb, dying before his eyes.
Introduction: When, in 1894, he learned that he was to ascend the throne, Nicholas burst into tears. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)That situation has to be challenged.
- Original language*
- Français
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
- Genres
- History, Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 947.08 — History & geography History of Europe Eastern European Counties and Russia Russian & Slavic History by Period 1855-
- LCC
- DK258 .F47 — History of Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics – Poland History of Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics History House of Romanov, 1613-1917
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 210
- Popularity
- 154,996
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.66)
- Languages
- 7 — English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 14
- ASINs
- 5
