Nicholas II: Twilight of the Empire
by Dominic Lieven
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What is there new to say about Russia's last monarch? Almost everything. Previous biographies have told of the shy family man, the father of the hemophiliac heir, the victim of the infamous murder at Ekaterinburg in 1918. This book provides new insights into those parts of the story, but it looks above all at Nicholas as political leader and emperor, as it portrays the Old Regime's collapse and the origins of Bolshevik Russia in a way that will surprise readers. Nicholas II was not stupid. show more Nor was he nearly as weak as is commonly thought. The dilemmas of ruling Russia were vast and contradictory, and it was an illusion to think that simply by agreeing to become a constitutional monarch Nicholas could have preserved his dynasty and empire. Drawing many eerie parallels to events unfolding in Russia today, Lieven shows that social and technological change had far outstripped the existing political and executive structures. The inability of the Tsar and his government to recognize these growing anachronisms and to devise new systems constructively helped lead to the devastating chaos out of which the new order arose. Drawing on his fifteen-year study of Imperial Russia and using archival material and other sources all over the world, Dominic Lieven shows that the downfall of both the Imperial and Soviet Regimes fit into a pattern of ongoing Russian history, one that bears close scrutiny if we are to understand the turmoil of the post-Cold War period. show lessTags
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Author Information
14+ Works 1,468 Members
Dominic Lieven, a former Kennedy scholar at Harvard University, is professor of Russian government at the London School of Economics.
Awards and Honors
Notable Lists
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Nicholas II: Twilight of the Empire
- People/Characters
- Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia
- Dedication
- For Maxie
- First words
- Nicholas Romanov, the last of Russia's emperors, was born on 18 May, 1868.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)With the collapse of the Soviet regime comes the moment not for whitewashing or mythologizing old Russia and its last ruler but instead for presenting a fairer, more human, and more balanced judgement than that imposed on the Russian people for the last seventy-five years.
Classifications
- Genres
- History, Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 947.08 — History & geography History of Europe Russia and neighboring east European countries Russian & Slavic History by Period 1855-
- LCC
- DK258 .L46 — 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
- 110
- Popularity
- 293,833
- Rating
- (3.78)
- Languages
- English, Spanish
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 2
