Question by vanderhausen: Can anyone recommend any good Tsar Nicholas II factual books?
I am doing an A level personal study of the question
“To what extent did Tsar Nicholas II’s personal failings contribute to the collapse of the Tsarist regime in 1917?”
and i need some good texts to obtain information and to reference from.
Any information would be great,
Thanks.
Answers and Views:
Answer by nippy
here is a link…Hope this helps
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Tsar-Life-Death-Nicholas/dp/0385469624#noop
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me45404 says
Do not overlook the role Rasputin played in Nicholas II's downfall. Read a book on him. It was ALeexis' hemophilia that Rasputin seemed to alleviate through hypnosis that made him a power behind the throne. Some say if there had been no Rasputin, there would have been no lenin. I agree.
Big B says
There are quite a few good books come out about Nicholas II during the 1990s that followed Edvard Radzinsky's 'The Last Tsar'. Another really good book was 'Nicholas II' by Dominic Lieven. I thought that Dominic Lieven helps to understand Nicholas the human being alot better than Radzinksy.
Lieven goes into the assasination of Alexander II, Nicholas's grandfather and how the impact of seeing Alexander II laying dying stengthened Nicholas later schooling in the belief of autocracy. It also goes into Nicholas education and his schooling under the reactionary teachers.
Nicholas was never given a good wide ranging education like his grandfather Alexander II had been given. Nicholas was never trained to be a tsar. His father, Alexander III, never thought of anything to educate Nicholas to be Emperor. Nicholas came to the throne of Russia completely unprepared.
Everything Nicholas knew he knew from his own father Alexander III who taught him about the necessary of autocracy to Russia, and that any changes or ideas of democracy or constitutional monarchy would be dangerous to Russia.
Nicholas was also very religious. His personal beliefs that the tsar was directly responsible to god for keeping the autocracy intact and his own fatalistic views blinded him to the realities within Russia
SeryiVolk969 says
The article on Wikipedia is not bad,but at A Level it won't be enough. Besides,everyone else will have read it.
"The Russian Revolution" by Sheila Fitzpatrick is concise but very solid.
For more depth,"The Making of Modern Russia" by Lionel Kochan and John Keep and "A History of the Soviet Union" by Geoffrey Hosking are both standard issue for Russianists.
"A History of Europe" by Norman Davies has some useful material.
For a more personal approach "Nicholas and Alexandra" by Robert Massie.
Those are all good,and the bibliographies will lead you to many more.
Pete says
The best one I've read is called 'Nicholas and Alexandra' which you may recognize is the book they made a movie after back in the 70's.
According to the book he was simply not capable of dealing with the circumstances that overtook him and the royal family. The war with Germany, the Bolshevik revolution, etc. all were earth shattering events which overreached him. Reportedly he was a good man, a loving father and a caring ruler. Much of what happened was due to other ministers and politicians decisions but of course he and his family paid the ultimate price.
eleuth says
A good,cheap,easily obtainable book is
Radzinski – The last czar
It has been edited in 1993 by Bantam