The Last Tsar: The Life and Death of Nicholas II [Paperback]

The reviews I have red above are obviously written by Western readers, who have studied the Russian history but don't possess the Russian mentality, so doesn't see the role of personalities in Russian politics, the place of religion the same way Russians do. Perhaps, because of that, in my opinion, they are missing the main point. It is not a political pamphlet or historical textbook. It is an account of one family's life. In the book by Radzinsky Tsar is shown as a person - a boy, a young men in love, a father, a husband, a prisoner, and only lastly - a ruler & politician. When Radzinsky looks at the Romanovs he looks at them as a family - that's my understanding. So in brief I would describe this book as "A story of a family".

Probably as a Russian (and I hope not Soviet) I can feel some things about the book as an insider and will try to express it. It is very important to understand how religious were both Nicolay and Alexandra and how it all fits in the scheme of his somewhat fatalistic approach to his rule, to Rasputin, to war and revolutions. I can see how shy, naïve and kind young men has to take over a rule in one-sixth of the Globe and it is no easy task, never has been. Radzinsky shows clearly that Nicolas was kept ill-informed and hence some of the worst mistakes he made in politics. He was always torn between his Father's will to keep country under authoritarian rule of Tsars and desire to improve the life of his people, between desire to make his rule entirely peaceful and having to start war in Japan, between his Mother and his wife, between Vitte and Stolipin.

From Radzinsky's account many events which we knew from Soviet text books look entirely different. Khodynka, after which Tsar went to dance at French embassador's party and didn't punish Moscow Governer Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, Bloody Sunday, Revolution of 1905 - it all seems like huge misfortunes of thorn, indecisive, and yet kind, smart and decent Nicolas. And then after 1905 we see how he changes, "getting used to blood and becoming more rigid in his politics". The almost military regimen with field courts and "Stolipin's ties". But it all seems understandable if one imagines his family threatened. Again, it is if the reader is willing to see Nicolay - the father, not just a Tsar.

Even the understanding of all the dreadful mistakes Nicolay probably had made as a ruler doesn't diminish the anger against the murderers of his family, the sadness of the loss of such a colorful and charming part of Russian history and culture. From my family accounts - Russian people - either peasants or not - never lived worse then when ruled by Commies and during Perestroika. Ultimately, since Alexander II, Russia was heading towards the Constitutional monarchy and would get there under Nicolas if different political forces - both leftwing and rightwing wouldn't provoke the catastrophe which has happened - the Revolution, the Red Terror and the murder of Tsar's family.

I strongly recommend the book for those readers who look for memoir and biography type pf reading on Russian history and doubt that those scholars who look for dry facts will enjoy it.

What makes this book special is not so much Radzinsky's account of Nicholas' last days but his access to Communist archives that let him reconstruct how and why the Bolshevik leadership decided on killing Nicholas as they did. (Apparently this was done to thwart Trotsky, who wanted a public trial of Nicholas with himself as prosecutor.)

Also fascinating is Radzinsky's account of the subsequent careers of Nicholas' murderers, how they became minor league Communist celebrities, telling Komsomol (youth group) assemblies how they had shot the Tsar. This went on until Stalin decided they had become drunken embarassments and kept them out of the public eye.

So I would say if you want a book that looks at the last days of Nicholas from a broader perspective, this is the book to get.