Chapter+25-26

In these two sections of Nicholas and Alexandra, Massie tells the story of Rasputin’s murder and of the events of the winter of 1917. The five conspiritors to this act were Prince Felix Yussoupov, the heir to the largest fortune in Russia, Purishkevich, a popular member of the Duma, Sukhotin, Lazovert, and Dmitry Pavlovich, a grand duke. Rasputin knew his life was in danger and he warned the Tzarina that if he were to die by the hands of the boyars, she would be thrown from her throne within a year. The conspiritors invited Rasputin to a midnight party which he unwittingly attends despite some doubts. Once he arrives the conspiritors feed Rasputin large amounts of poison, which does not kill him. They then shoot him, and when he remains alive even then, dump his still live body into the river neva. The fallout from Rasputin’s murder was enormous, within the city the conspitors were heralded as conquering heroes, however the people of the country however saw Rasputin as a common man whom the nobles had killed for getting close to the Tzarina. The Tzar banished grand Duke Dmitry to the Persian front which most likely saved his life. After Rasputin’s murder, the war which had already weighed heavily on the mind of the Tzar, began to control him. he began to look very ill and people who went to see him were disturbed by his vacantness. the tzarina began listening in on official conversations and appointing ministers through her husband, she appointed Golitsyn as prime minister, although it mattered little since she only trusted one minister, Protopopov. Rasputin was killed in order to free the Tzar of th Tzarina’s influence. They hoped he would begin to choose his own ministers and free himself from the grip of Alexandra. However, far from bringing the Romanov’s together it torn them further apart. Many people began to beg the Tzar to take control and the Tzarina to withdraw from politics. Some members of the Royal family lead by Vladimir, began discussing replacing their cousin by force, or of forcing Nicholas to abdicate in favor of his son, simply acting as the regent until the boy turned 18. The British ambassador warned the Tzar of the revolution that was brewing within the Duma and the whole of Russia. Buchanan, the ambassador, begged the Tzar to remove the Tzarina from the public and to work to regain the confidence of his people. Finally a member of the Duma, Rodzianko begged the Tzar to remove the Tzarina and to assert control over his country. Again the Tzar ignored him. The tzar left petrograd, but came back in early march looking better. He took a trip out the the front, coming back quickly. On his return he announced he would appoint a responsible government. He never did this however, leaving for army headquarters on the 7th of March. 5 days later the imperial government collapsed. There is no real arguement in these chapter, it is simply a summary of the history surrounding Rasputin’s murder and the events of the winter leading up to the March revolution in 1917, although it does assert that the Tzarina was the hated monarch, not the Tzar himself. These chapters would provide valuable information for anyone looking for the history of the winter of 1917, but they do not take much of a stand on the meaning of these events, beyond that they contribute to the feelings of mistrust of the ruling class which sprung from their mistrust of the empress. And that the Tzar’s incompetence lead to the events of March 1917.

I enjoyed the this book, however I did not find it particularly useful to understanding Russian history as a whole. It does a good job dramatizing the events leading up to the downfall of the empire, but it does not do a particularly good job of painting the entire picture. There is more to a revolution than government incompetence, there has to be some sort of grass roots movement. And although the schemes of the nobility were explained a bit, the actual movement which toppled the crown in 1917 was not discussed. Moreover, the murder of Rasputin was unimportant except perhaps for the way in which it influenced Alexandra’s policy and the way it influenced the masses, and these two subjects were not particularly well covered. However these two chapters did do a good job highlighting the dangers inherent in an autocracy, that being that if the person on top loses competence the empire crumbles into chaos. However, this book does exactly what it sets out to do, which is dramatize the events in order to capture the readers imagination. It is highly engaging throughout and what it lacks in content it makes up for in excellent prose.

However, despite all this, I would not recommend this book to the serious student of history. Or rather, I would recommend that the serious student of history, if they wanted to read this book, ought to find other sources in order to get the entire picture. This work lacks an argument in the traditional sense and does not qualify in my mind as a scholarly monograph. That said, it is an excellent read and would make an excellent beach read for someone who wishes to find out more about the last Russian Tzar, but not actually write a thesis on it.