Last Of The Tsars

In March 1917; Nicholas II; the last Tsar of All the Russias; abdicated and the dynasty that had ruled an empire for three hundred years was forced from power by revolution. Now; on the hundredth anniversary of that revolution; Robert Service; the eminent historian of Russia; examines Nicholas's reign in the year before his abdication and the months between that momentous date and his death; with his family; in Ekaterinburg in July 1918. The story has been told many times; but Service's profound understanding of the period and his forensic examination of hitherto untapped sources; including the Tsar's diaries and recorded conversations; shed remarkable new light on his reign; also revealing the kind of ruler Nicholas believed himself to have been; contrary to the disastrous reality. The Last of the Tsars is a masterful study of a man who was almost entirely out of his depth; perhaps even willfully so. It is also a compelling account of the social; economic and political foment in Russia in the aftermath of Alexander Kerensky's February Revolution; the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917 and the beginnings of Lenin's Soviet republic.