Nicholas II

Below, is the publisher’s summary of the forthcoming title The Last Tsar: The Abdication of Nicholas II and the Fall of the Romanovs by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, to be published in December 2024. Please take a moment to read my personal comments which follow – PG

***

When Tsar Nicholas II fell from power in 1917, Imperial Russia faced a series of overlapping crises, from war to social unrest. Though Nicholas’s life is often described as tragic, it was not fate that doomed the Romanovs—it was poor leadership and a blinkered faith in autocracy.   
 
Based on a trove of new archival discoveries, The Last Tsar narrates how Nicholas’s resistance to reform doomed the monarchy. Encompassing the captivating personalities of the era—the bumbling Nicholas, his spiteful wife Alexandra, the family’s faith healer Rasputin—it untangles the dramatic struggle by Russia’s aristocratic, military, and legislative elite to reform the monarchy. By rejecting compromise, Nicholas undermined his supporters at crucial moments. His blunders cleared the way for all-out civil war and the eventual rise of the Soviet Union.  
 
Definitive and engrossing, The Last Tsar uncovers how Nicholas II stumbled into revolution, taking his family, the Romanov dynasty, and the whole Russian Empire down with him.

About the Author

Tsuyoshi Hasegawa is professor emeritus in history at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The award-winning author of many books on Russian history, World War II, and the Cold War, he lives in Santa Barbara, California.

A few comments on the publisher’s summary

Based on the above summary, one can only presume that this new book will be yet another negative assessment of the Holy Tsar Nicholas II.

Hasadawa makes radical claims, but nothing we haven’t heard or read before. For instance, he states that it was “poor leadership and a blinkered faith in autocracy” which “doomed the Romanovs” . . . and that “by rejecting compromise, Nicholas undermined his supporters at crucial moments” . . . and that, “his blunders cleared the way for all-out civil war and the eventual rise of the Soviet Union”.  

Such broad accusations, putting the blame at the feet of one man during some of the most difficult times of his reign, are simply not a fair assessment. One man cannot be held responsible for civil unrest, revolutionary activity, war, revolution, etc. There were so many different elements at play which led to the end of the monarchy and Tsarist Russia.

Nicholas II was surrounded by enemies, including self-serving ministers, generals and even members of his own family. Worst of all, were the various revolutionary groups, who did not want a “constitutional monarchy”, but a new world order. Just look at what replaced the monarchy in Russia in early 1917: the Provisional Government, led by Alexander Kerensky. The enemies of the Tsar blindly followed Kerensky and his cronies towards the abyss, until October 1917, when the Bolsheviks seized power, ushering in decades of totalitarianism, terror, and destruction of the old order.

Hasadawa then goes on to claim that Nicholas’s resistance to reform “doomed the monarchy”. What utter nonsense! More than a century after the fact, it is so easy to criticize or cast judgement on why “did” the Tsar do this, or why “didn’t” he do that? Hindsight is always 20/20. Nicholas II carried out many reforms during his 22+year reign, however, these are often ignored or overlooked by academically lazy historians. In addition, any reforms of a 1000 year old autocratic system would have to come slowly and with great care.

The author then resorts to insults. He refers to Nicholas as “bumbling” , so it will be interesting to read how Hasadawa explains just how the Tsar was “bumbling”. Then he insults Empress Alexandra Feodorovna as “spiteful”. Alix spiteful? Really? He then goes on to refer to Rasputin as “the family faither healer”, which is incorrect. Rasputin was a strannik, meaning a holy wanderer, or pilgrim.

The publisher claims that this new book is based on “on a trove of new archival discoveries”. I for one am intrigued, and looking forward to reading these “discoveries” Did the author actually travel to Russia and carry out research in the Russian archives? Did he meet with and interview his Russian peers for perhaps, a more balanced understanding of history from a Russian perspective? We shall have to wait and see.

I will be anxious to see if Hasadawa will touch on the many reforms and accomplishments made by Nicholas, and while discussing the Tsar’s abdication, will he even dare touch on the fact that the abdication was in fact an illegal coup?

Back in 2018, I remember prematurely balking at reading The Last of the Tsars: Nicholas II and the Russian Revolution by British historian and author Robert Service. I did this simply because the author was a Sovietologist, anticipating that the entire book would be an all out attack on Nicholas II. I was wrong. There is no question, that Service is not a fan of the last Tsar, but as it turned out, the book was one of the most interesting I had read in many years. Service writes about the last 18 months of the life of the Tsar, presenting many new facts and much new information, primarily from Russian archival sources. Therefore, I feel it necessary to afford Hasadawa the same courtesy. I have already pre-ordered a copy from Amazon, and look forward to reading it in due course.

© Paul Gilbert. 6 April 2024