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Summary Of Nicholas II: Twilight Of The Empire By Dominic Lieven

658 Words3 Pages

In the historical monograph Nicholas II: Twilight of the Empire, Dominic Lieven revisits the life and times of the last emperor of Russia and the Romanov dynasty—Nicholas II. Lieven analyzes Nicholas II’s life experiences from early childhood to his death during the Bolshevik Revolution. With the conviction that past studies on Nicholas II and the fall of the Russian Empire have been insufficient for better understanding the tsar’s true role in the context of his time. Lieven argues that Nicholas II was not strictly a stupid or incompetent leader, who single handedly brought and end to the Russian autocracy. Instead, Lieven suggests that numerous decisions made by the Russian tsar were in many circumstances reasonable—when considering Russia’s political, social, and economic contexts. Not only did Lieven make great use of secondary …show more content…

Lieven attempted to provide a clearer picture of the last Russian tsar by comparing Nicholas II’s personality, upbringing, beliefs, administrative style and overall characteristics of the time period with other monarchies, personalities, dominant belief systems, etc. (x). In many cases this approach did help with understanding the personalities of other contemporary powers whom Nicholas would be interacting with. However, some comparisons had few concrete connections regarding the conditions that affected the young tsars. For example, Lieven compares Nicholas II’s upbringing with the last shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (30-1). Although the two historical figures do share some similarities, the unique conditions under which each event developed are too far removed from each other; geographically, culturally, economically, politically, and period in history. Therefore, it is reasonable to postulate that this particular comparative analysis failed to draw any definitive conclusions concerning the Russian tsar’s

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