The Memoirs of Maurice Paleologue at the Russian Court of Tsar Nicholas II

The Memoirs of Maurice Paleologue at the Russian Court of Tsar Nicholas II PDF Author: Maurice Paleologue
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781725753471
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
In this second volume of Maurice Paléologue's memoirs of his time as French Ambassador to the Russian court of St. Petersburg, Empress Alexandra is walled up defensively in Tsarskoe Selo with Rasputin and Anna Vyroubova as they determinedly set about dominating the domestic and religious affairs of the country; and Tsar Nicholas II is indulging himself in his personal cult of victimhood by taking his train to Army H.Q., having promoted himself to Commander-in-Chief and Royal Scapegoat for anything and everything that could possibly go wrong there. In the meantime, Paléologue himself is deploying his formidable skills as a sage, wit and raconteur to attract about him all the most interesting people he can find, to gossip about the momentous events unfolding both inside Russia and on its embattled borders. In the background, Russia's World War I prospects are gradually improving with the greater availability of bullets, guns and shells to equip its armies - especially those commanded by Grand Duke Nicholas - but in St. Petersburg, the prospects for the Tsar are noticeably darkening to the point where even fervent tsarists are beginning to discuss openly the prospect of his assassination as the only way to save the country, and themselves.

The Memoirs of Maurice Paleologue at the Russian Court of Tsar Nicholas II

The Memoirs of Maurice Paleologue at the Russian Court of Tsar Nicholas II PDF Author: Maurice Paleologue
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781725753471
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 390

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this second volume of Maurice Paléologue's memoirs of his time as French Ambassador to the Russian court of St. Petersburg, Empress Alexandra is walled up defensively in Tsarskoe Selo with Rasputin and Anna Vyroubova as they determinedly set about dominating the domestic and religious affairs of the country; and Tsar Nicholas II is indulging himself in his personal cult of victimhood by taking his train to Army H.Q., having promoted himself to Commander-in-Chief and Royal Scapegoat for anything and everything that could possibly go wrong there. In the meantime, Paléologue himself is deploying his formidable skills as a sage, wit and raconteur to attract about him all the most interesting people he can find, to gossip about the momentous events unfolding both inside Russia and on its embattled borders. In the background, Russia's World War I prospects are gradually improving with the greater availability of bullets, guns and shells to equip its armies - especially those commanded by Grand Duke Nicholas - but in St. Petersburg, the prospects for the Tsar are noticeably darkening to the point where even fervent tsarists are beginning to discuss openly the prospect of his assassination as the only way to save the country, and themselves.

The Russian Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921

The Russian Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921 PDF Author: Jonathan Smele
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441119922
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 656

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Book Description
The Russian Revolution and Civil War in the years 1917 to 1921 is one of the most widely studied periods in history. It is also somewhat inevitably one that has generated a huge flow of literature in the decades that have passed since the events themselves. However, until now, historians of the revolution have had no dedicated bibliography of the period and little claim to bibliographical control over the literature. The Russian Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921offers for the first time a comprehensive bibliographical guide to this crucial and fascinating period of history. The Bibliography focuses on the key years of 1917 to 1921, starting with the February Revolution of 1917 and concluding with the 10th Party Congress of March 1921, and covers all the key events of the intervening years. As such it identifies these crucial years as something more than simply the creation of a communist state.

An Ambassador's Memoirs

An Ambassador's Memoirs PDF Author: Georges Maurice Paléologue
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ambassadors
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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The Court of the Last Tsar

The Court of the Last Tsar PDF Author: Greg King
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 0470324996
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 760

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Book Description
It was the most magnificent court in Europe—a world of fairy-tale opulence, ornate architecture, sophisticated fashion, extravagant luxury, and immense power. In the last Russian imperial court, a potent underlying mythology drove its participants to enact the pageantry of medieval, Orthodox Russia—infused with the sensibilities of Versailles—against a backdrop of fading Edwardian splendor, providing a spectacle of archaic ceremonies carefully orchestrated as a lavish stage upon which Nicholas II played out his tumultuous reign. While a massive body of literature has been devoted to the last of the Romanovs, The Court of the Last Tsar is the first book to examine the people, mysteries, traditions, scandals, rivalries, rituals, and riches that were part of everyday life in the last two decades of the Romanov dynasty. It is as difficult for the twenty-first-century mind to imagine the pomp and splendor that accompanied the tsar and his family everywhere they went as it was for the simple Russian peasant toiling a thousand miles from St. Petersburg. This stunningly illustrated volume removes the mystery with more than a hundred black-and-white photos; floor plans of the tsar’s Winter Palace, the Alexander Palace, and the Grand Kremlin Palace; a map of St. Petersburg; and plans of the imperial parks at Tsarskoye Selo and Peterhof. This eye-popping tour of hedonistic imperial Russia on the edge of oblivion draws on hundreds of previously unpublished primary sources, including memoirs, personal letters, diary entries, and official documents collected during author Greg King’s fifteen years of research in Russia and elsewhere in Europe. It invites you to experience dozens of extravagant ceremonies and entertainments attended only by members of the court; exposes the numerous sexual intrigues of the imperial family, including rape, incest, and brazen affairs; and introduces many of the more than fifteen thousand individuals who made the imperial court a society unto itself. Chief among these, of course, was Tsar Nicholas II. He ruled an empire that stretched over one-sixth of the earth’s land surface but lacked, according to one courtier, both his father’s inspiring presence and his mother’s vibrant charm. His wife, Alexandra, was a strong and passionate woman who “never developed the social skills necessary to her rank.” Their wedding and the tsar’s coronation are two of the most spectacular ceremonies described in this lavish volume. Vetted with care by the last remaining members of the Russian imperial court, The Court of the Last Tsar brings the people, places, and events of this doomed but unforgettable wonderland to vivid and sparkling life.

Fifty-Seven Years of Russian Madness

Fifty-Seven Years of Russian Madness PDF Author: Joseph Howard Tyson
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1491746297
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 478

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Book Description
Few nations have undergone such agony as Russia experienced between 1896 and 1953. The Khodynka Meadow Disaster of May 30, 1896 killed 1,389 people, and ominously marred Tsar Nicholas IIs coronation. Eight years later the Russo-Japanese War (1904 - 1905) claimed 71,453 military servicemens lives, without bringing any benefit to Russia. Over 13,000 people died in the consequent Revolution of 1905. Roughly two million Russian soldiers and sailors, plus 400,000 civilians perished in the slaughter of World War I (1914 - 1918.) Lenin kicked off his Bolshevik regime with a bloody civil war against the tsarist Whites, in which one million combatants lost their lives. During this same chaotic period at least three million people succumbed to the Spanish Influenza and typhus pandemics. Shoddy record-keeping obscured the death toll wrought by Lenins Red Terror (1918 - 1923). Estimates range from 250,000 to 1,000,000, with 400,000 probably being more accurate than the lowball guess. Historians still debate the severity of Stalins purges (1928 - 1953.) The actual number of dead most likely falls somewhere between twenty and thirty million. By a very conservative count, Adolf Hitlers Nazi war machine slew 15,700,000 Soviet subjects during World War II (8,700,000 military personnel and 7,000,000 civilians.) Another study has calculated the total at 25,850,000. This book examines a fifty-seven year time frame of our enlightened modern age, during which at least forty million Russians were exterminated due to misgovernment.

The Bookman

The Bookman PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bibliography
Languages : en
Pages : 608

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The New Republic

The New Republic PDF Author: Herbert David Croly
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political science
Languages : en
Pages : 838

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The Fall of the Dynasties

The Fall of the Dynasties PDF Author: Edmond Taylor
Publisher: Garden City, N.Y : Doubleday
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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The Kaiser's Memoirs

The Kaiser's Memoirs PDF Author: German Emperor William II
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
ISBN: 1465590048
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Prince Bismarck's greatness as a statesman and his imperishable services to Prussia and Germany are historical facts of such tremendous significance that there is doubtless no man in existence, whatever his party affiliations, who would dare to place them in question. For this very reason alone it is stupid to accuse me of not having recognized the greatness of Prince Bismarck. The opposite is the truth. I revered and idolized him. Nor could it be otherwise. It should be borne in mind with what generation I grew up—the generation of the devotees of Bismarck. He was the creator of the German Empire, the paladin of my grandfather, and all of us considered him the greatest statesman of his day and were proud that he was a German. Bismarck was the idol in my temple, whom I worshiped. But monarchs also are human beings of flesh and blood, hence they, too, are exposed to the influences emanating from the conduct of others; therefore, looking at the matter from a human point of view, one will understand how Prince Bismarck, by his fight against me, himself destroyed, with heavy blows, the idol of which I have spoken. But my reverence for Bismarck, the great statesman, remained unaltered. While I was still Prince of Prussia I often thought to myself: "I hope that the great Chancellor will live for many years yet, since I should be safe if I could govern with him." But my reverence for the great statesman was not such as to make me take upon my own shoulders, when I became Emperor, political plans or actions of the Prince which I considered mistakes. Even the Congress of Berlin in 1878 was, to my way of thinking, a mistake, likewise the "Kulturkampf." Moreover, the constitution of the Empire was drawn up so as to fit in with Bismarck's extraordinary preponderance as a statesman; the big cuirassier boots did not fit every man. Then came the labor-protective legislation. I most deeply deplored the dispute which grew out of this, but, at that time, it was necessary for me to take the road to compromise, which has generally been my road both on domestic and foreign politics. For this reason I could not wage the open warfare against the Social Democrats which the Prince desired. Nevertheless, this quarrel about political measures cannot lessen my admiration for the greatness of Bismarck as a statesman; he remains the creator of the German Empire, and surely no one man need have done more for his country than that. Owing to the fact that the great matter of unifying the Empire was always before my eyes, I did not allow myself to be influenced by the agitations which were the commonplaces of those days. In like manner, the fact that Bismarck was called the majordomo of the Hohenzollerns could not shake my trust in the Prince, although he, perhaps, had thoughts of a political tradition for his family. As evidence of this, he felt unhappy, for instance, that his son Bill felt no interest in politics and wished to pass on his power to Herbert.

An Ambassador's Memoirs

An Ambassador's Memoirs PDF Author: Maurice Paléologue
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Russia
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description