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Rasputin
And the Downfall of the Romanovs
Brief Description
How could a barely literate peasant from Siberia determine the fate of the world? Undoubtedly, the so-called 'mad monk' Rasputin bewitched Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra. Yet their strange and scandalous relationship conceals a riddle, one that casts an intriguing light on the controversial...
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See moreWas Grigori Rasputin a visionary, a fraud, or a victim of history? Antony Beevor searches for the truth about the great seducer of the Romanovs, the wild mystic who laid the ground for the Russian Revolution
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Description
How could a barely literate peasant from Siberia determine the fate of the world? Undoubtedly, the so-called 'mad monk' Rasputin bewitched Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra. Yet their strange and scandalous relationship conceals a riddle, one that casts an intriguing light on the controversial 'great man' theory of history.
Rasputin was a devoted monarchist, not a revolutionary. He had no official position, no forces at his command. Nevertheless, he contributed more to the fall of the Romanov dynasty than any other individual. So demoralised was the Tsarist officer corps by stories of corruption, to say nothing of the rumours of his debauchery with the Empress—and even her daughters—that when the February Revolution broke out, not a sword was raised in defence of the regime.
Just as Rasputin cast a spell over the Romanovs, his legend has bewitched historians. More than a century later, we still fail to comprehend fully the collapse of the greatest autocracy on Earth. Was there any truth to the wild tales that brought down the empire? Or was his true legacy an unsettling lesson on the potency of myth?
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781399617628
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 12 March 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 156.0mm
Height: 240.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 384
About the Author
Antony Beevor is the author of thirteen works of non-fiction, including Crete (1991), which was awarded a Runciman Prize; Stalingrad (1998), which won the first Samuel Johnson Prize, the Wolfson Prize for History and the Hawthornden Prize for Literature; and D-Day (2009), which received the Prix Henry Malherbe in France and the Westminster Medal, and was a no. 1 bestseller in seven countries. His most recent work is the 2022 Sunday Times bestseller Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921. Educated at Sandhurst, Beevor served as regular officer with the 11th Hussars, leaving the Army after five years to write.
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