The Last Tsar

During the night of July 17 to July 18, 1918, Czar Nicholas II along with his wife and entire family were murdered by a Cheka commando in Yekaterinburg. The worst nightmare of all monarchies, which had been predicted by the uprisings, conspiracies, and assassinations, had become reality. In this lively, historically accurate account, it is made apparent how the persistent political failures of the Romanov dynasty had fueled a revolutionary process that the last czar could no longer hold at bay. György Dalos—one of the most internationally renowned writers in the field of Eastern European history—vividly describes the growing grievances in czarist Russia as the causes of the revolution. Along the way, he paints an unsparing picture of the czars of the 19th century who alternated between progressive thinking, half-hearted liberalism, and brutal repression without ever addressing the sources of the distress felt by the workers and farmers. When Nicholas II took the throne in 1894, he showed himself to be completely incapable of managing the various problems of his enormous empire. Catastrophes, wars, and personal suffering, which the author effectively portrays, deeply affected the weak ruler in whose court the itinerate preacher Rasputin was winning greater and greater influence. By the time Nicholas prepares to enact reforms, it is too late. The unsuccessfully conducted First World War pushed the czar further on the defensive until he and the House of Romanov were pulled under by the rushing current of the Bolshevik revolution. György Dalos is a freelance writer and historian. In 1995 he was awarded the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize. In 2010 he received the Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding. C.H.Beck has published several of his other works.