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Rasputin: The Downfall of the Romanovs
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About This Book
When Russia's Dowager Empress was pregnant with the future Tsar, she dreamed that a peasant would one day kill her son. The idea terrified her, and for the rest of her days she 'lived under the pressure of the prophecy'.Rasputin had no official position. A barely literate moujhik from Siberia, he had no forces at his command. He was a devoted monarchist, not a revolutionary. And yet, through his uncanny seduction of the imperial household, he contributed more than any other individual to the collapse of the greatest autocracy in the world. 'This man was unique', observed one writer. 'Like a character out of a novel, he lived in legend, he died in legend, and his memory is cloaked in legend.' In this extraordinary new work, Antony Beevor, master of narrative history on the grandest scale, sharpens his focus to pierce the fog of fantasy that has only grown denser over time. The result is an unparalleled portrait of one of history's most dubious masterminds.
Reviews
"Rasputin is a meditation on history as well as a masterclass in smooth, judicious prose."
"Rasputin's role in the downfall of the Romanovs has been shrouded in legend, and this eerily timely book illustrates the sordid reality behind the sinister myth."
"Despite the crowded historiographical field, Beevor finds a fresh angle."
"This isn't a conventional biography ..."
"It is hard to find anything new to say about Rasputin, but this story of credulous, out-of-touch monarchs steering their country into disaster never loses its sinister appeal."
"A crisp narrative ..."
"An arresting portrait of a regime rotting from the top"
"The result is crisply written and swiftly narrated: it tells a very good story ..."
"It is easy to lose track of which stories to believe and which to discount."
"This crisply narrated account focuses on how the rumours and conspiracy theories that swirled around Rasputin during the last years of the Russian Empire destroyed the Romanov autocracy."
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