Nicholas I and Official Nationality in Russia, 1825 - 1855 developed from a much more modest interest in Uvarov's doctrine of "Orthodoxy, autocracy, and nationality." During the author's study of the Slavophiles in particular, he became increasing aware of the paucity of our knowledge of this so-called Official Nationality frequently combined with a deprecating attitude toward it. Unable to find a satisfactory analysis of the subject, the author proceeded to write his own. This book largely organized itself: an exposition and discussion of the ideology naturally occupied the central position, preceded by a brief treatment of its proponents. But Official Nationality reached beyond intellectual circles, lectures and books; indeed, for thirty years it ruled Russia. Therefore, the author found it necessary to write a chapter on the emperor who, in effect, personally dominated and governed the country throughout his reign; to add a section on the imperial family, the ministers, and some other high officials to an account of the intellectuals who supported the state; and to sketch the application of Official Nationalty both in home affairs and in foreign policy. In this manner this title is able to bring the state doctrine and its role in Russian history into proper focus.

**** The Indiana U. Press edition (1978) is cited in BCL3. A scholarly biography that provides a view of Russian autocracy. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

A figure surrounded by myth and speculation, at the center of one of history's most cataclysmic events--the Russian Revolution--Nicholas II remains haunting and enigmatic. Now one of France's most eminent historians presents a biography that goes beyond the lies and half-lies surrounding Nicholas's reign to provide an evocative portrait of this most mysterious ruler. Illustrations.

A riveting account of the last eighteen months of Tsar Nicholas II's life and reign from one of the finest Russian historians writing today. In March 1917, Nicholas II, the last Tsar of All the Russias, abdicated and the dynasty that had ruled an empire for three hundred years was forced from power by revolution. Now Robert Service, the eminent historian of Russia, examines Nicholas's life and thought from the months before his momentous abdication to his death, with his family, in Ekaterinburg in July 1918. The story has been told many times, but Service's deep understanding of the period and his forensic examination of previously untapped sources, including the Tsar's diaries and recorded conversations, as well as the testimonies of the official inquiry, shed remarkable new light on his troubled reign, also revealing the kind of Russia that Nicholas wanted to emerge from the Great War. The Last of the Tsars is a masterful study of a man who was almost entirely out of his depth, perhaps even willfully so. It is also a compelling account of the social, economic and political ferment in Russia that followed the February Revolution, the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917, and the beginnings of Lenin's Soviet socialist republic.