Written in a narrative style that captures both the scope and detail of the Russian revolution, Orlando Figes' history is certain to become one of the most important contemporary studies of Russia as it was at the beginning of the 20th century. With an almost cinematic eye, Figes captures the broad movements of war and revolution, never losing sight of the individuals whose lives make up his subject. He makes use of personal papers and personal histories to illustrate the effects the revolution wrought on a human scale, while providing a convincing and detailed understanding of the role of workers, peasants, and soldiers in the revolution. He moves deftly from topics such as the grand social forces and mass movements that made up the revolution to profiles of key personalities and representative characters.

Figes' themes of the Russian revolution as a tragedy for the Russian people as a whole and for the millions of individuals who lost their lives to the brutal forces it unleashed make sense of events for a new generation of students of Russian history. Sympathy for the charismatic leaders and ideological theorising regarding Hegelian dialectics and Marxist economics--two hallmarks of much earlier writing on the Russian revolution--are banished from these clear-eyed, fair-minded pages of A People's Tragedy. The author's sympathy is squarely with the Russian people. That commitment, together with the benefit of historical hindsight, provides a standpoint Figes can take full advantage of in this masterful history.

moving, 19 Sep 2008
An amazing book, i always wanted to know about the Russian revolution and its cause and effects, Mr Figes not only delivers but makes all the key people involved come alive, i really felt for the peasant farmer trying to reform the agriculture of his village for the greater good.
The title is the most accurate and precise i have known for a book.

An unscrupulous depiction of bolsheviks as cold-blooded despots., 10 Oct 2007
One small example of the problems with Figes' book, small but typical : on pages 631-632 we are treated with the horrendous shooting of Bim-Bom, the clown who dared mock the bolsheviks, at the hands of the Cheka bursting onto the circus in the middle of the comedian's act.

Except that a small amount of research would have made Figes aware that Bim-Bom was not a single clown but a duet, and that no such assassination took place : on the contrary the founder of this famous duet ("Bim" real name Ivan Semenovich Radunskim) died in 1955 after a long career.

But hey ! Why let facts get in the way of a good scene ?


Comprehensive and engaging, 27 Jul 2007
Orlando Figes has produced the definitive account of the events that facilitated the October Revolution of 1917, with significant emphasis placed on the characters who brought it about. He writes with a storytelling style that invites both seasoned historians and novices to the field to truly grasp the scope of this immensely significant and compelling period of history. The emphasis placed on the individual in history is, I think, necessary when it comes to this subject. Without the cunning designs of Lenin, propped up by the rhetoric of Trotsky and with the inability of Kerensky and the Socialist Revolutionaries to recognise the turn of the tide in favour of the Bolsheviks, they were totally incapable of stemming the tide of Socialist Revolution. The post-revisionist concept of the influence of the people in bringing about their own tragedy is brilliantly stated by the master historian, without ever losing sight of the significance of key figures in stimulating revolution.

Detailed and Thorough, Though Annecdotal, 15 Jul 2007
Firstly, I would like to say that this book is an incredible book. It is unlike any book I have read on this or any other historical subject. Figes' prose flows through the book smoothly and enjoyably.

However, this does create some problems within the book. I found that at points throughout the book Figes' prose became too anecdotal; reducing rather horrific actions and events into little more than footnotes within the story. This is not to say that Figes does not tackle the violence and often unspeakable brutality of this period without tact and sensitivity. I think Figes deals with the Russian Revolution and all of the problems it created socially rather well. I believe he captures the essence of the revolution that say, Robert Service could not. Many historians produce accounts of the revolution that paint the revolution as an "Inevitability". This however creates the illusion that the Bolsheviks "Steamrollered" Russia without much hassle. Figes is able to transcend this rather simplified view, painting a very human picture of the leaders of this "People's Revolution" and their roles within this tragedy.

Figes' use of characters within the book creates a drama of epic proportions-hitting home the social uphealval of the time. His particular use of Semenov's story with his battles with the Village hierachy and the meteoric rise of peasant commisars like Os'Kin as well as the linchpin-like Gorky and his role within every aspect of the revolution and his eventual disillusionment with the revolution he had a hand in creating, makes for a tragic and typically desperate Russian Epic.

I will agree with other reviews in that the period after the Civil War is rather rushed compared to the detail in the rest of the book. This rather disappoints and leaves a rather sour taste after such a fantastic book. I think that this as well as Figes' rather flippant style sometimes is the one thing keeping this book from five stars.

This book is an amazing book. Of that that there is no doubt. A must-read for those interested in the Russian Revolution. It succeeds where other books fail; in its concentration of social issues rather than focusing purely on the policital issues/stories.

Masterful and detailed, 18 Dec 2006
Surely this must be the definitive account of the Russian Revolution's origins and course of events. A deserved prize-winner.

moving, 19 Sep 2008
An amazing book, i always wanted to know about the Russian revolution and its cause and effects, Mr Figes not only delivers but makes all the key people involved come alive, i really felt for the peasant farmer trying to reform the agriculture of his village for the greater good.
The title is the most accurate and precise i have known for a book.

An unscrupulous depiction of bolsheviks as cold-blooded despots., 10 Oct 2007
One small example of the problems with Figes' book, small but typical : on pages 631-632 we are treated with the horrendous shooting of Bim-Bom, the clown who dared mock the bolsheviks, at the hands of the Cheka bursting onto the circus in the middle of the comedian's act.

Except that a small amount of research would have made Figes aware that Bim-Bom was not a single clown but a duet, and that no such assassination took place : on the contrary the founder of this famous duet ("Bim" real name Ivan Semenovich Radunskim) died in 1955 after a long career.

But hey ! Why let facts get in the way of a good scene ?


Comprehensive and engaging, 27 Jul 2007
Orlando Figes has produced the definitive account of the events that facilitated the October Revolution of 1917, with significant emphasis placed on the characters who brought it about. He writes with a storytelling style that invites both seasoned historians and novices to the field to truly grasp the scope of this immensely significant and compelling period of history. The emphasis placed on the individual in history is, I think, necessary when it comes to this subject. Without the cunning designs of Lenin, propped up by the rhetoric of Trotsky and with the inability of Kerensky and the Socialist Revolutionaries to recognise the turn of the tide in favour of the Bolsheviks, they were totally incapable of stemming the tide of Socialist Revolution. The post-revisionist concept of the influence of the people in bringing about their own tragedy is brilliantly stated by the master historian, without ever losing sight of the significance of key figures in stimulating revolution.

Detailed and Thorough, Though Annecdotal, 15 Jul 2007
Firstly, I would like to say that this book is an incredible book. It is unlike any book I have read on this or any other historical subject. Figes' prose flows through the book smoothly and enjoyably.

However, this does create some problems within the book. I found that at points throughout the book Figes' prose became too anecdotal; reducing rather horrific actions and events into little more than footnotes within the story. This is not to say that Figes does not tackle the violence and often unspeakable brutality of this period without tact and sensitivity. I think Figes deals with the Russian Revolution and all of the problems it created socially rather well. I believe he captures the essence of the revolution that say, Robert Service could not. Many historians produce accounts of the revolution that paint the revolution as an "Inevitability". This however creates the illusion that the Bolsheviks "Steamrollered" Russia without much hassle. Figes is able to transcend this rather simplified view, painting a very human picture of the leaders of this "People's Revolution" and their roles within this tragedy.

Figes' use of characters within the book creates a drama of epic proportions-hitting home the social uphealval of the time. His particular use of Semenov's story with his battles with the Village hierachy and the meteoric rise of peasant commisars like Os'Kin as well as the linchpin-like Gorky and his role within every aspect of the revolution and his eventual disillusionment with the revolution he had a hand in creating, makes for a tragic and typically desperate Russian Epic.

I will agree with other reviews in that the period after the Civil War is rather rushed compared to the detail in the rest of the book. This rather disappoints and leaves a rather sour taste after such a fantastic book. I think that this as well as Figes' rather flippant style sometimes is the one thing keeping this book from five stars.

This book is an amazing book. Of that that there is no doubt. A must-read for those interested in the Russian Revolution. It succeeds where other books fail; in its concentration of social issues rather than focusing purely on the policital issues/stories.

Masterful and detailed, 18 Dec 2006
Surely this must be the definitive account of the Russian Revolution's origins and course of events. A deserved prize-winner.


Tsar's family come alive, 07 Aug 2008
This is a masterly work of history. Although, of course, we all know how the Romanov story ends, Rappaport takes us inside The House of Special Purpose where the Tsar and his family were imprisoned, and locks us into that oppressive, claustrophobic atmosphere. Nicholas, Alexandra and the duchesses come alive for us, not as saints or villains, but as a real family, loving each other, finding solace in their religion, trying to support each other as, closed off from the outside world, they await their fate ... The Tsar, whose dearest wish was to run a farm; Alexandra, racked with pain from sciatica; the girls who found pleasure in helping maids to sweep floors because it broke up the tedium of their days.
The tension is unbearable as Rappaport recounts the last 14 days of their lives as the politics of revolution and world war close around them.
This is a short book, which makes it all the more compelling because you can read it in a couple of sittings and maintain that tension and mood. I have been defeated in the past by the (literal) weight of volumes of Russian history - Orlando Figes's People's Revolution springs to mind, too heavy to hold, too heavy to carry, too many characters/organisations to keep track of, and consequently still-unfinished several years after it toppled off my bedside table and nudged its way under my bed (whence abandoned books never emerge again).
A feeble excuse, I know! But well done Helen Rappaport for writing a serious book of history that the ordinary, interested reader has a hope of finishing.

New perspectives on a hidden history, 05 Aug 2008
It isn't easy to take on the Tsars. You're entering a minefield - the politics and bloodletting of the Russian Revolution and everything that followed: Stalin, the hunger, the Second World War, purges and worse. To reach back through all that, and get at the true nature of the last days of the last Tsar of Russia and his ill-starred family, is an achievement indeed.
For me this book has a terrifying relentlessness about it. I read it sitting on a beach in Sicily, the blue Med lapping at my toes, a weird experience when, in the book, I was there in that stifling Ypatiev House in the hot Russian summer, no air conditioning, nothing at all to do, nowhere to go, staring my fate in the face. It's not surprising they turned to prayer. A lesser family would have disintegrated.
As the days passed you felt it with them, that terrible and growing sense of absolute doom. Helen Rappaport has no mercy - she tells it like it is. My nerves were strung out to breaking point as the final steps of the man who had masterminded the murders ascended the stair, on the evening of their deaths, and the unbearably innocent girls responded eagerly to the order and ran down happily to the basement where the gunmen would be.
And the murders! They went on and on, twenty minutes of carnage, so incompetent, so bloody. The author makes us see, feel, smell it. There's no escape. It is gruesome and it is real. I'm in that cellar with them and so is every reader.
Afterwards, the sheer uselessly hopeless incompetence of their murderers meant burial in an unmarked scratch grave next to the road for no better reason than the car finally gave up and they couldn't travel further with the bodies through the mud.
And this was the cousin of the King of England.
It's not surprising there's a collective grief in Russia now that bleeds hopelessly on. On the 90th anniversary of the deaths of the family, they've at last found a worthy chronicler in Rappaport, whose level, even and unflinchingly steady voice takes us through and past these events, places them in time, and leaves us with the scent of lilies in a wood, and the murmur of the all-night vigil of a thousand voices who haven't forgotten, and will not, ever forget. And neither will I.

Ekaterinburg, 19 Jul 2008
Using her extensive research of diaries, letters and eyewitness accounts, Helen Rappaport draws together the strands of this story to write an utterly compelling account of the last days of the Imperial Family.


Set against the backdrop of war, revolution, and factional fighting amongst the Bolsheviks she explains how, after the Tsar's abdication, the Imperial family finally come to be imprisoned in the Impatiev House in Ekaterinburg, chillingly referred to as The House of Special Purpose. The house which has been turned into a prison, shut off from the outside world by a wooden palisade.

Helen really conveys the feeling of doom as the Tsar, the Tsaritsa and their daughter Maria enter the house on April 30th 1918, the other children following later when Alexy, the Tsarevich, has recovered from an attack of haemophilia. She describes how, for the next few weeks, the family and their servants endure the stifling heat, the oppressive atmosphere and lack of privacy of their apartment, cut off from the outside world, the windows sealed shut and whitewashed over.

She draws such intimate and detailed portraits of Nicholas, Alexandra and the children, that the family come vividly to life as they cope with their confinement. The Tsar resigned, Alexandra in constant pain, comforted by her daughters and her strong orthodox faith. The four Grand Duchesses, as they learn to wash their clothes, scrub floors and bake bread. Serious Olga, practical Tatiana, caring Maria and mischievous Anastasia, and Alexy, their brother, frail and sickly, playing soldiers with the kitchen boy Leonid Sednev.

The arrival of a new commandant Yakov Yurovsky on July 4th heralds a much harsher regime for the prisoners. The sense of foreboding intensifies in the house. Yurovsky's purpose is to arrange and carry out the efficient and secret liquidation of the Romanov family. The tension builds as the night chosen for the murders arrives and Yurovsky's meticulous plans begin to unravel. The subsequent horrific and botched killings in the cellar are gut wrenching and deeply shocking. The bungled efforts of the killers to dispose of the bodies, if not so tragic could be considered almost farcical.

Leaving aside the politics of the Tsar's disastrous reign, Helen has concentrated on this story of the Imperial family who were brutally murdered with the consent of Moscow, an act which was to be repeated all over Russia in the following years resulting in the death of millions of people. A terror outstripping any of the atrocities perpetrated during the Romanov reign.

Helen Rappaport has written a very powerful and moving book, which I recommend unreservedly.


Ms. Rappaport possesses a remarkable ability to breathe life into people and places long gone, 02 Jul 2008
I am in absolute awe of Ms. Rappaport's research and writing abilities, particularly her keen descriptiveness and her uncanny ability to "see" and report on circumstances, people, a house, a city -and a mood- as vividly as if this all happened in front of her eyes yesterday, instead of almost a century ago. Though describing gloom and fear and the sense of "suffocation," as well as other subjects that I'd rather not dwell on, the book has enthralled me.

Despite my decades of reading almost everything written in English or French on this subject, I found Ms. Rappaport's perspective on the times and the individual characters to be surprisingly enlightening. Ms. Rappaport has successfully synthesized an enormous amount of information from both well-known and rarer sources. With it, she conjures a sometimes agonizingly realistic picture complete with atmosphere, an overwhelming sense of tension, and visual descriptions that propel the reader backward in time to a city, a house and circumstances that long afterwards linger in the mind as vividly and hauntingly as an unshakable personal memory.

A fascinating book that could really be the last words on the final days of the Last Imperial Family, 30 Jun 2008
I have just finished your book and I can not say how much I enjoyed it. One feels strangely saying so as it is a sad story by any means.

I have lots of books on the Romanovs and I was quite hesitant to buy another one. What can be possibly new about the whole subject?

But I have to admit that this excellent book gave me a new inside and you were able to separate the political side of things, from the human dimension. There is no romantic or religious vision of the final days. It is not written with a hidden agenda of glorifying the last Imperial Family. It clearly separates the politcial story that led to the downfall of the dynasty and the the human tragedy.

Helen Rappaport did not write the story - as it is ever so often - from the end. I appreciated very much how she showed the different personalities of the Imperial family and how they coped with the new situation. The personality of Alexandra, her illnesses, the illness of the Heir and how this effected all of the family long before the fall of the dynasty. The view that the isolation of the family during their reign found a sort of continuation during the confinement, but without the demands of the rule, and were partly at least from the Czar "welcome" is indeed very convincing. Her final comments hid a nerve with me. On top, I just like Helen Rappaport's style of writing.


All in all, I enjoyed this book immensely, it is fascianting, well written and gives the reader much stuff for further thought. I can only recommend this book!

moving, 19 Sep 2008
An amazing book, i always wanted to know about the Russian revolution and its cause and effects, Mr Figes not only delivers but makes all the key people involved come alive, i really felt for the peasant farmer trying to reform the agriculture of his village for the greater good.
The title is the most accurate and precise i have known for a book.

An unscrupulous depiction of bolsheviks as cold-blooded despots., 10 Oct 2007
One small example of the problems with Figes' book, small but typical : on pages 631-632 we are treated with the horrendous shooting of Bim-Bom, the clown who dared mock the bolsheviks, at the hands of the Cheka bursting onto the circus in the middle of the comedian's act.

Except that a small amount of research would have made Figes aware that Bim-Bom was not a single clown but a duet, and that no such assassination took place : on the contrary the founder of this famous duet ("Bim" real name Ivan Semenovich Radunskim) died in 1955 after a long career.

But hey ! Why let facts get in the way of a good scene ?


Comprehensive and engaging, 27 Jul 2007
Orlando Figes has produced the definitive account of the events that facilitated the October Revolution of 1917, with significant emphasis placed on the characters who brought it about. He writes with a storytelling style that invites both seasoned historians and novices to the field to truly grasp the scope of this immensely significant and compelling period of history. The emphasis placed on the individual in history is, I think, necessary when it comes to this subject. Without the cunning designs of Lenin, propped up by the rhetoric of Trotsky and with the inability of Kerensky and the Socialist Revolutionaries to recognise the turn of the tide in favour of the Bolsheviks, they were totally incapable of stemming the tide of Socialist Revolution. The post-revisionist concept of the influence of the people in bringing about their own tragedy is brilliantly stated by the master historian, without ever losing sight of the significance of key figures in stimulating revolution.

Detailed and Thorough, Though Annecdotal, 15 Jul 2007
Firstly, I would like to say that this book is an incredible book. It is unlike any book I have read on this or any other historical subject. Figes' prose flows through the book smoothly and enjoyably.

However, this does create some problems within the book. I found that at points throughout the book Figes' prose became too anecdotal; reducing rather horrific actions and events into little more than footnotes within the story. This is not to say that Figes does not tackle the violence and often unspeakable brutality of this period without tact and sensitivity. I think Figes deals with the Russian Revolution and all of the problems it created socially rather well. I believe he captures the essence of the revolution that say, Robert Service could not. Many historians produce accounts of the revolution that paint the revolution as an "Inevitability". This however creates the illusion that the Bolsheviks "Steamrollered" Russia without much hassle. Figes is able to transcend this rather simplified view, painting a very human picture of the leaders of this "People's Revolution" and their roles within this tragedy.

Figes' use of characters within the book creates a drama of epic proportions-hitting home the social uphealval of the time. His particular use of Semenov's story with his battles with the Village hierachy and the meteoric rise of peasant commisars like Os'Kin as well as the linchpin-like Gorky and his role within every aspect of the revolution and his eventual disillusionment with the revolution he had a hand in creating, makes for a tragic and typically desperate Russian Epic.

I will agree with other reviews in that the period after the Civil War is rather rushed compared to the detail in the rest of the book. This rather disappoints and leaves a rather sour taste after such a fantastic book. I think that this as well as Figes' rather flippant style sometimes is the one thing keeping this book from five stars.

This book is an amazing book. Of that that there is no doubt. A must-read for those interested in the Russian Revolution. It succeeds where other books fail; in its concentration of social issues rather than focusing purely on the policital issues/stories.

Masterful and detailed, 18 Dec 2006
Surely this must be the definitive account of the Russian Revolution's origins and course of events. A deserved prize-winner.


Tsar's family come alive, 07 Aug 2008
This is a masterly work of history. Although, of course, we all know how the Romanov story ends, Rappaport takes us inside The House of Special Purpose where the Tsar and his family were imprisoned, and locks us into that oppressive, claustrophobic atmosphere. Nicholas, Alexandra and the duchesses come alive for us, not as saints or villains, but as a real family, loving each other, finding solace in their religion, trying to support each other as, closed off from the outside world, they await their fate ... The Tsar, whose dearest wish was to run a farm; Alexandra, racked with pain from sciatica; the girls who found pleasure in helping maids to sweep floors because it broke up the tedium of their days.
The tension is unbearable as Rappaport recounts the last 14 days of their lives as the politics of revolution and world war close around them.
This is a short book, which makes it all the more compelling because you can read it in a couple of sittings and maintain that tension and mood. I have been defeated in the past by the (literal) weight of volumes of Russian history - Orlando Figes's People's Revolution springs to mind, too heavy to hold, too heavy to carry, too many characters/organisations to keep track of, and consequently still-unfinished several years after it toppled off my bedside table and nudged its way under my bed (whence abandoned books never emerge again).
A feeble excuse, I know! But well done Helen Rappaport for writing a serious book of history that the ordinary, interested reader has a hope of finishing.

New perspectives on a hidden history, 05 Aug 2008
It isn't easy to take on the Tsars. You're entering a minefield - the politics and bloodletting of the Russian Revolution and everything that followed: Stalin, the hunger, the Second World War, purges and worse. To reach back through all that, and get at the true nature of the last days of the last Tsar of Russia and his ill-starred family, is an achievement indeed.
For me this book has a terrifying relentlessness about it. I read it sitting on a beach in Sicily, the blue Med lapping at my toes, a weird experience when, in the book, I was there in that stifling Ypatiev House in the hot Russian summer, no air conditioning, nothing at all to do, nowhere to go, staring my fate in the face. It's not surprising they turned to prayer. A lesser family would have disintegrated.
As the days passed you felt it with them, that terrible and growing sense of absolute doom. Helen Rappaport has no mercy - she tells it like it is. My nerves were strung out to breaking point as the final steps of the man who had masterminded the murders ascended the stair, on the evening of their deaths, and the unbearably innocent girls responded eagerly to the order and ran down happily to the basement where the gunmen would be.
And the murders! They went on and on, twenty minutes of carnage, so incompetent, so bloody. The author makes us see, feel, smell it. There's no escape. It is gruesome and it is real. I'm in that cellar with them and so is every reader.
Afterwards, the sheer uselessly hopeless incompetence of their murderers meant burial in an unmarked scratch grave next to the road for no better reason than the car finally gave up and they couldn't travel further with the bodies through the mud.
And this was the cousin of the King of England.
It's not surprising there's a collective grief in Russia now that bleeds hopelessly on. On the 90th anniversary of the deaths of the family, they've at last found a worthy chronicler in Rappaport, whose level, even and unflinchingly steady voice takes us through and past these events, places them in time, and leaves us with the scent of lilies in a wood, and the murmur of the all-night vigil of a thousand voices who haven't forgotten, and will not, ever forget. And neither will I.

Ekaterinburg, 19 Jul 2008
Using her extensive research of diaries, letters and eyewitness accounts, Helen Rappaport draws together the strands of this story to write an utterly compelling account of the last days of the Imperial Family.


Set against the backdrop of war, revolution, and factional fighting amongst the Bolsheviks she explains how, after the Tsar's abdication, the Imperial family finally come to be imprisoned in the Impatiev House in Ekaterinburg, chillingly referred to as The House of Special Purpose. The house which has been turned into a prison, shut off from the outside world by a wooden palisade.

Helen really conveys the feeling of doom as the Tsar, the Tsaritsa and their daughter Maria enter the house on April 30th 1918, the other children following later when Alexy, the Tsarevich, has recovered from an attack of haemophilia. She describes how, for the next few weeks, the family and their servants endure the stifling heat, the oppressive atmosphere and lack of privacy of their apartment, cut off from the outside world, the windows sealed shut and whitewashed over.

She draws such intimate and detailed portraits of Nicholas, Alexandra and the children, that the family come vividly to life as they cope with their confinement. The Tsar resigned, Alexandra in constant pain, comforted by her daughters and her strong orthodox faith. The four Grand Duchesses, as they learn to wash their clothes, scrub floors and bake bread. Serious Olga, practical Tatiana, caring Maria and mischievous Anastasia, and Alexy, their brother, frail and sickly, playing soldiers with the kitchen boy Leonid Sednev.

The arrival of a new commandant Yakov Yurovsky on July 4th heralds a much harsher regime for the prisoners. The sense of foreboding intensifies in the house. Yurovsky's purpose is to arrange and carry out the efficient and secret liquidation of the Romanov family. The tension builds as the night chosen for the murders arrives and Yurovsky's meticulous plans begin to unravel. The subsequent horrific and botched killings in the cellar are gut wrenching and deeply shocking. The bungled efforts of the killers to dispose of the bodies, if not so tragic could be considered almost farcical.

Leaving aside the politics of the Tsar's disastrous reign, Helen has concentrated on this story of the Imperial family who were brutally murdered with the consent of Moscow, an act which was to be repeated all over Russia in the following years resulting in the death of millions of people. A terror outstripping any of the atrocities perpetrated during the Romanov reign.

Helen Rappaport has written a very powerful and moving book, which I recommend unreservedly.


Ms. Rappaport possesses a remarkable ability to breathe life into people and places long gone, 02 Jul 2008
I am in absolute awe of Ms. Rappaport's research and writing abilities, particularly her keen descriptiveness and her uncanny ability to "see" and report on circumstances, people, a house, a city -and a mood- as vividly as if this all happened in front of her eyes yesterday, instead of almost a century ago. Though describing gloom and fear and the sense of "suffocation," as well as other subjects that I'd rather not dwell on, the book has enthralled me.

Despite my decades of reading almost everything written in English or French on this subject, I found Ms. Rappaport's perspective on the times and the individual characters to be surprisingly enlightening. Ms. Rappaport has successfully synthesized an enormous amount of information from both well-known and rarer sources. With it, she conjures a sometimes agonizingly realistic picture complete with atmosphere, an overwhelming sense of tension, and visual descriptions that propel the reader backward in time to a city, a house and circumstances that long afterwards linger in the mind as vividly and hauntingly as an unshakable personal memory.

A fascinating book that could really be the last words on the final days of the Last Imperial Family, 30 Jun 2008
I have just finished your book and I can not say how much I enjoyed it. One feels strangely saying so as it is a sad story by any means.

I have lots of books on the Romanovs and I was quite hesitant to buy another one. What can be possibly new about the whole subject?

But I have to admit that this excellent book gave me a new inside and you were able to separate the political side of things, from the human dimension. There is no romantic or religious vision of the final days. It is not written with a hidden agenda of glorifying the last Imperial Family. It clearly separates the politcial story that led to the downfall of the dynasty and the the human tragedy.

Helen Rappaport did not write the story - as it is ever so often - from the end. I appreciated very much how she showed the different personalities of the Imperial family and how they coped with the new situation. The personality of Alexandra, her illnesses, the illness of the Heir and how this effected all of the family long before the fall of the dynasty. The view that the isolation of the family during their reign found a sort of continuation during the confinement, but without the demands of the rule, and were partly at least from the Czar "welcome" is indeed very convincing. Her final comments hid a nerve with me. On top, I just like Helen Rappaport's style of writing.


All in all, I enjoyed this book immensely, it is fascianting, well written and gives the reader much stuff for further thought. I can only recommend this book!


my favourite history book, 07 Nov 2008
A wonderful, fascinating, educational, thrilling boys own adventure......all the better because it's factual.

This grips from page one and never lets go, it bears reading and re-reading and just gets better every time.

Hopkirks writing is great and he is obviously both passionate and knowledgable about his subject.

But the best thing about this book was the fact that it contained so much information that I didnt know (and I'm a big reader of history books), there's a new, little known, gem of information on almost every page.

I cant recommend this book highly enough.

Interesting and Entertaining, 10 Aug 2008
A very informative book about the Great Game, the 19th century version of the cold war between Imperial Russia and the British Empire, as both powers tried to dominate over Asia. The author, Peter Hopkirk, tells how Britain, the dominant power in South Asia at the time, saw ominously how Russia, as it took over Central Asia, became closer and closer to its Indian dominions. Hopkirk tries to tell the story as neutrally as he can, and the material covered is so interesting that each of its 30 plus chapters could, if expanded, be a book of its own. The book covers a whole century, from the early, failed attempts of Russia to occupy the then unknown emirates of Central Asia (where many of its subjects were enslaved) to Francis Younghusband's invasion of Tibet, and takes place as well in places as different as the Caucasus, Persia, Afghanistan, Xinjiang and the High Pamirs. By the end of the 19th century, direct war between the two powers seemed inevitable, but almost miraculously this was avoided. As Britain and Russia became allies during two world wars during the 20th century (and the Soviet Union seem to hold a firm grip over Central Asia) this story was sort of forgotten, but with the independence of the Stans, and the present troubles in the Middle East, the book seems surprisingly urgent. Highly recommended.

A fascinating read... truth is stranger than fiction..., 18 Dec 2007
Colonialism was not paternalism neither was benevolent... but if ever it was a "tempered" colonialism imbued by the precept "of doing the decent thing" it probably the British "empire" was...
All empires have menacing "borders" where their influence is contested... this is one of the most fascinating reads on the subject by far... an History page turner in fact... sometimes you want to laugh at some folly... or are deeply moved by pure unselfish heroism (I know today this sounds absurd... but there was a time where THAT kind of breed existed...)
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (but have in mind that the notion that are peoples and races not able to govern themselves is a fallacy... this is the sane maxim to have present...).

ADB

PS: In fact "GREAT EMPIRES" are mainly found in History Books Maps where large untamed and rebellious areas of the world are "painted" red in the case of the British Empire... (when actually the dominion was largely that of the seas and trade)... or whatever other colour in the case of the largely mythical Spanish Empire (which of course also went bankrupt)... but that is another story.

Good- if a bit biased review, 21 Aug 2007
This is a good synopsys of the subject BUT if you happen to not be a white european youre ignored completely! Considering most of the local population is NOT white European this comes across as a boys own story in somebody-elses land- and im sure there there were consequences to their actions- i just hope they werent too severe! Surely an Indian response to this is deserved!

Insight into the background of current hotspots., 11 Jun 2007
Although it starts a bit too theatrically it soons settles down into a classic study of a period of history that is for the most part just becoming fashionable.
A very impressive work which is on parr with Bernard Lewis' masterpiece - The Assassins - a radical sect in Islam.

moving, 19 Sep 2008
An amazing book, i always wanted to know about the Russian revolution and its cause and effects, Mr Figes not only delivers but makes all the key people involved come alive, i really felt for the peasant farmer trying to reform the agriculture of his village for the greater good.
The title is the most accurate and precise i have known for a book.

An unscrupulous depiction of bolsheviks as cold-blooded despots., 10 Oct 2007
One small example of the problems with Figes' book, small but typical : on pages 631-632 we are treated with the horrendous shooting of Bim-Bom, the clown who dared mock the bolsheviks, at the hands of the Cheka bursting onto the circus in the middle of the comedian's act.

Except that a small amount of research would have made Figes aware that Bim-Bom was not a single clown but a duet, and that no such assassination took place : on the contrary the founder of this famous duet ("Bim" real name Ivan Semenovich Radunskim) died in 1955 after a long career.

But hey ! Why let facts get in the way of a good scene ?


Comprehensive and engaging, 27 Jul 2007
Orlando Figes has produced the definitive account of the events that facilitated the October Revolution of 1917, with significant emphasis placed on the characters who brought it about. He writes with a storytelling style that invites both seasoned historians and novices to the field to truly grasp the scope of this immensely significant and compelling period of history. The emphasis placed on the individual in history is, I think, necessary when it comes to this subject. Without the cunning designs of Lenin, propped up by the rhetoric of Trotsky and with the inability of Kerensky and the Socialist Revolutionaries to recognise the turn of the tide in favour of the Bolsheviks, they were totally incapable of stemming the tide of Socialist Revolution. The post-revisionist concept of the influence of the people in bringing about their own tragedy is brilliantly stated by the master historian, without ever losing sight of the significance of key figures in stimulating revolution.

Detailed and Thorough, Though Annecdotal, 15 Jul 2007
Firstly, I would like to say that this book is an incredible book. It is unlike any book I have read on this or any other historical subject. Figes' prose flows through the book smoothly and enjoyably.

However, this does create some problems within the book. I found that at points throughout the book Figes' prose became too anecdotal; reducing rather horrific actions and events into little more than footnotes within the story. This is not to say that Figes does not tackle the violence and often unspeakable brutality of this period without tact and sensitivity. I think Figes deals with the Russian Revolution and all of the problems it created socially rather well. I believe he captures the essence of the revolution that say, Robert Service could not. Many historians produce accounts of the revolution that paint the revolution as an "Inevitability". This however creates the illusion that the Bolsheviks "Steamrollered" Russia without much hassle. Figes is able to transcend this rather simplified view, painting a very human picture of the leaders of this "People's Revolution" and their roles within this tragedy.

Figes' use of characters within the book creates a drama of epic proportions-hitting home the social uphealval of the time. His particular use of Semenov's story with his battles with the Village hierachy and the meteoric rise of peasant commisars like Os'Kin as well as the linchpin-like Gorky and his role within every aspect of the revolution and his eventual disillusionment with the revolution he had a hand in creating, makes for a tragic and typically desperate Russian Epic.

I will agree with other reviews in that the period after the Civil War is rather rushed compared to the detail in the rest of the book. This rather disappoints and leaves a rather sour taste after such a fantastic book. I think that this as well as Figes' rather flippant style sometimes is the one thing keeping this book from five stars.

This book is an amazing book. Of that that there is no doubt. A must-read for those interested in the Russian Revolution. It succeeds where other books fail; in its concentration of social issues rather than focusing purely on the policital issues/stories.

Masterful and detailed, 18 Dec 2006
Surely this must be the definitive account of the Russian Revolution's origins and course of events. A deserved prize-winner.


Tsar's family come alive, 07 Aug 2008
This is a masterly work of history. Although, of course, we all know how the Romanov story ends, Rappaport takes us inside The House of Special Purpose where the Tsar and his family were imprisoned, and locks us into that oppressive, claustrophobic atmosphere. Nicholas, Alexandra and the duchesses come alive for us, not as saints or villains, but as a real family, loving each other, finding solace in their religion, trying to support each other as, closed off from the outside world, they await their fate ... The Tsar, whose dearest wish was to run a farm; Alexandra, racked with pain from sciatica; the girls who found pleasure in helping maids to sweep floors because it broke up the tedium of their days.
The tension is unbearable as Rappaport recounts the last 14 days of their lives as the politics of revolution and world war close around them.
This is a short book, which makes it all the more compelling because you can read it in a couple of sittings and maintain that tension and mood. I have been defeated in the past by the (literal) weight of volumes of Russian history - Orlando Figes's People's Revolution springs to mind, too heavy to hold, too heavy to carry, too many characters/organisations to keep track of, and consequently still-unfinished several years after it toppled off my bedside table and nudged its way under my bed (whence abandoned books never emerge again).
A feeble excuse, I know! But well done Helen Rappaport for writing a serious book of history that the ordinary, interested reader has a hope of finishing.

New perspectives on a hidden history, 05 Aug 2008
It isn't easy to take on the Tsars. You're entering a minefield - the politics and bloodletting of the Russian Revolution and everything that followed: Stalin, the hunger, the Second World War, purges and worse. To reach back through all that, and get at the true nature of the last days of the last Tsar of Russia and his ill-starred family, is an achievement indeed.
For me this book has a terrifying relentlessness about it. I read it sitting on a beach in Sicily, the blue Med lapping at my toes, a weird experience when, in the book, I was there in that stifling Ypatiev House in the hot Russian summer, no air conditioning, nothing at all to do, nowhere to go, staring my fate in the face. It's not surprising they turned to prayer. A lesser family would have disintegrated.
As the days passed you felt it with them, that terrible and growing sense of absolute doom. Helen Rappaport has no mercy - she tells it like it is. My nerves were strung out to breaking point as the final steps of the man who had masterminded the murders ascended the stair, on the evening of their deaths, and the unbearably innocent girls responded eagerly to the order and ran down happily to the basement where the gunmen would be.
And the murders! They went on and on, twenty minutes of carnage, so incompetent, so bloody. The author makes us see, feel, smell it. There's no escape. It is gruesome and it is real. I'm in that cellar with them and so is every reader.
Afterwards, the sheer uselessly hopeless incompetence of their murderers meant burial in an unmarked scratch grave next to the road for no better reason than the car finally gave up and they couldn't travel further with the bodies through the mud.
And this was the cousin of the King of England.
It's not surprising there's a collective grief in Russia now that bleeds hopelessly on. On the 90th anniversary of the deaths of the family, they've at last found a worthy chronicler in Rappaport, whose level, even and unflinchingly steady voice takes us through and past these events, places them in time, and leaves us with the scent of lilies in a wood, and the murmur of the all-night vigil of a thousand voices who haven't forgotten, and will not, ever forget. And neither will I.

Ekaterinburg, 19 Jul 2008
Using her extensive research of diaries, letters and eyewitness accounts, Helen Rappaport draws together the strands of this story to write an utterly compelling account of the last days of the Imperial Family.


Set against the backdrop of war, revolution, and factional fighting amongst the Bolsheviks she explains how, after the Tsar's abdication, the Imperial family finally come to be imprisoned in the Impatiev House in Ekaterinburg, chillingly referred to as The House of Special Purpose. The house which has been turned into a prison, shut off from the outside world by a wooden palisade.

Helen really conveys the feeling of doom as the Tsar, the Tsaritsa and their daughter Maria enter the house on April 30th 1918, the other children following later when Alexy, the Tsarevich, has recovered from an attack of haemophilia. She describes how, for the next few weeks, the family and their servants endure the stifling heat, the oppressive atmosphere and lack of privacy of their apartment, cut off from the outside world, the windows sealed shut and whitewashed over.

She draws such intimate and detailed portraits of Nicholas, Alexandra and the children, that the family come vividly to life as they cope with their confinement. The Tsar resigned, Alexandra in constant pain, comforted by her daughters and her strong orthodox faith. The four Grand Duchesses, as they learn to wash their clothes, scrub floors and bake bread. Serious Olga, practical Tatiana, caring Maria and mischievous Anastasia, and Alexy, their brother, frail and sickly, playing soldiers with the kitchen boy Leonid Sednev.

The arrival of a new commandant Yakov Yurovsky on July 4th heralds a much harsher regime for the prisoners. The sense of foreboding intensifies in the house. Yurovsky's purpose is to arrange and carry out the efficient and secret liquidation of the Romanov family. The tension builds as the night chosen for the murders arrives and Yurovsky's meticulous plans begin to unravel. The subsequent horrific and botched killings in the cellar are gut wrenching and deeply shocking. The bungled efforts of the killers to dispose of the bodies, if not so tragic could be considered almost farcical.

Leaving aside the politics of the Tsar's disastrous reign, Helen has concentrated on this story of the Imperial family who were brutally murdered with the consent of Moscow, an act which was to be repeated all over Russia in the following years resulting in the death of millions of people. A terror outstripping any of the atrocities perpetrated during the Romanov reign.

Helen Rappaport has written a very powerful and moving book, which I recommend unreservedly.


Ms. Rappaport possesses a remarkable ability to breathe life into people and places long gone, 02 Jul 2008
I am in absolute awe of Ms. Rappaport's research and writing abilities, particularly her keen descriptiveness and her uncanny ability to "see" and report on circumstances, people, a house, a city -and a mood- as vividly as if this all happened in front of her eyes yesterday, instead of almost a century ago. Though describing gloom and fear and the sense of "suffocation," as well as other subjects that I'd rather not dwell on, the book has enthralled me.

Despite my decades of reading almost everything written in English or French on this subject, I found Ms. Rappaport's perspective on the times and the individual characters to be surprisingly enlightening. Ms. Rappaport has successfully synthesized an enormous amount of information from both well-known and rarer sources. With it, she conjures a sometimes agonizingly realistic picture complete with atmosphere, an overwhelming sense of tension, and visual descriptions that propel the reader backward in time to a city, a house and circumstances that long afterwards linger in the mind as vividly and hauntingly as an unshakable personal memory.

A fascinating book that could really be the last words on the final days of the Last Imperial Family, 30 Jun 2008
I have just finished your book and I can not say how much I enjoyed it. One feels strangely saying so as it is a sad story by any means.

I have lots of books on the Romanovs and I was quite hesitant to buy another one. What can be possibly new about the whole subject?

But I have to admit that this excellent book gave me a new inside and you were able to separate the political side of things, from the human dimension. There is no romantic or religious vision of the final days. It is not written with a hidden agenda of glorifying the last Imperial Family. It clearly separates the politcial story that led to the downfall of the dynasty and the the human tragedy.

Helen Rappaport did not write the story - as it is ever so often - from the end. I appreciated very much how she showed the different personalities of the Imperial family and how they coped with the new situation. The personality of Alexandra, her illnesses, the illness of the Heir and how this effected all of the family long before the fall of the dynasty. The view that the isolation of the family during their reign found a sort of continuation during the confinement, but without the demands of the rule, and were partly at least from the Czar "welcome" is indeed very convincing. Her final comments hid a nerve with me. On top, I just like Helen Rappaport's style of writing.


All in all, I enjoyed this book immensely, it is fascianting, well written and gives the reader much stuff for further thought. I can only recommend this book!


my favourite history book, 07 Nov 2008
A wonderful, fascinating, educational, thrilling boys own adventure......all the better because it's factual.

This grips from page one and never lets go, it bears reading and re-reading and just gets better every time.

Hopkirks writing is great and he is obviously both passionate and knowledgable about his subject.

But the best thing about this book was the fact that it contained so much information that I didnt know (and I'm a big reader of history books), there's a new, little known, gem of information on almost every page.

I cant recommend this book highly enough.

Interesting and Entertaining, 10 Aug 2008
A very informative book about the Great Game, the 19th century version of the cold war between Imperial Russia and the British Empire, as both powers tried to dominate over Asia. The author, Peter Hopkirk, tells how Britain, the dominant power in South Asia at the time, saw ominously how Russia, as it took over Central Asia, became closer and closer to its Indian dominions. Hopkirk tries to tell the story as neutrally as he can, and the material covered is so interesting that each of its 30 plus chapters could, if expanded, be a book of its own. The book covers a whole century, from the early, failed attempts of Russia to occupy the then unknown emirates of Central Asia (where many of its subjects were enslaved) to Francis Younghusband's invasion of Tibet, and takes place as well in places as different as the Caucasus, Persia, Afghanistan, Xinjiang and the High Pamirs. By the end of the 19th century, direct war between the two powers seemed inevitable, but almost miraculously this was avoided. As Britain and Russia became allies during two world wars during the 20th century (and the Soviet Union seem to hold a firm grip over Central Asia) this story was sort of forgotten, but with the independence of the Stans, and the present troubles in the Middle East, the book seems surprisingly urgent. Highly recommended.

A fascinating read... truth is stranger than fiction..., 18 Dec 2007
Colonialism was not paternalism neither was benevolent... but if ever it was a "tempered" colonialism imbued by the precept "of doing the decent thing" it probably the British "empire" was...
All empires have menacing "borders" where their influence is contested... this is one of the most fascinating reads on the subject by far... an History page turner in fact... sometimes you want to laugh at some folly... or are deeply moved by pure unselfish heroism (I know today this sounds absurd... but there was a time where THAT kind of breed existed...)
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (but have in mind that the notion that are peoples and races not able to govern themselves is a fallacy... this is the sane maxim to have present...).

ADB

PS: In fact "GREAT EMPIRES" are mainly found in History Books Maps where large untamed and rebellious areas of the world are "painted" red in the case of the British Empire... (when actually the dominion was largely that of the seas and trade)... or whatever other colour in the case of the largely mythical Spanish Empire (which of course also went bankrupt)... but that is another story.

Good- if a bit biased review, 21 Aug 2007
This is a good synopsys of the subject BUT if you happen to not be a white european youre ignored completely! Considering most of the local population is NOT white European this comes across as a boys own story in somebody-elses land- and im sure there there were consequences to their actions- i just hope they werent too severe! Surely an Indian response to this is deserved!

Insight into the background of current hotspots., 11 Jun 2007
Although it starts a bit too theatrically it soons settles down into a classic study of a period of history that is for the most part just becoming fashionable.
A very impressive work which is on parr with Bernard Lewis' masterpiece - The Assassins - a radical sect in Islam.

A great introduction to Russian history, 16 Jul 2006
As a previous reviewer commented, a number of major event, not least the October Revolution, are skimmed over by the author, while seemingly undue importance is given to more minor events. However, I believe Service's intention was for this book to be a preparatory exercise for further reading - the over-throwing of the Tsar, the battle of Stalingrad and the fall of the Berlin Wall are covered in detail elsewhere. A History of Russia gives a great background to a tumultuous twentieth century in the county and sets events in context for further reading. Service is unbiased, backs up his interesting observations and, although sometimes dry, paints a coherent picture of times of momentous change. He is better on the earlier years than more recent ones, but this is a great introduction to the state of Russia today.

handy for an overview, 03 Mar 2006
A strange book, it almost dismisses the February Revolution and the abdication of the Tsar in a few lines, but it goes into details on events in the late 80's/early 90's. A good overview of Russian history but missed out on what I was looking for in a book on russia.

A comprehensive beginners guide to 20th century russia, 29 Jan 2006
For those seeking an overview of 20th century Russian history it doesn't really get much better than this. However, the sheer scale of events that took place in Russia during this time means that there is an inevitable lack of detail in this one volume history. That said, it is an entertaining and educational read. The chapters concerning the Russian Revolution and the break-up of the USSR are particularly well presented and enjoyable. The latter is of obvoius relevance to anyone wishing to understand 21st century Russia.
"A History of Modern Russia" doesn't have quite the same page-turning excitement as, for example, Simon Sebag Montefiore's recent Stalin biography, but as a beginner's guide to this fascinating period of history it can hardly be bettered. Highly recommended.

moving, 19 Sep 2008
An amazing book, i always wanted to know about the Russian revolution and its cause and effects, Mr Figes not only delivers but makes all the key people involved come alive, i really felt for the peasant farmer trying to reform the agriculture of his village for the greater good.
The title is the most accurate and precise i have known for a book.

An unscrupulous depiction of bolsheviks as cold-blooded despots., 10 Oct 2007
One small example of the problems with Figes' book, small but typical : on pages 631-632 we are treated with the horrendous shooting of Bim-Bom, the clown who dared mock the bolsheviks, at the hands of the Cheka bursting onto the circus in the middle of the comedian's act.

Except that a small amount of research would have made Figes aware that Bim-Bom was not a single clown but a duet, and that no such assassination took place : on the contrary the founder of this famous duet ("Bim" real name Ivan Semenovich Radunskim) died in 1955 after a long career.

But hey ! Why let facts get in the way of a good scene ?


Comprehensive and engaging, 27 Jul 2007
Orlando Figes has produced the definitive account of the events that facilitated the October Revolution of 1917, with significant emphasis placed on the characters who brought it about. He writes with a storytelling style that invites both seasoned historians and novices to the field to truly grasp the scope of this immensely significant and compelling period of history. The emphasis placed on the individual in history is, I think, necessary when it comes to this subject. Without the cunning designs of Lenin, propped up by the rhetoric of Trotsky and with the inability of Kerensky and the Socialist Revolutionaries to recognise the turn of the tide in favour of the Bolsheviks, they were totally incapable of stemming the tide of Socialist Revolution. The post-revisionist concept of the influence of the people in bringing about their own tragedy is brilliantly stated by the master historian, without ever losing sight of the significance of key figures in stimulating revolution.

Detailed and Thorough, Though Annecdotal, 15 Jul 2007
Firstly, I would like to say that this book is an incredible book. It is unlike any book I have read on this or any other historical subject. Figes' prose flows through the book smoothly and enjoyably.

However, this does create some problems within the book. I found that at points throughout the book Figes' prose became too anecdotal; reducing rather horrific actions and events into little more than footnotes within the story. This is not to say that Figes does not tackle the violence and often unspeakable brutality of this period without tact and sensitivity. I think Figes deals with the Russian Revolution and all of the problems it created socially rather well. I believe he captures the essence of the revolution that say, Robert Service could not. Many historians produce accounts of the revolution that paint the revolution as an "Inevitability". This however creates the illusion that the Bolsheviks "Steamrollered" Russia without much hassle. Figes is able to transcend this rather simplified view, painting a very human picture of the leaders of this "People's Revolution" and their roles within this tragedy.

Figes' use of characters within the book creates a drama of epic proportions-hitting home the social uphealval of the time. His particular use of Semenov's story with his battles with the Village hierachy and the meteoric rise of peasant commisars like Os'Kin as well as the linchpin-like Gorky and his role within every aspect of the revolution and his eventual disillusionment with the revolution he had a hand in creating, makes for a tragic and typically desperate Russian Epic.

I will agree with other reviews in that the period after the Civil War is rather rushed compared to the detail in the rest of the book. This rather disappoints and leaves a rather sour taste after such a fantastic book. I think that this as well as Figes' rather flippant style sometimes is the one thing keeping this book from five stars.

This book is an amazing book. Of that that there is no doubt. A must-read for those interested in the Russian Revolution. It succeeds where other books fail; in its concentration of social issues rather than focusing purely on the policital issues/stories.

Masterful and detailed, 18 Dec 2006
Surely this must be the definitive account of the Russian Revolution's origins and course of events. A deserved prize-winner.


Tsar's family come alive, 07 Aug 2008
This is a masterly work of history. Although, of course, we all know how the Romanov story ends, Rappaport takes us inside The House of Special Purpose where the Tsar and his family were imprisoned, and locks us into that oppressive, claustrophobic atmosphere. Nicholas, Alexandra and the duchesses come alive for us, not as saints or villains, but as a real family, loving each other, finding solace in their religion, trying to support each other as, closed off from the outside world, they await their fate ... The Tsar, whose dearest wish was to run a farm; Alexandra, racked with pain from sciatica; the girls who found pleasure in helping maids to sweep floors because it broke up the tedium of their days.
The tension is unbearable as Rappaport recounts the last 14 days of their lives as the politics of revolution and world war close around them.
This is a short book, which makes it all the more compelling because you can read it in a couple of sittings and maintain that tension and mood. I have been defeated in the past by the (literal) weight of volumes of Russian history - Orlando Figes's People's Revolution springs to mind, too heavy to hold, too heavy to carry, too many characters/organisations to keep track of, and consequently still-unfinished several years after it toppled off my bedside table and nudged its way under my bed (whence abandoned books never emerge again).
A feeble excuse, I know! But well done Helen Rappaport for writing a serious book of history that the ordinary, interested reader has a hope of finishing.

New perspectives on a hidden history, 05 Aug 2008
It isn't easy to take on the Tsars. You're entering a minefield - the politics and bloodletting of the Russian Revolution and everything that followed: Stalin, the hunger, the Second World War, purges and worse. To reach back through all that, and get at the true nature of the last days of the last Tsar of Russia and his ill-starred family, is an achievement indeed.
For me this book has a terrifying relentlessness about it. I read it sitting on a beach in Sicily, the blue Med lapping at my toes, a weird experience when, in the book, I was there in that stifling Ypatiev House in the hot Russian summer, no air conditioning, nothing at all to do, nowhere to go, staring my fate in the face. It's not surprising they turned to prayer. A lesser family would have disintegrated.
As the days passed you felt it with them, that terrible and growing sense of absolute doom. Helen Rappaport has no mercy - she tells it like it is. My nerves were strung out to breaking point as the final steps of the man who had masterminded the murders ascended the stair, on the evening of their deaths, and the unbearably innocent girls responded eagerly to the order and ran down happily to the basement where the gunmen would be.
And the murders! They went on and on, twenty minutes of carnage, so incompetent, so bloody. The author makes us see, feel, smell it. There's no escape. It is gruesome and it is real. I'm in that cellar with them and so is every reader.
Afterwards, the sheer uselessly hopeless incompetence of their murderers meant burial in an unmarked scratch grave next to the road for no better reason than the car finally gave up and they couldn't travel further with the bodies through the mud.
And this was the cousin of the King of England.
It's not surprising there's a collective grief in Russia now that bleeds hopelessly on. On the 90th anniversary of the deaths of the family, they've at last found a worthy chronicler in Rappaport, whose level, even and unflinchingly steady voice takes us through and past these events, places them in time, and leaves us with the scent of lilies in a wood, and the murmur of the all-night vigil of a thousand voices who haven't forgotten, and will not, ever forget. And neither will I.

Ekaterinburg, 19 Jul 2008
Using her extensive research of diaries, letters and eyewitness accounts, Helen Rappaport draws together the strands of this story to write an utterly compelling account of the last days of the Imperial Family.


Set against the backdrop of war, revolution, and factional fighting amongst the Bolsheviks she explains how, after the Tsar's abdication, the Imperial family finally come to be imprisoned in the Impatiev House in Ekaterinburg, chillingly referred to as The House of Special Purpose. The house which has been turned into a prison, shut off from the outside world by a wooden palisade.

Helen really conveys the feeling of doom as the Tsar, the Tsaritsa and their daughter Maria enter the house on April 30th 1918, the other children following later when Alexy, the Tsarevich, has recovered from an attack of haemophilia. She describes how, for the next few weeks, the family and their servants endure the stifling heat, the oppressive atmosphere and lack of privacy of their apartment, cut off from the outside world, the windows sealed shut and whitewashed over.

She draws such intimate and detailed portraits of Nicholas, Alexandra and the children, that the family come vividly to life as they cope with their confinement. The Tsar resigned, Alexandra in constant pain, comforted by her daughters and her strong orthodox faith. The four Grand Duchesses, as they learn to wash their clothes, scrub floors and bake bread. Serious Olga, practical Tatiana, caring Maria and mischievous Anastasia, and Alexy, their brother, frail and sickly, playing soldiers with the kitchen boy Leonid Sednev.

The arrival of a new commandant Yakov Yurovsky on July 4th heralds a much harsher regime for the prisoners. The sense of foreboding intensifies in the house. Yurovsky's purpose is to arrange and carry out the efficient and secret liquidation of the Romanov family. The tension builds as the night chosen for the murders arrives and Yurovsky's meticulous plans begin to unravel. The subsequent horrific and botched killings in the cellar are gut wrenching and deeply shocking. The bungled efforts of the killers to dispose of the bodies, if not so tragic could be considered almost farcical.

Leaving aside the politics of the Tsar's disastrous reign, Helen has concentrated on this story of the Imperial family who were brutally murdered with the consent of Moscow, an act which was to be repeated all over Russia in the following years resulting in the death of millions of people. A terror outstripping any of the atrocities perpetrated during the Romanov reign.

Helen Rappaport has written a very powerful and moving book, which I recommend unreservedly.


Ms. Rappaport possesses a remarkable ability to breathe life into people and places long gone, 02 Jul 2008
I am in absolute awe of Ms. Rappaport's research and writing abilities, particularly her keen descriptiveness and her uncanny ability to "see" and report on circumstances, people, a house, a city -and a mood- as vividly as if this all happened in front of her eyes yesterday, instead of almost a century ago. Though describing gloom and fear and the sense of "suffocation," as well as other subjects that I'd rather not dwell on, the book has enthralled me.

Despite my decades of reading almost everything written in English or French on this subject, I found Ms. Rappaport's perspective on the times and the individual characters to be surprisingly enlightening. Ms. Rappaport has successfully synthesized an enormous amount of information from both well-known and rarer sources. With it, she conjures a sometimes agonizingly realistic picture complete with atmosphere, an overwhelming sense of tension, and visual descriptions that propel the reader backward in time to a city, a house and circumstances that long afterwards linger in the mind as vividly and hauntingly as an unshakable personal memory.

A fascinating book that could really be the last words on the final days of the Last Imperial Family, 30 Jun 2008
I have just finished your book and I can not say how much I enjoyed it. One feels strangely saying so as it is a sad story by any means.

I have lots of books on the Romanovs and I was quite hesitant to buy another one. What can be possibly new about the whole subject?

But I have to admit that this excellent book gave me a new inside and you were able to separate the political side of things, from the human dimension. There is no romantic or religious vision of the final days. It is not written with a hidden agenda of glorifying the last Imperial Family. It clearly separates the politcial story that led to the downfall of the dynasty and the the human tragedy.

Helen Rappaport did not write the story - as it is ever so often - from the end. I appreciated very much how she showed the different personalities of the Imperial family and how they coped with the new situation. The personality of Alexandra, her illnesses, the illness of the Heir and how this effected all of the family long before the fall of the dynasty. The view that the isolation of the family during their reign found a sort of continuation during the confinement, but without the demands of the rule, and were partly at least from the Czar "welcome" is indeed very convincing. Her final comments hid a nerve with me. On top, I just like Helen Rappaport's style of writing.


All in all, I enjoyed this book immensely, it is fascianting, well written and gives the reader much stuff for further thought. I can only recommend this book!


my favourite history book, 07 Nov 2008
A wonderful, fascinating, educational, thrilling boys own adventure......all the better because it's factual.

This grips from page one and never lets go, it bears reading and re-reading and just gets better every time.

Hopkirks writing is great and he is obviously both passionate and knowledgable about his subject.

But the best thing about this book was the fact that it contained so much information that I didnt know (and I'm a big reader of history books), there's a new, little known, gem of information on almost every page.

I cant recommend this book highly enough.

Interesting and Entertaining, 10 Aug 2008
A very informative book about the Great Game, the 19th century version of the cold war between Imperial Russia and the British Empire, as both powers tried to dominate over Asia. The author, Peter Hopkirk, tells how Britain, the dominant power in South Asia at the time, saw ominously how Russia, as it took over Central Asia, became closer and closer to its Indian dominions. Hopkirk tries to tell the story as neutrally as he can, and the material covered is so interesting that each of its 30 plus chapters could, if expanded, be a book of its own. The book covers a whole century, from the early, failed attempts of Russia to occupy the then unknown emirates of Central Asia (where many of its subjects were enslaved) to Francis Younghusband's invasion of Tibet, and takes place as well in places as different as the Caucasus, Persia, Afghanistan, Xinjiang and the High Pamirs. By the end of the 19th century, direct war between the two powers seemed inevitable, but almost miraculously this was avoided. As Britain and Russia became allies during two world wars during the 20th century (and the Soviet Union seem to hold a firm grip over Central Asia) this story was sort of forgotten, but with the independence of the Stans, and the present troubles in the Middle East, the book seems surprisingly urgent. Highly recommended.

A fascinating read... truth is stranger than fiction..., 18 Dec 2007
Colonialism was not paternalism neither was benevolent... but if ever it was a "tempered" colonialism imbued by the precept "of doing the decent thing" it probably the British "empire" was...
All empires have menacing "borders" where their influence is contested... this is one of the most fascinating reads on the subject by far... an History page turner in fact... sometimes you want to laugh at some folly... or are deeply moved by pure unselfish heroism (I know today this sounds absurd... but there was a time where THAT kind of breed existed...)
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (but have in mind that the notion that are peoples and races not able to govern themselves is a fallacy... this is the sane maxim to have present...).

ADB

PS: In fact "GREAT EMPIRES" are mainly found in History Books Maps where large untamed and rebellious areas of the world are "painted" red in the case of the British Empire... (when actually the dominion was largely that of the seas and trade)... or whatever other colour in the case of the largely mythical Spanish Empire (which of course also went bankrupt)... but that is another story.

Good- if a bit biased review, 21 Aug 2007
This is a good synopsys of the subject BUT if you happen to not be a white european youre ignored completely! Considering most of the local population is NOT white European this comes across as a boys own story in somebody-elses land- and im sure there there were consequences to their actions- i just hope they werent too severe! Surely an Indian response to this is deserved!

Insight into the background of current hotspots., 11 Jun 2007
Although it starts a bit too theatrically it soons settles down into a classic study of a period of history that is for the most part just becoming fashionable.
A very impressive work which is on parr with Bernard Lewis' masterpiece - The Assassins - a radical sect in Islam.

A great introduction to Russian history, 16 Jul 2006
As a previous reviewer commented, a number of major event, not least the October Revolution, are skimmed over by the author, while seemingly undue importance is given to more minor events. However, I believe Service's intention was for this book to be a preparatory exercise for further reading - the over-throwing of the Tsar, the battle of Stalingrad and the fall of the Berlin Wall are covered in detail elsewhere. A History of Russia gives a great background to a tumultuous twentieth century in the county and sets events in context for further reading. Service is unbiased, backs up his interesting observations and, although sometimes dry, paints a coherent picture of times of momentous change. He is better on the earlier years than more recent ones, but this is a great introduction to the state of Russia today.

handy for an overview, 03 Mar 2006
A strange book, it almost dismisses the February Revolution and the abdication of the Tsar in a few lines, but it goes into details on events in the late 80's/early 90's. A good overview of Russian history but missed out on what I was looking for in a book on russia.

A comprehensive beginners guide to 20th century russia, 29 Jan 2006
For those seeking an overview of 20th century Russian history it doesn't really get much better than this. However, the sheer scale of events that took place in Russia during this time means that there is an inevitable lack of detail in this one volume history. That said, it is an entertaining and educational read. The chapters concerning the Russian Revolution and the break-up of the USSR are particularly well presented and enjoyable. The latter is of obvoius relevance to anyone wishing to understand 21st century Russia.
"A History of Modern Russia" doesn't have quite the same page-turning excitement as, for example, Simon Sebag Montefiore's recent Stalin biography, but as a beginner's guide to this fascinating period of history it can hardly be bettered. Highly recommended.

Do History books get much better than this?, 08 Nov 2003
Whether you are studying the Russian Revolution or just want to gain some knowledge on it, this book is a must have. Michael Lynch clearly explains everything, and does not do what is common in historians, leave you confused. The simplicity of this highly detailed book is something you don't come across often. If you are doing the Russian Revolution for AS or A Level, trust me, this book is your bible!

Absolutely brilliant for AS level History, 01 Mar 2002
I've been using this book for my AS course and have found it invaluable. It explains all the polical terms, key figures, key ideals and key events in easily understandable language. Ideal if you're new to political history and terms.

Excellent for both students and casual readers, 09 Jan 2001
R&R was a book on my book list for my History A level on Russia. I read it, and as a student I found it the most helpful book I have got (and I've got plenty!). It sets out clearly and in understandable language the events of the Revolution, as well as providing an insight to why this event occured. The only problem I have found is the fact that sometimes events are not linked back to/explained/remind you if they are futher on in the book, but this can be remidied by using the index! R&R is also suitable if you are simply interested in the period of time; it is comprehensive and intelligent, whilst not alienating the reader with technical historical jargon. For students and the interested alike, I would recomend ANY of the 'access to history' books (which R&R is part of); we use them all the time & and they are by far the comprehensivly written, and a lot cheaper than most other history textbooks (which is, of course, an important factor for poor students!). I would also recommend "A People' Tradedy - The Russian Revolution" by Orlando Figes. It takes a bit of time to go through (about 2" thick), but provides an insight to the actual people, with testimonies from the people, which R&R, being a thin book (only 150 pages) lacks.

Perfect for anyone of any age, especially AS level students, 21 Dec 2000
A magnificent account of the Russian Revolution for the new generation, this is essential for the AS History student. Vast in scope and exhaustive in research, it is complex enough to explore deeply the Russian Revolution, yet is simple enough to allow freely understandable reading.

moving, 19 Sep 2008
An amazing book, i always wanted to know about the Russian revolution and its cause and effects, Mr Figes not only delivers but makes all the key people involved come alive, i really felt for the peasant farmer trying to reform the agriculture of his village for the greater good.
The title is the most accurate and precise i have known for a book.

An unscrupulous depiction of bolsheviks as cold-blooded despots., 10 Oct 2007
One small example of the problems with Figes' book, small but typical : on pages 631-632 we are treated with the horrendous shooting of Bim-Bom, the clown who dared mock the bolsheviks, at the hands of the Cheka bursting onto the circus in the middle of the comedian's act.

Except that a small amount of research would have made Figes aware that Bim-Bom was not a single clown but a duet, and that no such assassination took place : on the contrary the founder of this famous duet ("Bim" real name Ivan Semenovich Radunskim) died in 1955 after a long career.

But hey ! Why let facts get in the way of a good scene ?


Comprehensive and engaging, 27 Jul 2007
Orlando Figes has produced the definitive account of the events that facilitated the October Revolution of 1917, with significant emphasis placed on the characters who brought it about. He writes with a storytelling style that invites both seasoned historians and novices to the field to truly grasp the scope of this immensely significant and compelling period of history. The emphasis placed on the individual in history is, I think, necessary when it comes to this subject. Without the cunning designs of Lenin, propped up by the rhetoric of Trotsky and with the inability of Kerensky and the Socialist Revolutionaries to recognise the turn of the tide in favour of the Bolsheviks, they were totally incapable of stemming the tide of Socialist Revolution. The post-revisionist concept of the influence of the people in bringing about their own tragedy is brilliantly stated by the master historian, without ever losing sight of the significance of key figures in stimulating revolution.

Detailed and Thorough, Though Annecdotal, 15 Jul 2007
Firstly, I would like to say that this book is an incredible book. It is unlike any book I have read on this or any other historical subject. Figes' prose flows through the book smoothly and enjoyably.

However, this does create some problems within the book. I found that at points throughout the book Figes' prose became too anecdotal; reducing rather horrific actions and events into little more than footnotes within the story. This is not to say that Figes does not tackle the violence and often unspeakable brutality of this period without tact and sensitivity. I think Figes deals with the Russian Revolution and all of the problems it created socially rather well. I believe he captures the essence of the revolution that say, Robert Service could not. Many historians produce accounts of the revolution that paint the revolution as an "Inevitability". This however creates the illusion that the Bolsheviks "Steamrollered" Russia without much hassle. Figes is able to transcend this rather simplified view, painting a very human picture of the leaders of this "People's Revolution" and their roles within this tragedy.

Figes' use of characters within the book creates a drama of epic proportions-hitting home the social uphealval of the time. His particular use of Semenov's story with his battles with the Village hierachy and the meteoric rise of peasant commisars like Os'Kin as well as the linchpin-like Gorky and his role within every aspect of the revolution and his eventual disillusionment with the revolution he had a hand in creating, makes for a tragic and typically desperate Russian Epic.

I will agree with other reviews in that the period after the Civil War is rather rushed compared to the detail in the rest of the book. This rather disappoints and leaves a rather sour taste after such a fantastic book. I think that this as well as Figes' rather flippant style sometimes is the one thing keeping this book from five stars.

This book is an amazing book. Of that that there is no doubt. A must-read for those interested in the Russian Revolution. It succeeds where other books fail; in its concentration of social issues rather than focusing purely on the policital issues/stories.

Masterful and detailed, 18 Dec 2006
Surely this must be the definitive account of the Russian Revolution's origins and course of events. A deserved prize-winner.


Tsar's family come alive, 07 Aug 2008
This is a masterly work of history. Although, of course, we all know how the Romanov story ends, Rappaport takes us inside The House of Special Purpose where the Tsar and his family were imprisoned, and locks us into that oppressive, claustrophobic atmosphere. Nicholas, Alexandra and the duchesses come alive for us, not as saints or villains, but as a real family, loving each other, finding solace in their religion, trying to support each other as, closed off from the outside world, they await their fate ... The Tsar, whose dearest wish was to run a farm; Alexandra, racked with pain from sciatica; the girls who found pleasure in helping maids to sweep floors because it broke up the tedium of their days.
The tension is unbearable as Rappaport recounts the last 14 days of their lives as the politics of revolution and world war close around them.
This is a short book, which makes it all the more compelling because you can read it in a couple of sittings and maintain that tension and mood. I have been defeated in the past by the (literal) weight of volumes of Russian history - Orlando Figes's People's Revolution springs to mind, too heavy to hold, too heavy to carry, too many characters/organisations to keep track of, and consequently still-unfinished several years after it toppled off my bedside table and nudged its way under my bed (whence abandoned books never emerge again).
A feeble excuse, I know! But well done Helen Rappaport for writing a serious book of history that the ordinary, interested reader has a hope of finishing.

New perspectives on a hidden history, 05 Aug 2008
It isn't easy to take on the Tsars. You're entering a minefield - the politics and bloodletting of the Russian Revolution and everything that followed: Stalin, the hunger, the Second World War, purges and worse. To reach back through all that, and get at the true nature of the last days of the last Tsar of Russia and his ill-starred family, is an achievement indeed.
For me this book has a terrifying relentlessness about it. I read it sitting on a beach in Sicily, the blue Med lapping at my toes, a weird experience when, in the book, I was there in that stifling Ypatiev House in the hot Russian summer, no air conditioning, nothing at all to do, nowhere to go, staring my fate in the face. It's not surprising they turned to prayer. A lesser family would have disintegrated.
As the days passed you felt it with them, that terrible and growing sense of absolute doom. Helen Rappaport has no mercy - she tells it like it is. My nerves were strung out to breaking point as the final steps of the man who had masterminded the murders ascended the stair, on the evening of their deaths, and the unbearably innocent girls responded eagerly to the order and ran down happily to the basement where the gunmen would be.
And the murders! They went on and on, twenty minutes of carnage, so incompetent, so bloody. The author makes us see, feel, smell it. There's no escape. It is gruesome and it is real. I'm in that cellar with them and so is every reader.
Afterwards, the sheer uselessly hopeless incompetence of their murderers meant burial in an unmarked scratch grave next to the road for no better reason than the car finally gave up and they couldn't travel further with the bodies through the mud.
And this was the cousin of the King of England.
It's not surprising there's a collective grief in Russia now that bleeds hopelessly on. On the 90th anniversary of the deaths of the family, they've at last found a worthy chronicler in Rappaport, whose level, even and unflinchingly steady voice takes us through and past these events, places them in time, and leaves us with the scent of lilies in a wood, and the murmur of the all-night vigil of a thousand voices who haven't forgotten, and will not, ever forget. And neither will I.

Ekaterinburg, 19 Jul 2008
Using her extensive research of diaries, letters and eyewitness accounts, Helen Rappaport draws together the strands of this story to write an utterly compelling account of the last days of the Imperial Family.


Set against the backdrop of war, revolution, and factional fighting amongst the Bolsheviks she explains how, after the Tsar's abdication, the Imperial family finally come to be imprisoned in the Impatiev House in Ekaterinburg, chillingly referred to as The House of Special Purpose. The house which has been turned into a prison, shut off from the outside world by a wooden palisade.

Helen really conveys the feeling of doom as the Tsar, the Tsaritsa and their daughter Maria enter the house on April 30th 1918, the other children following later when Alexy, the Tsarevich, has recovered from an attack of haemophilia. She describes how, for the next few weeks, the family and their servants endure the stifling heat, the oppressive atmosphere and lack of privacy of their apartment, cut off from the outside world, the windows sealed shut and whitewashed over.

She draws such intimate and detailed portraits of Nicholas, Alexandra and the children, that the family come vividly to life as they cope with their confinement. The Tsar resigned, Alexandra in constant pain, comforted by her daughters and her strong orthodox faith. The four Grand Duchesses, as they learn to wash their clothes, scrub floors and bake bread. Serious Olga, practical Tatiana, caring Maria and mischievous Anastasia, and Alexy, their brother, frail and sickly, playing soldiers with the kitchen boy Leonid Sednev.

The arrival of a new commandant Yakov Yurovsky on July 4th heralds a much harsher regime for the prisoners. The sense of foreboding intensifies in the house. Yurovsky's purpose is to arrange and carry out the efficient and secret liquidation of the Romanov family. The tension builds as the night chosen for the murders arrives and Yurovsky's meticulous plans begin to unravel. The subsequent horrific and botched killings in the cellar are gut wrenching and deeply shocking. The bungled efforts of the killers to dispose of the bodies, if not so tragic could be considered almost farcical.

Leaving aside the politics of the Tsar's disastrous reign, Helen has concentrated on this story of the Imperial family who were brutally murdered with the consent of Moscow, an act which was to be repeated all over Russia in the following years resulting in the death of millions of people. A terror outstripping any of the atrocities perpetrated during the Romanov reign.

Helen Rappaport has written a very powerful and moving book, which I recommend unreservedly.


Ms. Rappaport possesses a remarkable ability to breathe life into people and places long gone, 02 Jul 2008
I am in absolute awe of Ms. Rappaport's research and writing abilities, particularly her keen descriptiveness and her uncanny ability to "see" and report on circumstances, people, a house, a city -and a mood- as vividly as if this all happened in front of her eyes yesterday, instead of almost a century ago. Though describing gloom and fear and the sense of "suffocation," as well as other subjects that I'd rather not dwell on, the book has enthralled me.

Despite my decades of reading almost everything written in English or French on this subject, I found Ms. Rappaport's perspective on the times and the individual characters to be surprisingly enlightening. Ms. Rappaport has successfully synthesized an enormous amount of information from both well-known and rarer sources. With it, she conjures a sometimes agonizingly realistic picture complete with atmosphere, an overwhelming sense of tension, and visual descriptions that propel the reader backward in time to a city, a house and circumstances that long afterwards linger in the mind as vividly and hauntingly as an unshakable personal memory.

A fascinating book that could really be the last words on the final days of the Last Imperial Family, 30 Jun 2008
I have just finished your book and I can not say how much I enjoyed it. One feels strangely saying so as it is a sad story by any means.

I have lots of books on the Romanovs and I was quite hesitant to buy another one. What can be possibly new about the whole subject?

But I have to admit that this excellent book gave me a new inside and you were able to separate the political side of things, from the human dimension. There is no romantic or religious vision of the final days. It is not written with a hidden agenda of glorifying the last Imperial Family. It clearly separates the politcial story that led to the downfall of the dynasty and the the human tragedy.

Helen Rappaport did not write the story - as it is ever so often - from the end. I appreciated very much how she showed the different personalities of the Imperial family and how they coped with the new situation. The personality of Alexandra, her illnesses, the illness of the Heir and how this effected all of the family long before the fall of the dynasty. The view that the isolation of the family during their reign found a sort of continuation during the confinement, but without the demands of the rule, and were partly at least from the Czar "welcome" is indeed very convincing. Her final comments hid a nerve with me. On top, I just like Helen Rappaport's style of writing.


All in all, I enjoyed this book immensely, it is fascianting, well written and gives the reader much stuff for further thought. I can only recommend this book!


my favourite history book, 07 Nov 2008
A wonderful, fascinating, educational, thrilling boys own adventure......all the better because it's factual.

This grips from page one and never lets go, it bears reading and re-reading and just gets better every time.

Hopkirks writing is great and he is obviously both passionate and knowledgable about his subject.

But the best thing about this book was the fact that it contained so much information that I didnt know (and I'm a big reader of history books), there's a new, little known, gem of information on almost every page.

I cant recommend this book highly enough.

Interesting and Entertaining, 10 Aug 2008
A very informative book about the Great Game, the 19th century version of the cold war between Imperial Russia and the British Empire, as both powers tried to dominate over Asia. The author, Peter Hopkirk, tells how Britain, the dominant power in South Asia at the time, saw ominously how Russia, as it took over Central Asia, became closer and closer to its Indian dominions. Hopkirk tries to tell the story as neutrally as he can, and the material covered is so interesting that each of its 30 plus chapters could, if expanded, be a book of its own. The book covers a whole century, from the early, failed attempts of Russia to occupy the then unknown emirates of Central Asia (where many of its subjects were enslaved) to Francis Younghusband's invasion of Tibet, and takes place as well in places as different as the Caucasus, Persia, Afghanistan, Xinjiang and the High Pamirs. By the end