Friday, December 23, 2016

Review of The Romanovs: 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore


I recently read the latest book by the popular historian, Simon Sebag Montefiore: The Romanovs: 1613-1918. After reading Jerusalem: A Biography, by the same author I had set a high bar for the mix of entertainment and information that his particular type of narrative history delivers. This high expectation was very well surpassed by this magisterial book on the 300 year history of what must be one of the most intriguing dynasties to rule a major power.


The author takes the reader on an exhilarating trip through the dynasty that was born when a group of Russian noblemen placed the crown of Russia on a young (at 17 years) and very reluctant Michael I in 1613 and which met its end when the Bolsheviks executed the last Tsar (Nicholas II) in 1918 along with his family. The book is a tour de force of narrative history, dealing with weighty topics such as the Russian response to Napoleon’s invasion and the modernization of Russia by Peter the Great while also delving deep into the great love affair that was the relationship between Catherine the Great and Grigory Potemkin – Peter the Great’s epic parties (styled by him as the The All-Joking, All-Drunken Synod of Fools and Jesters) was also amply covered in the book.

The book gives one a sense, similar to how I felt after reading a book on the Medicis, of the severe limitation posed by having hereditary as the primary organizing structure for any kind of leadership (business or government). In this book we meet truly exceptional leaders like Peter the Great and Catherine the Great (actually a minor German noblewoman who succeeded in deposing her hapless husband and assuming the throne in her own right). Of both leaders, I can’t help but feel a high degree of admiration for Catherine the Great. This was a leader of high intelligence, clear-headed ambition (she organized a coup d’etat against her husband after all) and with a reformist bent, even if many of the reforms she sought to pursue by a renaissance-inspired constitution came to little effect. Her partnership with her long-time lover, Potemkin must count as one of the most productive power couples in history. Together, they led Russia to the height of its greatness, building many new cities and annexing the Crimea. While both Catherine the Great and Potemkin were not “exclusive” in modern romantic parlance, they shared a deep love and mutual respect for each other’s intelligence and ambition that they were essentially inseparable until Potemkin’s death.

However, this same dynasty which produced such leaders as Peter and Catherine also produced some veritable clunkers and one need not look further than the last two Tsars to run Russia (Alexander III and Nicholas II). Both men were noted for having happy marriages (uncommon for royals) and for being fundamentally good family men but they were so limited that in a meritocratic system they would hardly have been elected city councilors not to talk of autocrats of a major world power. Tsar Nicholas and his wife were greatly influenced by the mystic Rasputin in deciding state matters. Such was the influence of the illiterate Rasputin on state matters that many leading noblemen felt it necessary to have him eliminated. In the end, the limited abilities and narrow worldview of Nicholas II proved deeply insufficient for preserving the monarchy beyond its 300th year.


Overall, I found this book to be very informative and engaging and that it succeeded in humanizing a family that has been largely clichéd in popular culture (we have all heard the stories, often apocryphal, about Catherine the Great’s appetites!)

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