Nicholas II: Last of the Tsars. This item is unavailable.Nicholas II: Last of the Tsars

Nicholas II, the last Tsar of all the Russias, remains a haunting and enigmatic figure, surrounded by myth and speculation, at the center of one of the century's most cataclysmic events--the Russian Revolution. Dominated by his wife, Alexandra, herself greatly influenced by the monk Rasputin, his reign was one of continual trouble: war with Japan, the 1905 revolution that forced him to accept a constituent assembly, the international crisis of 1914, followed by involvement in World War I, and finally, the 1917 revolution, which precipitated his abduction and death at the hands of the revolution. For this important new biography, Marc Ferro, one of France's most eminent historians and a leading member of the Annales School, has searched extensively in Russian archives to illuminate Nicholas's character, his relationship with his wife and Rasputin, the political and cultural landscape of his times, and the still uncertain and shadowy circumstances and the imprisonment and fate of the imperial family. Published to critical acclaim in France, Nicholas II goes beyond the lies and half-lies surrounding Nicholas's reign to provide an evocative portrait of this most mysterious ruler.

Marc Ferro is Director of Studies in Social Sciences at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris. He is the author most recently of The Russian Revolution and The Great War.