“It was the impression of Tsar Nicholas’s humiliation at the hands of his overbearing wife and the peasant Rasputin that shattered the brittle autocracy of the Romanovs.” That final line from Antony Beevor’s most recent book, Rasputin: The Downfall of the Romanovs (Viking), captures one of the most tragic collapses of a centuries-old dynasty. But how did it come about? The author, one of the most gifted writers of military history, provides the answer.

First, Nicholas II was unsuited to his “role as an autocrat. The chronic lack of confidence was matched by a longing to escape the trappings and responsibilities of power”. In the land of Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great and Catherine the Great—and later of Stalin and Putin—that was hardly a recipe for success. Leaders can overcome their shortcomings when they are compensated for by the strengths of those around them. That is where Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna came into play—or failed to. Adept at courting unpopularity, she also contributed to the alienation of anyone outside the immediate family circle or anyone who dared disagree with her—which meant just about everyone.

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