The Shadow of the Winter Palace: Russia's Drift to Revolution, 1825-1917

by Edward Crankshaw

Release Date: 04 April, 2000

Edition: Paperback

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Still timely; still lively

A witty and wide-ranging study of Russia's drift to revolution from the 1825 Decembrist uprising to the final downfall in WWI. Mr. Crankshaw has drawn in the cultural influences on the Russian intelligentsia through those years -- Dostoyevsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mendeleyev -- and their influence and despair. (Mr. Crankshaw notes Mendeleyev's removal from his university professorship by the Minister of Education, a political hack, and the scientist's subsequent rescue by the Finance Minister, Witte). More and more intellectuals turn to revolutionary plotting or simple apathy while Russia's economy and military struggle to catch up to Europe and ultimately fail.

You'll find vivid personal portraits all through the story -- the Tsars, of course, Nicholas I, Alexander II and III -- but also some figures struggling heroically against the ultimate failure: Gen. Totleben at the siege of Sevastopol in 1854; Gen. Loris-Melikov attempting to reform the doomed tsardom of Alexander II in 1880; prime ministers Witte and Stolypin in their time working against the clock to industrialize a sullen and balky nation. And the revolutionaries: the Decembrists; the young students-turned-assassin stalking Alexander II; intellectual rebels like Herzen and Chernyshevsky.

All this puts an 80-year perspective on the events leading to the 1905 revolution and the ultimate, completed downfall in 1917. His bibliographic comments on other sources -- including Robert Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra -- are well worth reading as well: sharp, wide-ranging and with the same depth of perspective. Well worth reading in light of the present-day Russia's attempts to find its way.

Superb!

This is an outstanding choice for anyone who wants to learn more about and understand the forces involved in Russia's autocratic Tsarist political system from 1825 to the Revolution of 1917.

The author masterfully blends history, political thought, biography, (and a dry sense of humor at times!) to a monumental task in examining the changes in Russia in the last 100 or so years prior to the Soviet era. (he covers some significant events in the reign of Alexander I) We see how Russia's expansion to Central Asia; the impact of the Crimean War; the economic modernizing problems resulting from serfdom; and the war with Japan in the early 20th Century shaped and influenced the thinking in the country.

Crankshaw is able to clearly deliniate the trends, and the significant events and people which made those trends possible. All in an easy to read and interesting style.

A fascinating and highly informative read!