rt and ultimately victorious national unity would prevail.” However the consequences that followed upon Russian entrance in the war, were quite different then some might have hoped, or anticipated. The ‘short, victorious war’ that the Russians might have desired turned out to be three years long, not so glorious, and with terrible penalties. It caused the living conditions within the country to suffer tremendously, since most of the economic effort was geared towards supporting the military, and winning the war. This left the ‘ordinary people’ half-starved, distressed, and exhausted by the influences of war. It also caused one of the biggest downfalls of the Russian history, the destruction of tsarism. Which in return created even more instability and consequently pushed the unsatisfied masses even further, creating the Revolution of 1917.Dominic Lievens, author of Nicholas II: Twilight of the Empire, published his book at St. Martin’s Griffin, New York, NY in 1993. He is a political historian at the London School of Economics, and his specialty is imperial Russia: Russia’s Rulers Before the revolution. Some of his other works are: Aristocracy in Europe: 1815-1914, Russia’s Rulers under Old Regime, Nicholas II: Emperor of all the Russia’s, The Russian Empire and its Rivals, and, Russia and the Origins of the First World War. Lievens is a traditional historian, therefore his approach in writing this book, reflects that model in many aspects. Traditional historians mainly attribute the collapse of the Tsarist regime to World War I. They also believe that the country’s deteriorating was due to inadequate political organization. And that after the collapse of the tsarist regime, the rule was picked up by the Bolsheviks, who were the strongest political party during that time. In writing this book, Lievens, often uses a comparative approach, where he draws comparis...
