Some Books of the Week
PRINCESS CATHERINE RADZIWII.L is not the first, and will not be the last, to tell the tragic story of Nicholas II : The Last of the Tsars (Cassell, 12s. 6d.). She has the advantage of having been herself at the Imperial Court, and can supple- ment by her own recollections the Tsar's diary and the Tsar's and Tsaritsa's correspondence, which are the principal sources for her book. The use made of 'the diary is almost cruel. It is difficult to imagine anything more empty and fatuous than the Tsar's successive entries of petty domestic events and commonplace reflexions ; and the subsequent letters to his consort confirm the impression of amiable and inane docility. When the Empress galvanized him into activity he could momentarily become a cruel and petulant despot ; for " like all weak-willed people he had implicit trust in force." The picture of - the Empress is even less prepossessing. But Princess Radziwill rightly acquits her of the charge of being pro-German ; she was merely a fanatical autocrat, anxious above all things to preserve the autocracy for her husband and her son. She too may be allowed the benefit of the verdict passed on the Tsar : His atrocious death, with all its dreadful attendant circum- stances, precludes the condemnation which would otherwise be his due."
Previous page
