For most observers in the West the Soviet Union provides the main historical touchstone for understanding modern Russia. However, the Romanov Dynasty had a profound impact on the country’s modernisation and development even as they ultimately failed to survive it. Beryl Williams will talk to the Society on the reign of the last two Tsars, Alexander III and Nicholas II as covered in her recent book on the topic.
Dr Beryl Williams is Emeritus Reader in history at the University of Sussex. She is the author of several books on late 19th and early 20th century Russia. Her latest, Late Tsarist Russia, 1881–1913 (published 2021), presents an overall picture of Russia under the last two Tsars before the Empire fell under the pressure of the Great War.