Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Part love story and part political thriller, Robert Massey's
Nicholas and Al-
exandra
gives the nitty-gritty on the royal family, Rasputin and the result-
ing revolution.
Act Two: All Power to the Soviets
Perhaps the least likely political successor to the tsar in February 1917 was the radical
socialist Bolshevik Party. The Bolsheviks were on the fringe of the fringe of Russia's
political left. Party membership numbered a few thousand, at best. Yet, in less than
eight months, the Bolsheviks occupied the Winter Palace, proclaiming Petrograd the
capital of a worldwide socialist revolution.
In the days that followed Nicholas' abdication, the Provisional Government was es-
tablished. It mainly comprised political liberals, representing reform-minded nobles,
pragmatic civil servants, and professional and business interests. Simultaneously, a
rival political force emerged, the Petrograd Soviet. The Soviet (the Russian word for
council) was composed of more populist and radical elements, representing the in-
terests of the workers, peasants, soldiers and sailors. Both political bodies were based
The Provisional Government saw itself as a temporary instrument, whose main task
was to create constitutional democracy. It argued over the details of organising an
election and convention, rather than deal with the issues that had caused the revolu-
tion - bread and peace. At first, the Soviet deferred to the Provisional Government,
but this soon changed.
THE MAD MONK
Russia's most legendary letch and holy man was Grigory Rasputin, mystic and
healer. He was born in 1869 into poverty in a small village east of the Urals.
After a dissolute boyhood and a short-lived marriage, he discovered religion.
Rasputin preached (and practised) that the way to divine grace was through sin
