Rasputin

 

                                    

                                Setting off to war - above

Retreat from Moscow by Napoleon's army - below.

The fact that the Russians under the Tsar took the train east,  then marched off to fight the Japanese and were  then defeated probably did not help the Tsar survive the revolution when it came.

Antony Beevor's biography about Rasputin makes for fascinating reading. Coincidentally the biography is  largely set in Russia at about the same time as the Summerfolk play about which I blogged last week. 

In much the same way  as the wealthy Summerfolk by their indulgent behaviour really  helped speed the way to the Russian Revolution so did the behaviour of Rasputin.

Rasputin appears to me to have had part of him who from time to time seemed almost holy yet almost simultaneously appears as a dreadful womaniser rapist and. absurdly friendly with the Tsar Nicolas II and his wife Alexandra, who according to Antony Beevor were besotted with him. 

History was never a strong subject of mine but from what I can fathom, Russia at the time had no constitution and was ruled at the whim of the Tsars. Ordinary people were treated really as serfs.

Interestingly England  still has no written constitution but the Magna Carta signed as long ago as 1215 by King John, successfully divided power and usually kept our monarch in check.

  

The Russian Empire by failing to have an equivalent to our Magna Carta, in my humble opinion, led to their revolution and the slaying of their former Tsar and families, essentially leading to the USSR and then to the Russia of today.

My Summerfolk blogpost is at:

Summerfolk