Product Description: The Tsarist Empire posed unique problems to its rulers. Peter Waldron examines the challenges that faced them in terms of geography, culture, finance and military power, analysing the sources of the Russian Empire's strength and the reasons why--when other European monarchies were forced to surrender authority--the tsars were able to maintain their unlimited power for so long...read more

Product Description: The Soviet Union was one of the most significant historical phenomena of the twentieth century. This volume brings together key articles that analyse its birth in the 1917 revolution, the development of Stalin's tyranny and Soviet decline from the 1960s onwards...read more

Product Description: Antique silver is one of the oldest and best loved collecting subjects. At the top end of the quality scale, the work that went into making a fine piece was of an extremely high order. However, the majority of silver was used in the middle levels of British society and the collector has clearly to understand the varying qualities of production that he encounters if he is to buy well and avoid inferior pieces...read more

Product Description: Examines the program of reform that Russian prime minister Stolypin attempted to implement in the period 1906 to 1911, and seeks to explain the reasons for his failure. The author argues that the failure of Stolypin's attempt to drastically change the nature of agriculture and reform the most egre...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

The Tsarist regime collapsed in 1917 with barely a whimper. Nicholas II abdicated in February in the face of popular unrest in the Russian capital and, less than eight months later, the Provisional Government which had replaced the autocracy was brusquely swept aside by Lenin and the Bolsheviks. The dramatic events of 1917 had their roots, however, firmly in the history of Russia. This book examines the imperial Russian state and the society over which it ruled. It deals with Russia during the reigns of the last three Tsars, Alexander II (1855-81), Alexander III (1881-94) and Nicholas II (1894-1917), and identifies the sources of instability - political, economic and social - which meant that, as the great crisis of the First World War engulfed Russia, the Tsarist regime found itself bereft of support. The book examines key themes in the history of late imperial Russia. It looks at the political structures of the empire, the forces of opposition to the regime and the impact of reform in the 1860s. Even though concessions were wrung from the regime in the revolution of 1905, Tsarism proved powerful enough to reassert its authority and render the new parliament ineffective. Economic and social change were much more difficult for the state to manage and the book deals with the attempts at rural reform, analyzing why they failed to bring fundamental change to the Russian countryside. As industrialization proceeded, Russian cities expanded and brought huge social change. Working people were to play a key role in eventually bringing an end to Tsarism. Russia was a multinational empire and the impact that the state's imperial ambitions had, both internally and on Russian foreign policy, areconsidered. It was the First World War which proved to be the midwife of revolution: between 1914 and 1917 the strains which had accumulated in Russia over the previous 60 years came to a head. The book concludes by analyzing why the Tsarist regime failed to survive this great cris

This selection of documents traces the process of modernization which took place in Russia between 1856 and 1881. Political, social and economic developments are dealt with in thematic sections and the documents also show the growth of the revolutionary movement and conservative attempts to quell it.

Product Description: Peter E. Waldron writes on a Biblical strategy for restoring America's Greatness.