“Chronicle of the Russian Tsars: The Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial Russia”, by David Warnes

224 pages, Thames & Hudson, ISBN-13: 978-0500050934

There are several of these “Chronicle” books about, and I own a bunch of them; thus, Chronicle of the Russian Tsars: The Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial Russia by David Warnes is one that follows the format of all the others: basic thumbnail sketches of all of the imperial monarchs of Russia, with all sorts of pictures and paintings and a grab-bag format of tidbits that should come in handy if you ever find yourself on Jeopardy! You’ll read all about the beginning of Rus as a very small land area which, over the centuries, grew into the country we are familiar with today, even with all of the changes of the past decade or two. I thoroughly enjoyed this balanced account of the Czars (I prefer the old spelling), but I wish there could have been more treatment of those that preceded the Romanovs, but it’s probably ‘cause 19^th Century sources are more plentiful than 15^th Century and before.

Be careful, however, as the editor of this volume must have been having an “off” day. In one diagram somebody’s wife is also indicated as that same somebody’s daughter; this is just plain laziness as they evidently neglected to review the diagram and delete the offending 5mm line segment. In another a factoid box summarizing Nicholas II, his father is listed as Alexander II when, in fact, his father was quite obviously Alexander III. Also, the book steered uncomfortably clear of some of the unsolved mysteries of the throne, e.g., by reducing the eighteen-day rule of Czar Konstantin (November 27^th to December 14^th, 1825) to but a single, unstressed sentence. In overall quality, this book compares favorably to the other members of the series: indeed, it is often superior. But, in its striving for balance, it omits some important coverage. More deserves to be said about Ivan IV, “the Terrible” (actuality, Ivan “the Formidable” is the more proper translation of his title Grozny) and Peter I, “the Great”, because these czars made outstanding contributions that shaped the character of Russia, and not only because they were on the throne for 30+ years. The Czars’ role in Russian history cannot be compared to the role of any other succession of leaders in the history of any other nations, for they were the heart and soul of the empire they so tenderly loved with such religious conviction (not to mention “the divine right of kings”); without exaggeration, the Czars WERE Russia.