Douglas Smith

see whether the man he had come to arrest would survive.

A revolution made in the name of the poor would destroy their lives in even greater numbers than those of the rich, the revolution’s original targets.

even at the darkest depths of the terror, daily life went on: men and women fell in love; children were born; friends gathered; simple pleasures were cherished. Ultimately, Former People is a testament to humans’ remarkable ability to find happiness even amid the most harrowing of circumstances.

Fedotoff-White makes a crucial point in understanding the sheer ferocity of these years—namely, that the will to destroy was stronger than the will to create and that it was the major force directing the course of events.

I am not prepared to be a Czar. I never wanted to become one. I know nothing of the business of ruling.” The grand duke, and history, would confirm the truth of Nicholas’s words.

When confronted with difficult problems, Nicholas was apt to go pale, light a cigarette, and fall silent.

Society wits quipped that “Russia did not need a constitution to limit the monarchy since she already had a limited monarch.

Nonetheless, there was one aspect of Russian political culture that survived the reign of Alexander III. The Russians call it proizvól,

nontitled boyar families

hard was life in the countryside that more than three-quarters of peasant army recruits called up in 1891 were declared unfit for service because of poor health.