Reign of Emperor Nicholas II (Oldenburg) 1939-49

Product Description

The Reign of Emperor Nicholas II (Царствование императора Николая II). S.S. Oldenburg. Three volumes bound together in a mid-century buckram binding. With one original printed cover at the beginning of the book. Pages have tanned. Binding is sound, hinge strengthened between pages 368-369. Many annotations throughout by former owner, who also applied the title to the spine.

VOLUME 1. Part one:
Autocratic rule (1894-1904). Chapters I - VIII. Pages 1-223. Sixteen illustrations on separate inserts.
Part two: Turning Years (1904-1907). Chapters IX - XII. Pages 224-388. Eight illustrations on separate inserts.
VOLUME II. Part three: Duma monarchy (1917-1914). Part four: World War (1914-1917). Five illustrations on separate inserts. 260 pages.

The order of printing (see above) for this copy has VOLUME II, part three bound between the end of VOLUME I and VOLUME II (part three).

In its entirety, this full set in three parts is rare. The first volume (in two books) was published in Begrade (Serbia) during the author's lifetime, and the second volume, nine years later, in Munich (Germany) after his death. Design and format remained the same in both publications.

T.1 (Book 1-2). Belgrade, Publication of the Society for the Propagation of Russian National and Patriotic Literature, 1939.
T.II Munich, Publication of the Society for the Propagation of Russian National and Patriotic Literature, 1949.

First edition of this celebrated account, in the old Russian orthography, of the reign of Tsar Nicholas II. Oldenburg's masterpiece was originally commissioned by the Высший Монархический Союз (Vyshiy Monarkhicheskiy Soyuz, or Supreme Monarchist Union], which had been formed in 1921 in order to promote monarchism amongst the emigre community. As one might expect, Oldenburg's account is fairly sympathetic, but it is by no means a complete exoneration. Oldenburg's primary source for the book was the Imperial archive at the Russian Embassy in Paris on Rue Grenelle, which for security purposes had received duplicates of all unique official documents during the last years of Tsarist rule.

Sergey Sergeyevich Oldenburg (Сергей Сергеевич Ольденбург - 1888-1940) was the son of academician Sergey Fyodorovich Oldenburg (1863-1934). Sergey Sergeyevich joined the White movement in 1920, and soon after emigred to Paris, where he lived out his life, in poverty. He was a political associate of P.B. Struve, who was one of the leading authors of right-wing émigré publications.