House of Special Purpose

I watched all four or five episodes of the Netflix series The Last Czars yesterday. I give it mixed reviews. Were I to give it a rating I suppose three stars would suffice.  The acting was OK. I am bothered by the criticism in the IMDb reviews over the actor’s accents. My response is that the real personages spoke Russian, French, and more likely, German. What English accent the actors employ is not relevant.

I studied a bit about the days of the end of the Romanov Dynasty and the start of the Revolution back in college*. The senseless and brutal murder of the Royal family depicts the attitude of the Bolsheviks when it came to their ruthless acquisition of power. I was also interested to see the weird relationship with the Mad Monk Rasputin and the Royals explained.

More importantly, we see how an absolute Monarch failed to understand the changing world around him with disastrous consequences for the Twentieth Century.

* Black Night White Snow is a great history of the period. It is long and detailed, but reads like a novel while still presenting a fairly unbiased well-researched history. Sadly it is mostly only available used unless your local library has a copy.

My copy disappeared decades ago. I wouldn’t mind reading it again.