“The Romanovs: 1613-1918”

Simon Sebag Montefiore

This is a really long book that’s perfectly described by its title. I read it in preparation for a trip to Russia and it provided a nice overview of three centuries of Russian history.

The chapters about the Romanovs up to Peter the Great — with the exception of the story of Ivan the Terrible — are a bit of a slog (not least because there are too many people sharing too few names). The chapters devoted to the end of the Romanov dynasty and the fall of Czarist Russia are gripping.

One thing that really jumped out at me was how seldom transfer of power in Russia, even within a single family, and even before the revolution, was peacefully accomplished.