Czars

by Ronald Hingley

Genres: History, Russia

268 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Dr. Ronald Francis Hingley (1920-2010) was a scholar, translator and historian of Russia, specializing in Russian history and literature.

Hingley was editor of the nine-volume collection of Chekhov's works published by Oxford University Press between 1974 and 1980. He also wrote numerous books including biographies of Chekhov, Dostoyevsky, Stalin and Boris Pasternak. He won the James Tait Black Award for his 1976 biography A New Life of Anton Chekhov . He also translated several works of Russian literature, among them Alexander Solzhenitsyn's classic One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich which Hingley co-translated with Max Hayward.

He was a Governing Body Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford from 1961 to 1987 and an Emeritus Fellow from 1987 onwards.

His son is the musician Tom Hingley.

Reviews

[Gillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a good place to start if you are interested in learning more about Russian history. It gives brief but interesting descriptions of the reign of each Tsar from Ivan IV (the Terrible) in 1547, to Nicholas II in 1918. Each chapter has surprising anecodotes, like that Ivan IV killed an elephant for refusing to bow to him. The extravagance and brutality of the Tsars never stopped surprising me. Overall, an enjoyable, light read.

[John Somers · Rating 4 out of 5]

15/20.

[Michael Smith]

This is a history not of Russia but of the men and women who ruled that ever-medieval country from the accession of Ivan IV ("the Terrible") through the deaths of Nicholas II and his family at the hands of the Bolsheviks. No general review of this kind has been produced before this — in any language — and the author does a very competent job of explaining the complex and ruthless personalities and often puzzling actions of the autocrats who created the largest, yet one of the poorest countries in the world. The tsars and empresses tended to be excessively active or passive; Ivan IV went everywhere and did everything while his son Theodore was entirely lacking in initiative. Again, Peter I ("the Great") was extraordinarily creative while Nicholas I devoted his considerable energies to crushing the enterprise of others. The idiosyncrasies and scandals (a word which derives from the Russian: skandaly) were also writ large, rivaling the fictional families of Dostoevsky. Hingley manages to maintain a proper balance between anecdote and solid historical writing. The result is highly informative and very entertaining.

[James Richardson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just read a book entitled The Tsars by Ronald Hingley. It covers all the Czars but only briefly. My favorites are Peter The Great, Alexander II and Catherine The Great.......... the latter for her insatiable appetite and I am not talking food but I guess you can call it dessert....

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reads like a collection of cliff notes on each of the Tsars, but with grammatical errors.