McKee, CT; (2014) British Perceptions of Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Fedorovna 1894-1918. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

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PDF 49055843_Claire McKee _Final Copy Claire UPDATED AND BIBLIOGRAPHY March 2014 VERSION A.pdf Available under License : See the attached licence file. Download (1MB)

Abstract

Attitudes towards Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Fedorovna can be characterised by extremes, from hostility to sentimentality. A great deal of what has been written about the imperial couple (in modern times) has been based on official records and with reference to the memoirs of people who knew the tsar and empress. This thesis recognises the importance of these sources in understanding British perceptions of Nicholas and Alexandra but it also examines reactions in a wider variety of material; including mass circulation newspapers, literary journals and private correspondence. These sources reveal a number of the strands which helped form British understanding of the tsar and empress. In particular, perceptions were influenced by internal British politics, by class and by attitudes to the role of the British Empire in world affairs, by British propaganda and by a view of Russia and her society which was at times perceptive and at others antiquated. This thesis seeks to evaluate diverse British views of Nicholas and Alexandra and to consider the reasons behind the sympathetic, the critical, the naïve and the knowledgeable perceptions of the last tsar and empress of Russia.

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