LAUSR

reform efforts. Robbins shows how Dzhunkovsky’s opposition to Rasputin eventually resulted in his downfall and illustrates once again just how influential the Empress was as she forced Nicholas to sack an able and loyal minister whom he valued greatly. In point of fact, after Dzhunkovsky had later gone into active military service at the front he was given command of the 1st Guards Infantry Division and Nicholas said that this made him “very, very, happy” (353). After the revolution, he spent three years in prison but was then released. Robbins covers his trial and subsequent work consulting (collaborating?) with the secret police on security matters. This only delayed the inevitable as Dzhunkovsky was rearrested in 1938, tried again, and shot. In sum, this is an important book that provides illuminating insights not only into the inner workings of the tsarist government but also into the momentous events that Dzhunkovsky lived though and participated in. Based largely on archival materials and Dzhunkovsky’s own memoirs, it is extremely well-researched and paints a sympathetic picture of a decent, honorable, patriotic and conscientious public servant grappling with the myriad challenges posed by the modernization of social, economic, and political relations underway in the Empire since 1861. This remarkable story represents Robbins’s masterpiece, the culmination of a lifetime of study and reflection. It may profitably be read by other specialists in Russian history and will be useful as supplemental reading for graduate students. Written in Robbins’s usual clear and lucid prose, this lively and entertaining account of events in the final decades of Romanov Russia will also undoubtedly find an audience with general readers of history.