TRAGEDY OF RUSSIA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21248, 30 July 1932, Page 9 (Supplement)

TRAGEDY OF RUSSIA

SEEN FROM AN EMBASSY A frank account of events in Russia during tho period of the Great War and after the Russian revolutions, as they appeared to tho daughter of a British Ambassador, is given in " The Dissolution of An Empire," an absorbing narrative by Meriel Buchanan (Mrs. Ivnowling). The author is the daughter of tho late Sir Georgo Buchanan, British Ambassador to Russia beforo and during tho. critical years which saw the tragic fall of tho monarchy. Tho period embraced is from 1910 to 1918. Many startling statements aro placed before the reader, not the least of which is the allegation that the vacillating policy of tho British Government, and particularly of Mr. Lloyd George, was responsible for the Tsar and his family failing to secure refuge in England, thus leading to the tragedy of Ekaterinburg whereby the Russian Imperial Family met it;> terrible fate at the hands of executioners. The writer is not sparing in her criticism of Mr. Lloyd Georgo, whom she 'accuses of being out of sympathy with her father and indifferent to his counsel. As a fitting background to the whole tragic story of the fall of the Tsar and the seizing of power by the Bolsheviks, she sketches in first a vivid picture of pre-war Russia as seen from the top. Her descriptions of tho Imperial Court and the society life of the capital are vivid and interesting. One sees the pageant of splendour in all its magnificence. Then comas the war, tho settling of a sombre cloud, and finally a city of splendour stricken by the terror of mob violence. The Tsar a fugitive and revolutionary factions quarrelling among themselves, the picturo is a bleak and hopeless one. And it is a picturesque pen that tho author uses to convey the effects. Stories of street fighting as seen by an eye-witness, and all the alarms and excursions which those critical days called forth, make tho narrative a thrilling one. This is a book that should be read by all who seek to grasp a true understanding of the great Russian upheaval. " The Dissolution of An Empire,' by Meriel Buchanan. (John Murray.)