Sir Antony Beevor

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363 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 6 Jun

Sir Antony Beevor’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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TRIGGERnometry · The Russian Mindset and Where it Comes From - Historian Sir Antony Beevor · 6 Jun 2026 podcast

I mean, even his own confessor was saying, don't you realize what you're doing to yourself?

And he just refused to answer.

Why cannot I have my own private life?

And everyone said, well, your life belongs to the country.

But he refused to accept that.

And the idea in a patriarchal society like Russia

that the Tsar could be a cuckold, whilst obviously going to really undermine any belief and confidence in him.

And this is why, come February 1917, after the, shall we say, rather,

delayed murder of Rasputin, which was too little too late if it was going to ever happen.

And also it actually had a contradictory effect, the idea that suddenly we were going to save Russia from itself because we're saving the monarchy from Rasputin.

Well, the trouble was that, yes, there was rejoicing amongst the rich and the aristocracy and they were all jumping up and theatres were interrupted and people would sort of jump up to cheer and sing the national anthem.

But as far as the penitentiary were concerned, they're saying, well, you know, the bosses, they've just killed the only person who ever got close to the throne.

In the end, as I say, it was too little too late.

But when it actually came to February, by then, again, another disaster because the Empress and Rasputin together

had appointed not only 70 altogether new governors, they had changed most of the government while the Tsar was at the headquarters, the Stavka, and away from St.

Petersburg, from Petrograd.

They had been appointing the ministers, basically, and just getting this to rubber stamp it.

And the worst of all was Protopopov, the last minister of the interior, who actually was suffering from syphilis and was talking as a result with terminal paralysis of the insane, was actually talking to icons and believed he could commune with the dead and so forth.

And he said, I will take over the transportation system or whatever.

And this was what actually brought the February Revolution forward, because the trains were all in the wrong places at the wrong times.

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