The Lost Fortune of the Tsars.

Harvey Pitcher gained widespread recognition for his book on the English nannie in Russia, When Miss Emmie Was in Russia, but he has also published six other books on Russian topics. This latest gives us a day-by-day account of the revolutions that toppled first the Tsarist government of Nicholas II and then the liberal republic that replaced it. For his sources Mr. Pitcher turned to a little used source, the accounts of those Englishmen and Americans who were in Russia in 1917-18 and who were caught up in the unfolding catastrophe. While most of the sources are published, several manuscript records, found in the Leeds Russian Archive, the National Library of Wales and Cambridge University Library, are used for the first time. The book reads well, something that is not always achieved when combining a wide variety of different sources to effect a continuous narrative. For anyone wishing to see a revolution as what it normally is - an almost chaotic sequence of events, often unrelated - this is a superb place from which to start. By reading this book, many undergraduates would use theft time to far better advantage than by pouring through histories written after the event when the gift of hindsight makes chaos seem progress.

William Clarke's book takes off where Harvey Pitcher's stops, with the collapse of Tsarist Russia. He had produced something like a 'financial history' of the fall of the Romanovs. Mr. Clarke's researches have been conducted over many years and in many places and his description of his own detective work lets readers share his own excitement in unravelling a combination of mysteries. He uses a vast array of sources and puts his own financial acumen - he was at one time Financial Editor of The Times and head of the British Invisible Exports Council - to good effect in disentangling the complicated financial questions involved in the collapse of one of history's greatest empires.

Mr. Clarke discusses a wide variety of questions but first re-tells the story of the collapse of 1917-1918 and of the murder of the Imperial Russian Family. (For some odd reason the Romanovs are frequently referred to as a 'royal' family.) The real value of the book lies in Part III which is labelled, 'Fortune'. William Clarke tackles the question of the alleged wealth of the Romanovs' - in gold, jewels and 'hidden' bank accounts in Europe and America. Here his research is quite amazing even if his conclusions are, to those who prefer legends to facts, disappointing. In passing one must say that the chapter on Gold (12) is a very good analysis of the relationship of gold, money and government spending during the First World War.

The author's conclusion is that the 'Romanov fortune' outside Russia amounted to investments in Germany in the names of the Tsar's children and in that of the Tsarina along with some investments by the Court, also in Germany. In addition there were investments by the Tsar's government. These last investments were large and have often been confused with the Imperial Family's investments. The Tsar himself had closed his foreign accounts because of the war. There is, in short, no vast Romanov fortune waiting to be claimed. Even the Imperial Russian government's investments were set against Russian indebtedness to Allied powers. One is also grateful that he has laid to rest once and for all the story that Queen Mary 'cheated' Russian exiles out of their jewels by buying them below their true value.

One does wish, however, that imperial as well as metric measurements could be given for those millions of people who use English standards both here and in America. Certain judgements may also be questioned. Why should anyone be surprised that Nicholas II wished to invest in war loans after his abdication? He was a very patriotic Russian who wished to win the war into which he had led the Russian Empire. To say that Alfonso XIII's wishing to co-ordinate with George V about helping Russian emigres is a sign of 'male chauvinism' is peculiar to say the least. It really was a ease of common sense. Like so many modern books, English clergymen are referred to by the American use of that nomenclature. Thus we have 'The Revd Tann's ...' for 'The Rev Mr Tann's ...'.

A constructive critic only spends time criticising aspects of a book if he thinks highly of the book in the first place. That is the case here for this volume answers questions which have needed answering for a long time and does so in a thoroughly masterful manner.

JAMES MUNSON