Robert K. Massie

“Petersburg to examine the uniforms, dresses, helmets,”

— Robert K. Massie

“I used to say to myself that happiness and misery depend on ourselves. If you feel unhappy, rise above it and act…

— Robert K. Massie

Four of my children are daughters, and I've watched them devote themselves to reading books about how little girls learn to become…

— Robert K. Massie

“For twenty years, Peter had been playing with soldiers; first toys, then boys, then grown men. His games had grown from drills…

— Robert K. Massie

“Charles arrived around eight a.m. with a squadron of Drabants and began riding along the bank at the water’s edge to inspect…

— Robert K. Massie

“Books were her refuge. Having set herself to learn the Russian language, she read every Russian book she could find. But French…

— Robert K. Massie

“In January in Northern Russia, everything vanishes beneath a deep blanket of whiteness. Rivers, fields, trees, roads, and houses disappear, and the…

— Robert K. Massie

“Why Lenin triumphed, why Nicholas failed, why Alexandra placed the fate of her son, her husband and his empire in the hands…

— Robert K. Massie

“This marriage had resulted from impulse: he had seen her on a high-flying swing at Tsarkoe Selo and her skirt, flared by…

— Robert K. Massie

“To prove to [her friend, Swedish diplomat Count] Gyllenborg that she was not superficial, Catherine composed an essay about herself, "so that…

— Robert K. Massie

“She was intelligent, well read, and a shrewd judge of character. During the coup, she had shown determination and courage; once on…

— Robert K. Massie

“Don't worry. Don't worry. The Devil does none of these things. He neither smokes nor drinks nor engages in revelry, and yet…

— Robert K. Massie

“Only one further prize remained on the entire North Pacific coast, the peninsula of Korea. Although Japan clearly regarded Korea as essential…

— Robert K. Massie

“Gregory Rasputin, his bloodstream filled with poison, his body punctured by bullets, had died by drowning.”

— Robert K. Massie

“One sultan, Ibrahim the Mad, encased his beard in a network of diamonds and passed his days tossing gold coins to the…

— Robert K. Massie

“She (historian Barbara Tuchman) draws on skepticism, not cynicism, leaving the reader not so much outraged by human ability as amused and…

— Robert K. Massie

“She was magnanimous to former opponents, never retaliating against supporters of her former husband or other adversaries, personal or official.”

— Robert K. Massie

“The German leaders, said Winston Churchill, turned upon Russia the most grisly of all weapons. They transported Lenin in a sealed truck…

— Robert K. Massie

“I here behold a Commander in Chief who looks idle and is always busy; who has no other desk than his knees,…

— Robert K. Massie

The love of power and the power to attract love were not easy to reconcile.

— Robert K. Massie

In Russia everything is a secret, but there is no secrecy.

— Robert K. Massie

“It is one of the supreme ironies of history that the blessed birth of an only son should have proved the mortal…

— Robert K. Massie

“Peter returned to Russia determined to remold his country along Western lines. The old Muscovite state, isolated and introverted for centuries, would…

— Robert K. Massie

“For Catherine, the lesson was that more than intelligence and goodwill were needed to break down the traditions, prejudices, and ignorance of…

— Robert K. Massie

“Catherine, who knew little about sex, about erections and foreskins, and, certainly, nothing about phimosis, knew well what was expected of wives…

— Robert K. Massie