Rediscovered eyewitness history: Opening with an intimate, dramatic account of the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, this long-lost history describes the personalities and actions of the last tsars during the years leading up to the Russian Revolution. Glittering royals, politicians, military officers, scoundrels, and anarchists all walk across these pages as they did in life during the last years of the tsars. This eyewitness history is based on exclusive access to the original manuscript memoirs of Count Loris-Melikov, Tsar Alexander II's chief minister, and the author's personal experience in Tsar Nicholas II's government as Secretary-in-Chief of the Duma. Michael N. Kalantar, author Edited and with an introduction by Irene Vartanoff Appendix: Interview with Count Leo Tolstoy