Was Nicholas II the personification of goodness? Review of the book by I. Ordynskiy “Saint tsar family” (М.: Publishing house "Young Guard", 2022. 399 с.)

Many figures of those who headed the Russian state at different times became the objects of fierce disputes among historians, writers, publicists, and journalists. The reasons for the heated discussions are understandable. In most cases, behind the back of almost every leader of the country there have always been both achievements and failures of various sizes, and therefore it is not so easy to assess the overall contribution of a particular leader to the development of our state. Hence the serious theoretical battles around Peter I, Alexander III, Stalin, Khrushchev. But how can one explain the abundance of mutually exclusive assessments of the results of the activities of Nicholas II, whose assets turned out to be only serious miscalculations and woeful failures in pursuing domestic and foreign policy?