We continue publishing the series of Julien Paolantoni’s essays on the history of the Russian Empire. The first two related parts were The Roots of Russia : From the Early East Slavs to the Grand Duchy of Moscow and A Superpower Rises: Foundation of the Russian Empire.

Introduction

Part 2 of this series was an attempt to explain how Russia progressively asserted itself on the international stage. As for the present part, it will deal with the long downfall of tsarism during the nineteenth century which eventually resulted in the Russian Revolutions. We may use the plural here, because of the 1905 and February Revolutions, little known compared to the October one but they have been instrumental nevertheless, as it will hopefully be shown in the next part of this series.

Napoleon made a major mistake when he declared war on Russia over…