Annotated Bibliography

By Abby Luo
Primary Sources
“Reaction and Revolution: Russia 1894–1924” MICHAEL LYNCH , FOURTH
EDITION, Hodder Education,2015

This is a very detailed history book on the Russia revolution. It was very useful as it
contains a great deal of detail on all sorts of incidents that happened in Russia during
this time period. I used it both as background reading and as a guide to judge the
reliability of other sources as I know many schools use it as their text book. This was
a great help for my project as I wrote the blog page of my research based on this book
and another text book that I am currently studying at school.

“Stalin and the Soviet Union-, the USSR1924-1953” Josh Brooman, longman 20th
century history series, Addison-Wesley Longman Ltd, 1988.

This is a book on the detailed study of Russian most renowned leader—Stalin, and
the country under his rule. I found the contents in the book very useful as it recounted
the story of Stalin in a very concise and interesting way. This book also allowed great
space for readers to carry out critical thinking. The book encouraged me to think of
Stalin as a great man as well as a monstrous murderer. I do agree that there was more
to him than a brutal autocratic leader, I believe that he is intellectual and capable.
However, I chose to reveal the more negative and dark side of his personality in my
conclusion to the project, this is solely out of my objective feeling. My attempt to
introduce him as a brutal leader was influenced by my own culture. In China, Stalin
was more commonly seen as a hero of communism and an excellent leader. After
reading this book my interpretation to Stalin changed, though agreeing that he was
great, I argue that there were other ways to rule a country than his bloody atrocities.
“Russia & The USSR 1905-1941” a study in depth, Colin Shephard, Hodder
Education, first published in 1996, S.H.P official text.

This is the text book I am currently studying in my school, this is where the project
had be generated in my mind. I have read through the first two parts of the book
carefully and it helped me a great deal when I search informations online. Without
reading it I would not know how to start at all! This is a very useful guide, I could
managed to form a clear timeline in my head after studying it, which helped me to
find incidents related to the Triumph and Tragedy topic. This book also contained
many reliable sources of the incidents which I quoted from. It also contains section
where students are encouraged to think critically on the historical incidents, this kind
of thinking benefited me a lot during the research in finding reliable sources.

“GCSE History B Source Pack Russia 1905–1941” ORC, Published in June 2014.

www.ocr.org.uk/history

This book was very important for my research as it contained loads of very useful
sources that I quoted from. It contained the Tsar’s conversation, the letters from
ministers and so on. What is more, the contents were already lined up in a time line,
this made quoting from this resource very easy. The caption were also clear and
concise. The sources included were all very important sources that could show
aspects about the incident, unluckily it doesn't contain any information about the
tragedy massacre of the Romanov family, yet I still found it especially useful.

Secondary Sources
Price, Kent de, "Diary of Nicholas II, 1917-1918, an annotated translation" (1966).
Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 2065.



https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/2065

This is a paper published by the University of Montana in which includes the Tsar
Nicolas II’s diary and some annotations. This sources was very useful as I quoted
from it to present the daily life of the Tsar. I quoted his coronation speech from this
paper. This paper also helped me to understand the Tsar more and by reading it I
understand the Tsar’s attitude towards some of the issues.
“Four Sisters review – an intimate portrait of the doomed Romanov grand duchesses”
The Guardian,The Observer History books

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/30/four-sisters-romanov-duchesses-
helen-rappaport-review

I used this article to understand more about the Romanov princesses and the tragedy
of their massacre. This article in the Guardian described the 4 sisters in detail, I get to
know more about Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia.

“Murder of the Imperial Family - The executioner Yurovsky's account” ALEXANDER

PALACE TIME MACHINE

http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/yurovmurder.html

I used this article to know the detail of the Tragedy—The massacre of the Romanov
family. As it was a personal account from the executioner Yurovsky, I found it very
useful, I quoted parts of the description from this passage to help people who read my
website have a look at the detail process of the murder. The descriptive passage
enhanced the drama of this tragedy making it so real and so alive.

"Diaries and Letters - 1917 Diary of Nicholas II -The Abdication and Beyond”
ALEXANDER PALACE TIME MACHINE

http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/ndiaries1917.html

I used these extract from the diary of Tsar Nicolas II to know better of the Tsar’s
attitude towards the Russian people and the incident. This source was very useful as it
provide evidence for my research and the Tsar’s personal account of some incidents
was very interesting. The diary helped me to understand Nicolas II and see him as a
real man instead of just a historical figure.
“Secret files tell of final terrors for Romanovs” INDEPENDENT, Published by Paul
Lashmar, Friday 23 July 1999 00:02

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/secret-files-tell-of-final-terrors-for-
romanovs-1108026.html

This is a very detailed and descriptive article of the massacre of the Romanov family
by Paul Lashmar. I found this source very useful as it helped me to identify the key
figures and the outline of the story. This helped me to have a direction to research on
the specific people involving in this event, without this website I might have never
knew what names to type into the google searcher.

“The tsar files: Who killed the Romanovs” Russia Beyond , HISTORY JULY 17 2013
YAN SHENKMAN RBTH

https://www.rbth.com/society/2013/07/16/
the_tsar_files_who_killed_the_romanovs_28121.html

This article introduced me to the major killers of the Romanov family : Yakov
Mikhaylovich Yurovsk & Mikhail Aleksandrovich Medvedev-Kudrin. This was very
important in helping me learn the motives of the murderer.

“Death of a dynasty: How the Romanovs met their end”NationalGeographic, History

magazine, By Toby Saul, Published on 20 July, 2018.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/magazine/2018/07-08/
romanov-dynasty-assassination-russia-history/

This webpage was very crucial for me to sort out the timeline for all the incidents,
including the March revolution, the 1905 revolution and the November revolution.
This webpage also contains many clear images related to the topic. Besides
introducing the Romanov family it also contained various details of the massacre and
other incidents that happened before the fall of the Romanov.
“Let Romanov family rest in peace together, says Princess on 100th anniversary of
the murders which shocked the world” The telegraph, News.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/07/17/let-romanov-family-rest-peace-
together-says-princess-100th-anniversary/

This webpage is a news on the retrieve and burial of the Romanov family’s body long
after the event. This gives me a clue of what actually happened to the dead Romanovs
and the severity of their body damage. A dozen members of the Romanov Family
Association attended two memorial services in St Petersburg, visiting the Hermitage
Museum, which was once the Tsar's Winter Police, and taking part in a liturgy
dedicated to the 100th anniversary with governor Georgy Poltavchenko. This
webpage inspired me to put on a picture of the outcome of the Romanov family.

“Pre-revolution living standards: Russia 1888-1917” Ekaterina Khaustova (Russian

State Social University (Kursk Branch) ,Preliminary version April 2013

This is a published paper by Ekaterina. This paper helped me understand the living
condition of the Russian people before the revolutions and the background contexts
of the revolution. It makes me understand the reasons behind the people’s rebellion
and I used as a background reading to understand the revolutions.

Audiovisual sources
“Peace, Land and Bread subbed.” YouTube, uploaded by Hung Nguyen, 15 March
2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZbho6AsBOc

This video posted by Hung Nguyen is a song on the Russian revolutions, focusing
particularly on the March revolution. I found it funny and interesting, it is a summary
of the Fall of the Romanov and the Triumph of the Bolsheviks, which was the topics
that I emphasized in my project. In the song it kept repeating “Bread, Land ,Peace”
which was a slogan for the Bolsheviks and one of the major reason for their success, I
think it would be a lightening of the mood to include this video clip into the website.

“Last of the Czars - 01 - Nicky and Alix (1996)” YouTube, uploaded by Charles
Atencio, 4 January 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYo8SEvnsrM&t=54s

This is a Documentary series on the Romanov family and the revolutions. It was a
great help for me to watch these videos as they were in great detail and the events
were arranged in a clear timeline. Not only containing the events but also the true
story about the Romanov family. I get to know a lot more about the family through
this documentary series. On the title page and Romanov Family page of my website I
cut a short part of the video to help the viewers understand more details and see the
real recordings of the Romanov family.