Quotes from Dominic Lieven

The basic lesson of 1805–7 was that not only must the three eastern monarchies unite but the Russian army must already be positioned in central Europe when military operations began.

Both generally and in the Russian case it seems to me a mistake to see everything in the imperial tradition as harmful and the nation as the inevitable embodiment of virtue. This is in no sense a justification for neo-empire in today's world. But empire in its day – unlike very many nations – was often relatively tolerant, pluralist and even occasionally benevolent

In July and August 1914, fewer than fifty individuals, all of them men, made the decisions that took their countries to war.

one-quarter of the world's land surface changed hands between 1876 and 1915,

for self-destruction was always part of Alexander's calculation. Russian policy in these years was intelligently conceived and was executed with consistent purpose. It was very far removed indeed from Tolstoyan mythology.

For a significant section of the ruling elite the Napoleonic Wars were in one sense a distraction and a sideshow. They saw Russia's main interests as lying in expansion southwards against the Ottomans and Persians. These men seldom saw France itself as Russia's main or inevitable enemy. Most of them believed that the Napoleonic empire was