“Very few politicians, who have chosen a political career, can fulfill the aspirations and survive the strains of an elevated office that in a monarchy was filled so randomly. Each tsar had to be simultaneously dictator and supreme general, high priest and Little Father. They required all the qualities listed by the sociologist Max Weber: the personal gift of grace, the virtue of legality, and "the authority of the eternal yesterday.”

British historian, television presenter and author

Simon Jonathan Sebag Montefiore is a British historian, television presenter, and writer of history books and novels. He is known for works that bring large historical subjects to a broad readership. His books include Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, Jerusalem: The Biography, The Romanovs: 1613 to 1918, and The World: A Family History of Humanity. His work often ranges across rulers, empires, and the longer sweep of history.