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Alexandra Feodorovna / Re: Alexandra - Slandered and Hated
« on: April 29, 2020, 05:15:46 AM »
It is as simple as this.
Alexandra was a contributing factor, especially her disastrous interference during the Home Front period. But it was a minor factor, compared to the historical issues plaguing Russia, which predated her birth, let alone her marriage into the Imperial Family!
Pick up any serious book on the Russian revolution, and more weight will be given to the reforms of Alexander II, the Duma, and Witte, than the neurosis of the Empress Alexandra.
Perhaps what was a bigger factor was that she was a crowned female figure, in a revolutionary society... and those societies have a tendency to fetishise them, and demonise them, and it helps their cause! Marie Antoinette, Empress Alexandra, Empress Farah, maybe even more recently Grace Mugabe? ... they were all pretty innocent, and had a much smaller impact compared to what the revolutionaries believed them to have... I suppose this is probably connected to some deeper psychology of the patriarchy, who knows?
If I was to write a recipe for a revolution however, the two most important factors on the ingredient list would be...
1 x cup of a weak, ineffective leader, who inherited a dysfunctional state
2 x cups of a strong willed consort, who is vulnerable to be scapegoated by the opposition, because of her lifestyle, origins and associations are a cause célèbre.
Alexandra was a contributing factor, especially her disastrous interference during the Home Front period. But it was a minor factor, compared to the historical issues plaguing Russia, which predated her birth, let alone her marriage into the Imperial Family!
Pick up any serious book on the Russian revolution, and more weight will be given to the reforms of Alexander II, the Duma, and Witte, than the neurosis of the Empress Alexandra.
Perhaps what was a bigger factor was that she was a crowned female figure, in a revolutionary society... and those societies have a tendency to fetishise them, and demonise them, and it helps their cause! Marie Antoinette, Empress Alexandra, Empress Farah, maybe even more recently Grace Mugabe? ... they were all pretty innocent, and had a much smaller impact compared to what the revolutionaries believed them to have... I suppose this is probably connected to some deeper psychology of the patriarchy, who knows?
If I was to write a recipe for a revolution however, the two most important factors on the ingredient list would be...
1 x cup of a weak, ineffective leader, who inherited a dysfunctional state
2 x cups of a strong willed consort, who is vulnerable to be scapegoated by the opposition, because of her lifestyle, origins and associations are a cause célèbre.