The Mother's Voice, Never Remember Who You Are

Nicholas was an intelligent boy. With his tutors, he learned french, german and spoke english so well some historians have said that he could have fooled an oxford professor. He might sit proudly atop his horse, shoulder to shoulder with other cavalry officers, but one day he would need to be ready to take the reins of the russian empire. The church authorities were teaching that reliance on the human mind made russia vulnerable to human delusion. What wasn't delusion? Aristocratic rule. In fact, it was the command of god himself who chose the czars. As he would later put it to his prime minister, nicholas believed that the heart of the czar