The Last of the Tsars The Last of the Tsars The Last of the Tsars is a play by Michael Bawtree. The action takes place in Russia between 1912 and 1919, and follows the fortunes of the Romanov family and of Russia in the tumultuous years leading up to the Revolution of 1917, and beyond, to the assassination of the Romanov family by the Bolsheviks. The story is told through the eyes of Tsar Nicholas's brother Grand Duke Michael, who had been exiled from Russia by the Tsar in 1912 when he married a divorcee. Michael was called back to Russia at the outbreak of
1905 Russian Revolution failed to do so. While the Tsar managed to keep his rule, the events foreshadowed those of the Russian revolution twelve years later - after the Russian defeat in World War I - which would result in his overthrow and the creation of the Soviet Union by the Bolsheviks. The 1905 revolution is said by some historians to have set the stage for the 1917 Russian Revolutions, and allowed for Bolshevism to emerge as a distinct political movement in Russia, although still being a minority. Lenin, as head of the USSR later on, called it "The Great Dress rehearsal" without