The words “love” and especially “erotica” sound strange in a work on political history. In any case, they are considerably more out of place than the word “hatred”. Needless to say that any attempts at writing a history of love in politics, happy or unhappy, intimate or divided, may
give rise to grave doubts. Nevertheless, it is at times hard to imagine the sphere of politics without love, lovesickness, and jealousy. In his book, Boris Kolonitsky looks into the phenomenon of mass adulation of leaders and, more specifically, the love of the Russian imperial family reflected in the official rhetoric and broad culture at the beginning of
the 20th century.
Loyal subjects of the Russian emperor were supposed not only to respect but also to love their sovereign. Thus the emperor and the members of his family were compelled to evoke the people's love through their actions. These actions included the meticulously planned rituals
of royal journeys and awards ceremonies, official speeches and informal meetings, widely distributed portraits and patriotic poems. During World War I, the arousal of the people's love became the most important element of patriotic mobilisation of the Russian society.
Kolonitsky shows how the official image of the members of the imperial family — Nicholas II, the Empress Alexandra, Grand Duke Nicholas, the widowed Empress Maria — was created and how this image was refracted in contemporary perceptions. Ceremonial portraits, selfportraits,
romantic images, caricatures and even pornographic pictures are of no less interest to a historian than photographs or realistic paintings, given that they were popular with the common people. Among numerous sources, on the basis of which this book is written, there are petitions, diaries, letters of contemporaries, materials of legal cases against people charged with lèsу-majesté.
Tragic Erotica is a book about love as a facet of political rhetoric, manifested most whimsically in rumours, gossip and anecdotes, as well as official documents.
Kolonitsky’s book is, on the one hand, a deep scientific study, but at the same time it reads practically like a romance novel that elegantly interweaves the story of Russian and world history at the beginning of the 20th century.