The dreamy and indecisive Tsar Nicholas II himself took personal command of his armies. The Tsar, the British ambassador once observed, was “afflicted with the misfortune of being weak on every point except his own autocracy.” He moved in at army headquarters in grand style, watched parades, toured the nearby countryside in his Rolls-Royce, played dominoes, read novels, and issued odd orders, at one point promoting all the officers who happened to attend a ceremonial dinner. “My brain is resting here . . . no troublesome questions demanding thought,” he wrote to his wife.
