Simon Sebag Montefiore on Russian empire's decline and fall

British historian Simon Sebag Montefiore enjoys a formidable reputation as an expert on Russia thanks to string of bestselling, award winning Russia related historical works, including Catherine the Great & Potemkin – which is to be made into a film by Angelina Jolie – Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, and Young Stalin. His most recent historical work, Jerusalem: the Biography – which topped bestseller lists in more than 40 countries – also revealed much about Russia and its long-held desire to control that ancient city. But his new history, The Romanovs 1613-1914, is his most ambitious undertaking yet. He talks to Bron Sibree

You have drawn on a wealth of unused primary sources to write The Romanovs , which by any calculation is a monumental work that spans three centuries, 20 rulers and fills 868 pages. What compelled you to write it?

First of all there’s never been a book like this about the Romanovs. There are two books in print called The Romanovs, but neither of them is quite like this, and I thought there was call for a proper history of the whole Romanov dynasty, covering love and politics, war, culture and diplomacy. And the second reason is that Russia is so important now, so resurgent and so mysterious to most people that I wanted a book that would really explain the Russian empire from Ivan the Terrible right up until Putin. So my mission here is twofold, one is to explain Russia and the Russian empire to people today, and the other is to tell a great story.

But it also serves as an analysis of political power through the prism of autocracy. Tell us more about the nature of Romanov autocracy, which you say remains inscribed on the national consciousness.

Yes, it is. But it is a special sort of autocracy, it’s not just about the divine right of tsars but it’s the divine nature of Russia that they really believe in. And the Putin regime has really pushed this idea and when he took Crimea he said “this was our Jerusalem”. He regards the loss of the Soviet empire as the greatest tragedy of the 20th century and, of course, the Soviet empire was basically the Romanov empire as well, and he is very aware of that. We think of the Romanovs as a sort of disaster, as a cursed family, but in fact they were the most successful empire builders of modern times, and Putin speaks about the Tsars as much as he does the Soviet period. But the interesting thing about Putin’s regime is that no one really knows who is advising him. The Kremlin now is as opaque and mysterious as it was under Brezhnev.

You say in your book that even Putin’s entourage call him the Tsar, tell us more.