Synopses & Reviews
A saga of love and lust, personal tensions and rivalries, antagonisms and hatreds, The Flight of the Romanovs describes the last century of the Russian imperial dynasty-a century that saw the greatest social and political upheavals in all of recorded history. Drawing upon a wealth of untapped resources from Russian, British, and American archives, including unpublished diaries of many of the principal characters and never-before-published photographs, Perry and Pleshakov render an indelible portrait of a family and their time, from the youth of Alexander III in the 1860s to the death, one hundred years later, of his daughter Olga Alexandrovna, the last Grand Duchess.Set against the backdrop of this most cataclysmic century, The Flight of the Romanovs is a must-read for anyone interested in this fascinating dynasty, Russian history, and the history of European royalty.
Synopsis
A saga of love and lust, personal tensions and rivalries, antagonisms and hatreds, The Flight of the Romanovs describes the last century of the Russian imperial dynasty, the Romanovs, from the youth of the future tsar Alexander III in the 1860s until the death in 1960 of his daughter, Olga Alexandrovna, the last grand duchess. John Curtis Perry and Constantine V. Pleshakov use a wealth of previously untapped sources, including unpublished diaries of many of the principal characters, interviews with people who knew them well, and never before published photographs to create a history of a family and a time. Along the way we learn of the relationships between Alexander III and his children, the conspiracy against Rasputin, Duke Dimitrie's affair with Coco Chanel, the hostile behavior of the House of Windsor toward the Romanovs, and the war between the Romanovs and the secret police. Concluding with a discussion of the imperial restoration movement in Russia today, The Flight of the Romanovs is a must-read for anyone interested in the Romanov family, Russian history, and the history of European royalty.
Synopsis
The most comprehensive history yet of the last years of Russia's imperial family
About the Author
John Curtis Perry is Henry Willard Dennison Professor of History at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.Constantine V. Pleshakov is Director of the Geopolitics and Pacific Studies Center at the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Constantine Pleshakov received his Ph.D. from the Soviet Academy of Sciences and was Director of the Geopolitics Center there until 1995. He has been a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and a Fellow at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, and since 1998 has been a professor of International Relations at Mount Holyoke College. He is the co-author of Inside the Kremlin's Cold War and Flight of the Romanovs and has published six novels and a collection of short stories in Russia. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.