Prince Harry won’t be the first royal family member to rock the boat with a tell-all autobiography. Here are 10 royal memoirs that changed the way we think about these famous families—and history itself.
Click here to read The 10 Most Controversial Royal Memoirs Ever Published in Reader’s Digest
I will be teaching two online courses at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies in the Fall of 2021: The Nordic Nations: From Vikings to Modernity on Tuesday afternoons and The Romanovs and the Russian Revolution on Thursday afternoons.
3595-002 The Nordic Nations: From Vikings to Modernity (Click here for more information and to register)
About this course: The Nordic nations – Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Norway – are consistently among the top 15 countries in the United Nations Human Development Index. Their societies and culture are admired around the world. But prior to this success is a long, turbulent history. Learn about the history of the Nordic nations, including Vikings, warrior monarchs, the Second World War and immigration to North America. We’ll explore how the countries of northern Europe emerged from poverty and political upheaval to become some of the most successful countries of the 21st century.
What You’ll Learn:
Course Details: October 5, 2021 – November 23, 2021 Online with Real Time Meetings on Tuesdays, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM (Click here for more information and to register)
3467-003 The Romanovs and the Russian Revolution (Click here for more information and to register)
About this Course: The consequences of the Russian Revolution continue to influence Russia’s politics and society, and indeed the whole world’s. In 2017, Russia quietly marked the 100th anniversary of the turning points: the abdication of Czar Nicholas II and Lenin’s seizure of power for the Bolshevik party. Follow the quick succession of crises: the collapse of the Romanov dynasty, the end of Russia’s participation in the First World War, the emergence of the Provisional Government, and the fateful rise of Lenin and the Soviet Union.
What You’ll Learn:
Course Details: October 7, 2021 – November 25, 2021 Online with Real Time Meetings Thursdays, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM (Click here for more information and to register)
My latest article in the Historica Canada Canadian Encyclopedia is about Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna (1882-1960), watercolour artist, farmer and sister of the last Czar of Russia, Nicholas II. Grand Duchess Olga and her family fled to Denmark following the Russian Revolutions of 1917 and then to Canada after the Second World War. Hundreds of thousands of Russians immigrated to Canada in the first half of the 20th century. They included industrial and agricultural workers and members of the former Russian aristocracy.
Click here to read my article about Grand Duchess Olga in the Canadian Encyclopedia
I discussed Royal Visits to what is now the City of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada in an interview with Matthew Wilkinson at Heritage Mississauga, part of the Ask a Historian series. Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, youngest sister of Czar Nicholas II lived in Cooksville (now part of Mississauga) in the 1950s and I discuss her home and the royal relatives who came to visit including Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent and Lord and Lady Mountbatten.
Click here to watch Ask a Historian: Exploring Royal Connections to the City of Mississauga
I reviewed Michael Romanov: brother of the last Tsar, diaries and letters 1916–1918 by by Helen Azar and Nicholas B. A. Nicholson for Canadian Slavonic Papers
I will be teaching my course about The Romanovs and the Russian Revolution online at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies in October-November 2020. Click here for more information and to register.
The consequences of the Russian Revolution continue to influence Russia’s politics and society, and indeed the whole world’s. In 2017, Russia quietly marked the 100th anniversary of the turning points: the abdication of Czar Nicholas II and Lenin’s seizure of power for the Bolshevik party. Follow the quick succession of crises: the collapse of the Romanov dynasty, the end of Russia’s participation in the First World War, the emergence of the Provisional Government, and the fateful rise of Lenin and the Soviet Union.
I will be teaching an eight week Tuesday evening course in March-April 2020 about Peter the Great and the Building of Saint Petersburg at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies. Click here for more information and to register.
When Peter became czar in 1682, Europe was foreign to Russia, an insular and tradition-bound nation. The West fascinated Peter, and he was determined to transform Russia into a great European power. Discover the traditional Russia of Peter’s childhood, his Grand Tour of Europe and his subsequent dream of building St. Petersburg, a new city to match his vision of the country. With images of the city and accounts of his cruel drive to create it, we’ll see how the city emerged as a symbol of his power and of Russia’s hopes.
I discussed a variety of royal events, past and present with Janet Davison for the latest edition of the CBC News Royal Fascinator newsletter including Princess Anne’s presence at the recent NATO leaders reception at Buckingham Palace and Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna’s decision to immigrate to Canada after the Second World War.
My New Year’s Resolution for 2018 is to read a book (or listen to an unabridged audiobook) every day: 365 books by December 31. I will post my reviews here each week and provide regular updates on Twitter and Goodreads. Recommendations are always welcome!
Week 52: The Court of the Last Czar: In the last few days, I have been reading from morning until evening to complete 365 books by the end of year. The theme of the last seven books in my reading challenge is The Court of the last Czar and includes a historical novel, two memoirs, a collection of scholarly articles, a palace museum guide and an art book. My Book a Day 2018 project concluded at 10:45pm ET on December 31 when I finished reading a collection of documents by and about Russia’s last Imperial family. Thank you to everyone who has provided encouragement and book recommendations in 2018. Happy New Year! Here are this week’s reviews:
#359 of 365 The Winter Station by Jody Shields
Genre: Historical Fiction
Dates Listened: December 27-28, 2018
Acquired: Purchased from Audible.com
Format: 10 hours and 15 minutes
Review:
The historical events that inspired The Winter Station are interesting ones. During the Winter of 1910-1911, a mysterious plague devastated the Chinese city of Harbin, then an Imperial Russian railway outpost in Manchuria. Both Russian and Chinese doctors struggled to overcome their cultural differences, biases and difficulties understanding the disease. The audiobook was part of Audible’s Hallowe’en audiobook sale so the novel was intended clearly to be chilling.
Despite the setting, historical context and atmosphere, The Winter Station somehow manages to be an extremely dull book. There is a lot of exposition describing past events and doctors recounting symptoms, death and anxieties over tea and vodka during long meetings and social visits. The information presented in these conversations should have been shown in more dramatic and immediate scenes. The panic and grief that would have been caused by a plague of this magnitude never comes alive in the novel until perhaps the final moments because reactions to the epidemic are usually recounted by other characters rather than shown directly to the reader. A good idea for a historical novel but the power of the story is undercut by the detached writing style.
#360 of 365 Russian Imperial Style by Laura Cerwinske
Date Read: December 30, 2018
Genre: Art History
Acquired: Purchased from BMV Books, Toronto
Format: Hardcover, 223 pages
Review:
An attractive coffee table book that provides an overview of the material culture of the Imperial Russian court including fashions, furniture, paintings and objets d’art. There is some background information concerning how Imperial Russian pieces came to be collectors’ items in the USA. The photographs are beautiful and include close images of some of the more obscure Faberge eggs, such as the 1903 Peter the Great egg, which show the details of these pieces. Unfortunately, the overview of Russian history that accompanies these images is a bit simplistic and a few of the captions are inaccurate or inadequate. A gorgeous book that would have been improved by a more detailed and nuanced text to accompany the images.
#361 of 365 The Emperor Nicholas II as I Knew Him by John Hanbury Williams
Genre: History/Memoir
Date Read: December 30, 2018
Acquired: Read online at Archives.org
Format: E-Books, 304 pages
Review:
The diary of Major-General Sir John Hanbury-Williams, head of the British Military Mission to Russian Military Headquarters in Mogliev (now in Belarus) during the First World War, along with his character sketches of Czar Nicholas and Empress Alexandra, their son Alexei, the Grand Duke Nicholas and General Alexeev. In his capacity as British military representative, Hanbury-Williams spent a great deal of time with Czar Nicholas II, and became a close personal friend of the monarch.
The diary focuses on military matters, especially the supply issues that undermined the Russian war effort but Nicholas also spoke to Hanbury-Williams about his family. Hanbury-Williams recorded, “He is evidently very devoted to [his children] and said that sometimes he forgot he was their father, as he enjoyed everything so much with them that he felt more like an elder brother to them.” As Empress Alexandra was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and therefore a fluent English speaker, she also became comfortable speaking with Hanbury-Williams about her children’s education and her war work.
Before undertaking the Russian mission, Hanbury-Williams had been military secretary to the Governor General of Canada and frequently made comparisons between the Russian and Canadian climates in his diary. For example, Hanbury-Williams wrote “Emperor Nicholas asked me how I stood the cold of the Russian winter, but I told him I had been in some below zero weather in Canadian winters and liked it.” Hanbury-Williams also drew parallels between Canada and Russia in terms of the difficulties transporting goods over long distances and encouraged Nicholas to study the Canadian example to address his own transport difficulties.
The Emperor Nicholas II as I Knew Him provides an interesting perspective on Russia during the First World War and Czar Nicholas II in his capacity as Commander in Chief of the Russian Army. Hanbury-Williams is understandably critical of the Russian Revolution because of its impact on Russia’s participation in the war and the diary ends in April 1917.
#362 of 365 Peterhof by Yelena Kalnitskaya
Date Read: December 30, 2018
Genre: History/Museum Guide
Format: Paperback, 127 pages
Acquired: Purchased from the Peterhof Palace Museum gift shop near Saint Petersburg
Review:
An attractive room by room and fountain by fountain guide to the Great Palace at Peterhof outside Saint Petersburg and the Peterhof gardens with information about the surrounding smaller palaces and museums as well. The photographs are gorgeous, especially the aerial perspectives on the palace gardens that show the intricate layout of the various fountains and landscapes. The text and photo captions are informative and include interesting facts about the development of Peterhof under successive Russian rulers. For example, the southernmost fountain in the Upper Garden is still called The Indeterminate Fountain “most likely a result of repeated changes of decoration.” A great souvenir of the Peterhof palace and gardens.
Date Read: December 31, 2018
Genre: History/Memoir
Acquired: Purchased from Amazon.com
Format: Paperback, 458 pages
Review:
A fascinating series of diaries about the experiences of the Imperial Russian aristocracy during the First World War and Russian Revolution then in exile during the Second World War occupation of Paris. Hendrikoff writes with a great deal of detail and insight, bringing her social circle and times to life. I expected more of the book to be about the Russian Revolution, which is done after just over 50 pages of the 450 page text but Hendrikoff’s account of the Second World War and its aftermath is thoroughly engrossing and I found the book difficult to put down. There are glimpses of exiled members of the extended Russian Imperial family in the text including Czar Nicholas II’s cousin, Grand Duke Boris, who entertained exiled Russian aristocrats with the remnants of his fortune, and Grand Duke Gabriel who retained an excellent memory. The diaries were compiled and edited by Hendrikoff’s grandniece Suzanne Carscallen who provides help annotations.
Date Read: December 31, 2018
Genre: History
Acquired: Borrowed from Robarts Library, University of Toronto
Format: E-Book, 372 pages
Review:
A collection of 15 scholarly articles concerning how monarchs and their governments responded to the challenges of nationalism and the modern state. The chapters also include studies of how non-monarchical governments have addressed the existence of monarchy in their immediate or more distant pasts. In contrast to many other collections of scholarly articles about monarchy, Transnational Histories of the ‘Royal Nation’ does not focus primarily on Europe but also includes research and analysis concerning monarchical government in Japan, Siam, Morocco, Nepal, Brazil, China and central Asia. Highlights include a study of how late 19th and early 20th century rulers in Siam and Japan incorporated Western style fashions into their public image; the patronage and promotion of Modern Art by Grand Duke Ernst of Hesse-Darmstadt (brother of the Czarina Alexandra of Russia); and analysis of how past Queens consort were remembered amidst more restrictive roles for women in 19th century France.
There are two chapters that address the reign and legacy of Czar Nicholas II. First, an analysis of portrayals of the Czar in central Asia draws interesting comparisons with British royal imagery in India. Ulrick Hofmeister notes that”The British Empire served as a permanent point of reference for the Russian administration in Turkestan. Tsarist ideologists and officials closely followed the practices of the British in India and frequently tried to draw lessons from them.”
Second, Eva Marlene Hausteiner observes how Russian President Vladimir Putin incorporates Czarist elements into his public image, concluding that “These symbolic practices—the official and unofficial depiction of Putin as the nation’s preeminent heroic figure with a benevolent but strong position towards the population and an intimate relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church—are arguably reminiscent, on a surface level, of royal and specifically Tsarist symbolism and ritual.”
Transnational Histories of the ‘Royal Nation’ provides a broad range of perspectives on monarchy and the modern nation around the world showing how monarchies are dynamic institutions that responded to the challenges of statecraft from the early 19th century to the present day.
#365 of 365 In The Steps of the Romanovs: Final two years of the last Russian imperial family (1916-1918) (In their own words) by Helen Azar
Date Read: December 31, 2018
Genre: History
Acquired: Purchased from Amazon.com
Format: Paperback, 690 pages
Review:
A fascinating collection of diaries, letters, memoirs and photographs by and about Russia’s last Imperial family from January 1916 until their murder in July 1918 compiled to complement the author’s Romanov themed tours of Russia. The material gives an excellent sense of the distinct personalities within the Imperial family and their range of interests and friends in the last years of their lives. Some of the documents will be familiar to readers of the author’s previous edited collections of Romanov documents concerning Czar Nicholas II’s daughters as well as The Last Diary of Tsaritsa Alexandra (with an introduction by Robert K. Massie), The Fall of the Romanovs by Mark Steinberg and Vladimir Khrustalev and A Lifelong Passion by Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko.
In The Steps of the Romanovs , however, also contains a wide range of previously unpublished material available in English translation for the first time. There is extensive material from Czar Nicholas II’s 1917-1918 diary that gives a real sense of just how ill his children were around the time of his abdication, especially Maria and Anastasia, circumstances that precluded a prompt departure from Russia after the March Revolution even if other conditions had been favourable to an escape. Grand Duchess Tatiana’s letters to her Aunt Xenia in the Crimea provide vivid descriptions of life under house arrest in the Governor’s House in Tobolsk. The book also includes the long letter that the Imperial family’s doctor Eugene Botkin is believed to have been writing the same night that the Imperial family, Botkin and three servants were murdered. The illustrations are excellent and include some rare photographs and artwork. An essential read for anyone interested in Russia’s last Imperial family.
My New Year’s Resolution for 2018 is to read a book (or listen to an unabridged audiobook) every day: 365 books by December 31. I will post my reviews here each week and provide regular updates on Twitter and Goodreads. Recommendations are always welcome!
Week 40: Imperial Russia My recent reading has Imperial Russian theme, including three books from palace museums in and around Saint Petersburg, a history of Nicholas II’s reign in the years preceeding the First World War, the collected works of a Russian satirist who attended a dinner party with Rasputin, a flawed historical novel about Grand Duchess Marie and a collection of essays of European court culture that provide a wider international context for Peter the Great’s reforms. There are many more Russian history titles on my to-read list so expect a week entitled “At the Court of the Last Czar” in the next month! Here are this week’s reviews:
Genre: History/Geography
Date Read: October 8, 2018
Acquired: Purchased at the Peterhof Palace near Saint Petersburg
Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
Review: A beautiful book of photographs of Saint Petersburg’s most famous landmarks along with panoramic images of the city and surrounding country palaces. In addition to the pictures and descriptions of famous buildings, Anisimov provides a brief overview of how each Russian ruler from Peter the Great to Nicholas II shaped the city, drawing upon the architectural trends of their reigns. The book stands out because of its photographs of little known palace and cathedral interiors alongside the more famous sites. While the book naturally contains numerous photographs of the famous Amber Room at the Catherine Palace, there are also images of rooms from the Menshikov Palace (now a museum of 18th century Russian culture) and Czar Nicholas II’s study at the Alexander Palace. An attractive and interesting book.
#275 of 365 The Catherine Palace: The State Rooms, The Living Apartments by Olga Taratynova
Genre: History/Art History
Date Read: October 8, 2018
Acquired: Purchased at the Catherine Palace in Pushkin
Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
Review: A beautifully illustated history of the Catherine Palace in Pushkin (formerly Tsarskoe Selo), written in honour of the town’s 300th anniversary. The Catherine Palace was a primary residence for Russian rulers from Empress Elizabeth to Czar Alexander II and one of the settings for state occasions until the reign of Nicholas II. This volume includes photographs of the artistic and architectural details in both the state and private rooms and also provides older photographs and paintings for rooms that have not yet been restored after the damage to the palace during the Second World War. There are detailed essays about everyday life in the palace with a focus on the reigns of Catherine the Great, Paul I and Alexander II. Paul I had a short and unsuccessful reign that ended in his assassination in 1801 but the book demonstrates and he and his wife Maria played a key role setting trends in art, architecture and interior design for the Russian elite in the late eighteenth century. A fascinating and visually stunning book.
Genre: History
Date Read: October 15, 2018
Format: Paperback, 426 pages
Acquired: Purchased from BMV Books, Toronto
Review: A fascinating political history of Czar Nicholas II’s reign informed by Russian archival research. Dominic Lieven, author of Nicholas II: Twilight of Empire, focuses closely on the ministers and diplomats who surrounded the Czar and the variety of perspectives that existed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries concerning Russia’s future. The book provides a nuanced portrait of Nicholas II as a ruler. While Nicholas’s biographers often attribute his political missteps to sheer incompentence and unsuitability to reign, Lieven provides the political context that explains the rationale behind the Czar’s decisions, even those that turned out to be extremely misguided.
The End of Tsarist Russia will be of interest to readers interested in the circumstances in Eastern Europe that contributed to the outbreak of the First World War as well as the political context surrounding the last Russian Imperial family. I would have been interested to read more analysis of the First World War itself, which is summarized along with the February revolution in the final chapter. An epilogue explaining what happened during the Russian Revolutions and Civil War to the various ministers and diplomats discussed in the book would also have enhanced the book. As a political history of the first twenty years of Nicholas II’s reign, however, The End of Tsarist Russia is an engaging and informative read.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Dates Listened: October 15-16, 2018
Acquired: Purchased from Audible.com
Format: Audiobook, 11 hours and 1 minute
Review: I was pleased to find a Romanov themed historical novel that I had not yet read and I liked the idea of Nicholas and Alexandra’s third daughter Marie as a narrator as she was present when the news of the Czar’s abdication arrived at the Alexander Palace and accompanied her parents from Tobolsk to Ekaterinburg. There is evidence that the author completed extensive research for the novel as a number of historical documents and memoirs are quoted in the text. Greg King and Penny Wilson’s book The Fate of the Romanovs clearly influenced the author’s approach to the material.
Unfortunately, The Passion of Marie Romanov is written in a melodramatic, repetitive style that does not do justice to Marie’s character and interests. The young Grand Duchess was a talented artist, a top student, an observant letter writer and sociable person who asked numerous questions about the daily lives of the people she met. None of these characteristics are demonstrated by the narrator of the novel who is mostly a silent observer who rarely speaks to the rest of her family or the numerous members of the Imperial household named in the novel. There is an implausible “romance” that resembles Stockholm Syndrome toward the end of the novel. The narture of the relationship between Marie and one of her guards depicted in the novel does not align with the character of either the thoughtful historical Marie or the passive fictional Marie. The murder of the Romanovs is described at the end of the novel in unnecessarily grisly detail. The narration of the audiobook emphasizes the melodramatic style of the novel. I recommend The Lost Crown by Sarah Miller for readers interested in historical fiction about Czar Nicholas II’s daughters. For the correspondence and diaries of the actual Grand Duchess Marie, I recommend the recent volumes translated and edited by Helen Azar.
Genre: Humour/Classic
Dates Read: October 16-17, 2018
Acquired: Purchased a BMV Books, Toronto
Format: Paperback, 220 pages
Review: The selected writings of early 20th century Russian humourist Nadezhda Lokhvitskaya whose work was admired by both Czar Nicholas II and Lenin. Her essays are very entertaining. She wrote in the style of Mark Twain about her career as writer as well as the interesting people she met in Czarist Russia and in exile. Highlights include her fun poem about the Governor of Saint Petersburg’s misguided efforts to fill in the Catherine canal, which amused Czar Nicholas and launched her career, her efforts to go behind the scenes of the pre-revolutionary Bolshevik party where she discovered a lot of boring meetings while workers strikes passed them by, and attending a society dinner party where Rasputin was a prominent guest who was conscious of his image in the presence of a journalist. A fresh perspective on Czar Nicholas II’s reign and the Bolshevik Revolution. Well worth reading for anyone interested in Russian history and literature.
#279 of 365 Romanovs in Peterhof and Oranienbaum by Yevgeny Anisimov
Genre: History
Dates Read: October 20-21, 2018
Acquired: Purchased at the Peterhof Palace near Saint Petersburg
Format: Hardcover, 538 pages
Review: A Czar by Czar history of the Peterhof Palace and surrounding former Imperial residences, lavishly illustrated with rare images from the Peterhof museum collection and the Russian state archives. Anisimov examines how each ruler from Peter the Great to Nicholas II contributed to the development and atmosphere of the palaces. There is a balance between analysis of the architecture and descriptions of daily life inside each palace in successive reigns. By the reign of Nicholas II, the Great Palace was used for grand state occasions such as the state visit of the President of France on the eve of the First World War while the Lower Dacha was the birthplace of four of the last Czar’s five children and a setting for family summer holidays by the sea. A beautiful book that provides a history of the Romanov dynasty through its most popular summer residences.
Date Read: October 22-23, 2018
Genre: History
Acquired: Borrowed from one of my students
Format: Hardcover, 335 pages
Review: A classic collection of scholarly articles about royal court culture with great illustrations and a strong emphasis on cultural patronage. Each chapter focuses on a different early modern royal court and discusses how the monarch’s household was structured as well as royal palaces, governance and cultural trends. I found the chapters about Empress Maria Theresa of the Habsburg Empire and Emperor Peter the Great of Russia especially interesting. Maria Theresa is the only female ruler whose court is analyzed in the book (though the role of women at the courts of various kings receives attention elsewhere in the volume) and her chapter discusses how Imperial patronage contributed to the development of German language opera. The Peter the Great chapter emphasizes the differences between his court in Saint Petersburg and the the courts of other European monarchs including Peter’s enthusiasm for socializing with people of all economic backgrounds and the comparative absence of influence wielded by family members. A good book for placing individual royal courts in a wider European context.
