Autobios-Russian aristocracy?

[tea_rose]

  I have found many of these to be nearly as interesting as books about the royal family-and they often have new perspectives and stories about the Romanovs in them. I have a few of them-"White Road" By Olga Ilyn, a few books by Olga Skariatina, "Russian Album" by Michael Ignatieff (I like this one very much and have re-read it several times). I also have "Bread of Exile."

Does anyone have any more recommendations?  The more lively and personable the better!  I am such a bookaholic and I am always on the look-out for more of these. The curses and blessings of the internet!

[tea_rose]

  Bump!!  No suggestions at all?  (sob!)

[Janet Whitcomb]

Give me a day or two and I'll check my own library!  Though you've probably read most of them already . . .

[Almedingen]

Here are some autobiographies, etc. on Russian aristocracy and a few other books that I have enjoyed:

Once I had a Home:  The Diary and Narrative of Nadejda (Lady of Honour to Their Imperial Majesties the Late Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and The Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia (1926)

Windows on the Neva by Paul Grabbe (1977)

A Schoolboy Caught in the Russian Revolution by Andre Mikhelson (1935)

Never a Dull Moment:  The Memoirs of Countess Marguerite Cassini by Marguerite Cassini (1956)

My Russian Life by Princess Anatole Marie Bariatinsky (1923)

From Stolnoy to Spartanburg:  The two worlds of a former Russian Princess by Marie Gagarine (1971)

Upheaval by Olga Woronoff (1932)

Tomorrow will Come by E. M. Almedingen (this is one of my favorite books) (1941)

Fanny by E. M. Almedingen

A Russian Princess Remembers:  The Journey from Tsars to Glasnost by Ekaterina Meshcherskaya

A girl Grew up in Russia by Elisaveta Fen

Memoirs of a Shipwrecked World by Countess Kleimmichel

When Miss Emmie was in Russia:  English Governesses Before, During and After the October Revolution by Harvey Pitcher (1977)

The Nights are Longest There:  A Young Girl's Account of Revolution in Russia by Zenaide Bashkiroff

On the Estate:  Memoirs of Russia before the Revolution by Olga Davydoff Dax

Katia Wife Before God:  The Passoinate love affair of Alexander II, Russia' tragic Liberator Czar and his "dear Katia" by Alexandre Tarsaidze

Ambassador's Daughter by Meriel Buchanan

A Very Far Country:  The true love story of an English girl and a Russian Aristocrat in the Last Century by E. M. Almedingen

Gardens of the Tsars:  A study of the Aesthetics, Semantics and Uses of Late 18th Century Russian Gardens by Margrethe Floryan (1996)

[Janet Whitcomb]

Almedingen has done an excellent job; for the moment, I can't think of any to add to her list.

I haven't read them all, but of those that I have read, I most enjoyed Tomorrow Will Come and Meriel Buchanan's book.

[tea_rose]

 The only two I have read are "Tomorrow will come" and "Russian Princess Remembers."  I am printing the list now!  Thanks so much!

I agree with you about "Tomorrow will come."  I can't recall another book exactly like it-it is extremely moving and almost unbearably sad at times.  The "Miss Havishsham" like character that she stays with for a time is hard to forget..very frightening and pathetic all at once.  I think it really represented the chaos of the Revolution in a memorable way.

[Nick_Nicholson]

I warn all of you about "A Russian Princess Remembers."  I was told by Prince Alexis Scherbatow who ran the Russian Nobillity Association for many years, that the so-called Princess Meshcherskaya was not, in fact a member of that family at all.  Her book is also riddled with errors.  There is, in particular, a photograph of her standing in front of the ruins of the house she claims was her family's palace (I believe she called it Doughino?.)  

It is, in fact, the ruins of Petrovskoe-Alabino, which belonged to the Princes Demidov, and then the Princes Gagarin.

nick

[tea_rose]

 Thanks, Nick. I think I had heard this one was dubious on another post on this forum.  I am now regarding it as colorfully written fiction ("Gone with the Duma") .

 I know you have to have a bit of reservation when reading autobios-even when the authors are authenticated!

[rollingapple]

Don't forget "Dawn of the Eight Day," Olga Ilyin's thinly fictionalized memoir of her childhood and youth at Sinny Bor and Tamborsk (Kazan).

[hikaru]

My favorite is the "Missie" by the Countess  Maria Vashilchikoff
(her older sister is Tatiana Matternich (sorry for spellilng).
Tatiana's book are wonderful too.
But Missie's one is the best.
She was great .
(I do not know, maybe the English name will not be the same).

[Ming]

Wonderful topic!  It's great to know other books that are enjoyed by those on this board.  I, too, will print out people's "favorite's" lists.

I can't remember the title of one book I enjoyed, but it was by Marie or Maria Avinov, or something like that.  Guess I don't recall as much as I thought I did...!  Anyway, I DO recall that I liked it.

Do any of you know if any of the books you've mentioned can be read online for free?  Ah! There I go, dreaming again...

[Ereena]

One Man in His Time - the memoirs of Prince Serge Obolensky (1890 - 1978) - are fascinating.  Married first to Princess Catherine Yurievsky (daughter of Alexander II) and later to Alice Astor.  An officer in Her Imperial Majesty Maria Feodorovna's Chevalier Garde Regiment, Obolensky later served with distinction in the US Army during WWII.  Oxford-educated, he travelled widely before and after the Revolution, including to Australia in the 1920s. 

[pookiepie]

Tania Memories of a Lost World by Tania Alexander.
ISBN: 0917561554
I haven't read it yet but it looks a little different. Here's a little off the flap- Born the daugher of Russian and Baltic nobility, Tania spent her early years with [family] at Kallijarv, her family's ancestral home in the countryside of the once-independent state of Estonia.  Her mother made rare appearances at the family estate, preffering the more exciting and often dangerous life in Petrograd during the Russian Revolution... Her lovers included... Maxim Gorky and HG Wells...
It's basically about the women in her life, especially her mom, but it still sounds interesting.