Saving the Tsars' Palaces

[Ortino]

I found this new book on Gilbert's site, titled Saving the Tsars' Palaces by Christopher Morgan and Irina Orlova. It looks very interesting, but is it worth buying? Here's the excerpt from Gilbert's site:

Millions of people annually visit the great country palaces built by the tsars in a circle round St. Petersburg. Created by artists from all over Europe, with untold serf labour at their disposal, the palaces were intended to impress and they do. Today, in the corner of most rooms, a single black and white photograph shows the same room in 1944, amid the smouldering wreckage found by Russian soldiers returning after the three-year siege of Leningrad. Forced to abandon the palaces, the Nazis vented their anger on the treasures they occupied.

 The story behind these photographs is in many ways more impressive even than the rooms themselves. It is the story of a relatively small band of talented Russians who were determined not to allow their country’s heritage to be swept away by all the horrors of the twentieth century. The palaces today are truly the work of Russians but restorers have to be self-effacing. There have been books about what they did but not about them. In Saving The Tsars’ Palaces, Christopher Morgan and Irina Orlova vividly recount the remarkable story of those who battled to save the palaces, not just during and after the war, but during the Revolution and the harsh times that followed 

[Robert_Hall]

Thank you for finding this  book. I had just placed another order with Gilbert's  but missed this volume. Have now ordered it!
 Cheers,
 Robert

[Penny_Wilson]

This book is more about the human side of restoring the palaces than it is about the palaces themselves.  It's the story of a handful of men and women who were actively involved in protecting and eventually restoring the Imperial estates and palaces, but interestingly, the scope of the book runs from the Revolution and not just from the post-WWII era.  A number of palaces and estates have their stories told in the course of the book -- Peterhof, Gatchina and Pavlovsk are the big names, but also Oranienbaum, the Menshikov Palace, Znamenka and Strelna.  There's a fair number of before-and-after photographs, as well as photos of the restorers themselves.  The book is short, at only 163 pages, but I like it.  I don't know what you paid for yours, but I got mine at amazon and I think it is well worth the price I paid ($20? -- I think).

~Penny
 

[Robert_Hall]

That is exactly why I ordered it, Penny. I have plenty of books on the palaces themselves. It is the people & process that I am interested in now.

[Ortino]

I'm going to place an order tonight too. It's about time that there was a book about the people behind the scenes.

Here's the link to Gilbert's site for anyone else interested in purchasing this book:

http://www.angelfire.com/pa/ImperialRussian/grb/rom94.html

[rgt9w]

I have ordered a copy of this book as well. Other than Suzanne Massie's Pavlovsk, are there any other books that deal direcly with the destruction of the St. Petersburg (Leningrad) palaces?

I would be interested in finding a book with pictures of the actual destruction prior to restoration.