"After the Romanovs: Russian Exiles in Paris from the Belle Époque Through Revolution and War"--by Helen Rappaport--the story of the Russian aristocrats, artists, and intellectuals who sought freedom and refuge in the City of Light--the brutality of the Bolshevik takeover forced Russians of all types to flee their homeland, sometimes leaving with only the clothes on their backs

  

After the Romanovs: Russian Exiles in Paris from the Belle Époque Through Revolution and War

Paris has always been a city of cultural excellence, fine wine and food, and the latest fashions. But it has also been a place of refuge for those fleeing persecution, never more so than before and after the Russian Revolution and the fall of the Romanov dynasty. For years, Russian aristocrats had enjoyed all that Belle Époque Paris had to offer, spending lavishly when they visited. It was a place of artistic experimentation, such as Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. But the brutality of the Bolshevik takeover forced Russians of all types to flee their homeland, sometimes leaving with only the clothes on their backs.

Arriving in Paris, former princes could be seen driving taxicabs, while their wives who could sew worked for the fashion houses, their unique Russian style serving as inspiration for designers like Coco Chanel. Talented intellectuals, artists, poets, philosophers, and writers struggled in exile, eking out a living at menial jobs. Some, like Bunin, Chagall and Stravinsky, encountered great success in the same Paris that welcomed Americans like Fitzgerald and Hemingway. Political activists sought to overthrow the Bolshevik regime from afar, while double agents from both sides plotted espionage and assassination. Others became trapped in a cycle of poverty and their all-consuming homesickness for Russia, the homeland they had been forced to abandon.

This is their story.

Reviews

“Full of colorful anecdotes and sharp character sketches, this breezy account of life in exile entertains.” –Publishers Weekly

“Throughout, [Helen Rappaport], a consummate historian, displays her deep research into the era, the city, and its denizens. A culturally vibrant account of Russians uprooted to Paris during a tumultuous time.” –Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Helen Rappaport:

"Finely researched and elegantly written." ―Washington Post for The Race to Save the Romanovs

"An intriguing work of investigative writing."―New York Journal of Books for The Race to Save the Romanovs

“Lively...Rappaport’s account works well as an introduction to a complicated year, but is most valuable for its record of the impressions of those who lived through it.” ―Wall Street Journal for Caught in the Revolution

“Splendid [and] endlessly fascinating.” ―The New York Times Book Review for Caught in the Revolution

“Superbly evocative...Helen Rappaport beautifully evokes the confusion of the February days.” ―Newsday for Caught in the Revolution

“A multifaceted account of the 1917 Russian Revolution...gripping and thoroughly researched...[Rappaport brings] the streets and spirit of the early-20th-century Petrograd to life on the page.” ―Harper’s Bazaar for Caught in the Revolution

“Helen Rappaport paints a compelling portrait of the doomed grand duchesses.” ―People magazine for The Romanov Sisters

“Historian Helen Rappaport reveals new details about the glamorous lives and tragic deaths of the last Russian czar’s four daughters.” ―Parade magazine for The Romanov Sisters

Helen Rappaport

 

Helen Rappaport is a historian specialising in the Victorian period, with a particular interest in Queen Victoria and the Jamaican healer and caregiver, Mary Seacole. She also has written extensively on late Imperial Russia, the 1917 Revolution and the Romanov family. Her love of all things Victorian springs from her childhood growing up near the River Medway where Charles Dickens lived and worked. Her passion for Russian came from a Russian Special Studies BA degree course at Leeds University. In 2017 she was awarded an honorary D.Litt by Leeds for her services to history. She is also a member of the Royal Historical Society, the Genealogical Society, the Society of Authors and the Victorian Society. She lives in the West Country, and has an enduring love of the English countryside and the Jurassic Coast, but her ancestral roots are in the Orkneys and Shetlands from where she is descended on her father's side. She likes to think she has Viking blood.

Helen is the author of 14 published books with 2 forthcoming in 2022:

"In Search of Mary Seacole: The Making of a Cultural Icon" - Simon & Schuster UK, 17 February 2022

"After the Romanovs: Russian Exiles in Paris through Revolution and War" - St Martin's Press USA, 8 March 2022

For her next project she is working on a biography of Juliane of Saxe-Coburg aka Grand Duchess Anna Feodorovna of Russia

http://www.helenrappaport.com

 

 

More About Belle Époque

 

 

 

Dawn of the Belle Epoque: The Paris of Monet, Zola, Bernhardt, Eiffel, Debussy, Clemenceau, and Their Friends

 

 

 

Twilight of the Belle Epoque: The Paris of Picasso, Stravinsky, Proust, Renault, Marie Curie, Gertrude Stein, and Their Friends Through the Great War

 

Mary McAuliffe

 

 

Mary McAuliffe holds a PhD in history from the University of Maryland, has taught at several universities, and lectured at the Smithsonian Institution. She has traveled extensively in France, and for many years she was a regular contributor to Paris Notes. Her books include Dawn of the Belle Epoque, Twilight of the Belle Epoque, When Paris Sizzled, Paris on the Brink, Clash of Crowns, and Paris Discovered. She lives in New York City with her husband.

 

https://www.parismsm.com/about.html