Romanov Riches

Romanov Riches

Author: Solomon Volkov

Publisher: Knopf

Published: 2011-02-22

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0307595528

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In a sweeping cultural history of Russia from the rise of the house of Romanov in 1613 to its downfall at the hands of the Bolsheviks in 1917, Solomon Volkov effortlessly unwinds the twisted relationship between art and the royal family. Throughout the Romanov dynasty, Russia’s greatest artists and thinkers, painters and poets, composers and dancers, served two masters. Devotion to craft—or principle—could never wholly eclipse dependence on the tsars. Similarly, consumers of Russian culture could never respond without political consideration: Volkov recounts how, at the 1836 premiere of Glinka’s opera A Life for the Tsar, fashionable audiences watched Nicholas I in his private box to see how they ought to react. He wept, and they wept accordingly. In this spellbinding story, we watch the great figures of Russian history clash. Alexei, father of Peter the Great, befriended the writer Avvakum only to banish him; the next tsar, Fedor, had Avvakum burned alive. Using her notorious charms, Catherine the Great masterfully wielded political control over her culture industry. For his part, Pushkin became the first favored artist to resist the tsar’s influence. His poem “To Liberty” is cherished as a revolutionary work of dissent. But even Pushkin’s genius went unspared: Alexander tired of the poet’s literary and amorous freethinking and banished him from St. Petersburg. Romanov Riches is a work of epic scale that never sacrifices individual characters for broader themes. Gogol, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy are presented in a devilishly intricate dance with their royal patrons. A truly essential work for anyone who wants to understand Russia’s passionate devotion to its most important artists, it is the prequel to Volkov’s acclaimed work The Magical Chorus: A History of Russian Culture from Tolstoy to Solzhenitsyn.


The Lost Fortune of the Tsars

The Lost Fortune of the Tsars

Author: William Clarke

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 1995-12

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 9780312303938

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

At its peak before the first world war, the fortune of the Romanovs of Russia has been calculated at over 45 billion dollars. It included fabulous state jewels, exquisite Faberge eggs, the palaces in and around St. Petersburg and the Crimea, the royal yachts and trains, and millions in Tsarist bank accounts in London, New York, and elsewhere. Since the secret murders of Nicholas and Alexandra and their family in 1918, and the subsequent, and controversial, discovery of their remains, the mystery persists: What happened to all that wealth? Questions surrounding the lost fortune are inevitably tied up with the issue of just who was killed that terrible summer's night in 1918 at Ekaterinburg. William Clarke goes to the heart of the Romanov story, to the Central State Archives in Russia, which for three-quarters of a century had been filed away in secrecy, and is only now open to investigation. The result of over twenty years of research, Clarke's quest reveals the truth behind claims to the Tsarist fortune made by the likes of Anna Anderson and Michel Goleniewski, and sheds new light on this most intriguing of historical mysteries.


Former People

Former People

Author: Douglas Smith

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published: 2012-10-02

Total Pages: 763

ISBN-13: 1466827750

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Epic in scope, precise in detail, and heart-breaking in its human drama, Former People is the first book to recount the history of the aristocracy caught up in the maelstrom of the Bolshevik Revolution and the creation of Stalin's Russia. Filled with chilling tales of looted palaces and burning estates, of desperate flights in the night from marauding peasants and Red Army soldiers, of imprisonment, exile, and execution, it is the story of how a centuries'-old elite, famous for its glittering wealth, its service to the Tsar and Empire, and its promotion of the arts and culture, was dispossessed and destroyed along with the rest of old Russia. Yet Former People is also a story of survival and accommodation, of how many of the tsarist ruling class—so-called "former people" and "class enemies"—overcame the psychological wounds inflicted by the loss of their world and decades of repression as they struggled to find a place for themselves and their families in the new, hostile order of the Soviet Union. Chronicling the fate of two great aristocratic families—the Sheremetevs and the Golitsyns—it reveals how even in the darkest depths of the terror, daily life went on. Told with sensitivity and nuance by acclaimed historian Douglas Smith, Former People is the dramatic portrait of two of Russia's most powerful aristocratic families, and a sweeping account of their homeland in violent transition.


Jewels of the Romanovs

Jewels of the Romanovs

Author: House of Romanov

Publisher: Corcoran Gallery Of Art

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 76

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Catalog of the exhibition held at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and other American venues.


The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia

The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia

Author: Candace Fleming

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2014-07-08

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 0375867821

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“[A] superb history.... In these thrilling, highly readable pages, we meet Rasputin, the shaggy, lecherous mystic...; we visit the gilded ballrooms of the doomed aristocracy; and we pause in the sickroom of little Alexei, the hemophiliac heir who, with his parents and four sisters, would be murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918.” —The Wall Street Journal Here is the tumultuous, heartrending, true story of the Romanovs—at once an intimate portrait of Russia's last royal family and a gripping account of its undoing. Using captivating photos and compelling first person accounts, award-winning author Candace Fleming (Amelia Lost; The Lincolns) deftly maneuvers between the imperial family’s extravagant lives and the plight of Russia's poor masses, making this an utterly mesmerizing read as well as a perfect resource for meeting Common Core standards. "An exhilarating narrative history of a doomed and clueless family and empire." —Jim Murphy, author of Newbery Honor Books An American Plague and The Great Fire "For readers who regard history as dull, Fleming’s extraordinary book is proof positive that, on the contrary, it is endlessly fascinating, absorbing as any novel, and the stuff of an altogether memorable reading experience." —Booklist, Starred "Marrying the intimate family portrait of Heiligman’s Charles and Emma with the politics and intrigue of Sheinkin’s Bomb, Fleming has outdone herself with this riveting work of narrative nonfiction that appeals to the imagination as much as the intellect." —The Horn Book, Starred Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature Winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Nonfiction A Robert F. Sibert Honor Book A YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Finalist Winner of the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction


Monet, Tchaikovsky, Zola, and the World They Made

Monet, Tchaikovsky, Zola, and the World They Made

Author: Kristof Haavik

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2022-06-20

Total Pages: 443

ISBN-13: 1527582914

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book tells the story of three young men: two French, one Russian; all born the same year, when European culture was moving from Romanticism to something else in painting, music, and literature. Influenced by the environment from which they came, all three grew to take a leading role in moving the arts in a bold new direction. It was the age when Impressionism reinvented what painting could be, when Naturalism changed how fiction is written, and when Russia moved from the edges of European society to the vital role it has played ever since. Leading, guiding, determining this new course were Monet, Tchaikovsky, and Zola. Parallel biographies of these three artistic geniuses follow them from the magic year of their birth to the point when they established themselves as bold, original creators in the early 1870s. The book explores how they chose to follow careers in creative art, how each of them came to play such a central role in their respective domains, and how those arts interacted and influenced each other. As they move through the cultural world of 19th century Europe, a panorama appears of the rich intellectual environment of France and Russia in that period, as well as the unique experiences and talents that led all three to their towering position in modern culture. Often considered separately, art, music, and literature come together in this study to offer a multifaceted view of a key era in the development of modernism in all the arts.


Hidden Treasures of the Romanovs

Hidden Treasures of the Romanovs

Author: William Malpas Clarke

Publisher: National Museums of Scotland

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The story of the Romanov jewels and of Englishman Albert Stopford who risked his life to smuggle millions of pounds worth of of the precious gems from Russia to London in 1917.


The Romanov Ransom

The Romanov Ransom

Author: Clive Cussler

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2017-09-12

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 0399575553

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Treasure-hunting team Sam and Remi Fargo’s search for a Romanov fortune brings them into perilous contact with an ambitious neo-Nazi clan in this New York Times bestselling adventure. In 1918, a ransom of enormous size was paid to free the Romanovs from the Bolsheviks, but, as history knows, the Romanovs died anyway. And the ransom? During World War II, the Nazis stole it from the Russians, and after that--it vanished. Until now. When a modern-day kidnapping captures the attention of husband-and-wife team Sam and Remi Fargo, the couple soon learn that these long-lost riches may be back in play, held in trust by the descendants of a Nazi guerrilla faction called the Werewolves. It is their mission to establish the Fourth Reich, and their time is coming soon. As the Fargos follow the trail across Europe, Northern Africa, and South America, they know only one thing. This quest is greater than anything they have ever done--it is their chance to make someone answer for unspeakable crimes, and to prevent them from happening again.


Romanov

Romanov

Author: Nadine Brandes

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Published: 2019-05-07

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 0785217258

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

My name is Anastasia. The history books say I died. They don’t know the half of it. Anastasia “Nastya” Romanov was given a single mission: to smuggle an ancient spell into her suitcase on her way to exile in Siberia. It might be her family’s only salvation. But the leader of the Bolshevik army is after them, and he’s hunted Romanov before. Nastya’s only chances of saving herself and her family are either to release the spell and deal with the consequences, or to enlist help from Zash, the handsome soldier who doesn’t act like the average Bolshevik. Nastya has only dabbled in magic, but it doesn’t frighten her half as much as her growing attraction to Zash. She likes him. She thinks he might even like her. That is, until she’s on one side of a firing squad . . . and he’s on the other. Praise for Romanov: "I am obsessed with this book! A magical twist on history that will have Anastasia fans wishing for more. I loved every detail Brandes wrote. If you love magic and Imperial Russia, you want Romanov on your shelf!" —Evelyn Skye "Romanov will cast a spell on readers and immerse them in a history anyone would long to be a part of." —Sasha Alsberg "If you think you know the story behind Anastasia Romanov, think again! The perfect blend of history and fantasy, Romanov takes a deeper look at the days leading up to the family’s tragedy, while also exploring the possibilities behind the mysteries that have long intrigued history buffs everywhere. Brandes weaves a brilliant and intricate saga of love, loss, and the power of forgiveness. Prepare to have your breath stolen by this gorgeous novel of brilliant prose and epic enchantment." —Sara Ella Full-length historical fantasy Includes discussion questions for book clubs Paperback contains special bonus chapter


Lost Splendor

Lost Splendor

Author: Feliks Feliksovich I︠U︡supov (kni︠a︡zʹ)

Publisher: Helen Marx Books

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13: 9781885586582

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Rasputin's is one of the most famous deaths in history. Now, his assassin's thrilling memoir is finally back in print. Born to great riches in the days before the Russian Revolution, and married to the niece of Czar Nicholas II, Prince Felix Youssoupoff observed at close range the rampant corruption and intrigues of the imperial court, which culminated in the rise to power of the sinister monk Rasputin. In 1916, Prince Felix and several aristocratic cohorts killed Rasputin, which more than any other single event brought about the cataclysmic upheaval of Tsarist Russia.