After the Romanovs: Russian Exiles in Paris from the Belle Époque Through Revolution and War -- Helen Rappaport, Hardcover

From Helen Rappaport, the New York Times bestselling author of The Romanov Sisters comes After the Romanovs, the story of the Russian aristocrats, artists, and intellectuals who sought freedom and refuge in the City of Light.

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.

Author: Helen Rappaport
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 03/08/2022
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.19lbs
Size: 9.50h x 6.55w x 1.18d
ISBN: 9781250273109

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 10/01/2021 pg. 19
Publishers Weekly 12/13/2021
Kirkus Reviews 01/01/2022
Booklist 02/01/2022 pg. 9
Library Journal 02/04/2022 pg. 1
Shelf Awareness 03/18/2022

About the Author
DR. HELEN RAPPAPORT is the New York Times bestselling author of several books, including A Magnificent Obsession, The Romanov Sisters and Caught in the Revolution. She studied Russian Special Studies at Leeds University and is a specialist in Imperial Russian and Victorian history and a frequent historical consultant on TV and radio. She lives in West Dorset.