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

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Grand Duke Vladimir was as lavish in his tips as his spending, even “adding a number of unmounted gems to the gold coin tossing” at Maxim’s on one occasion. Political activists sought to overthrow the Bolshevik regime from afar, while double agents from both sides plotted espionage and assassination.

The hats might obscure the view somewhat, but if you looked hard enough you would soon be sure to pick out a Russian grand duke or grand duchess, a prince or princess, a count or countess, among the chosen few. Throughout the tour the Romanov couple’s every move was closely followed and described in detail in the French press; Alexandra’s fashion sense and beauty were widely commended. After enjoying Helen Rappaport’s masterpiece Ekaterinburg, I moved onto her latest book After the Romanovs, which focuses on those who got out of Soviet Russia and tried to settle in the French Capital. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. At the end of it, I had a good overview of the many groups and layers of the diaspora over the 50 year period from 1900 onwards.One such unnamed but very wealthy one had spent the night at a restaurant with a couple of ladies of the night, only to be overcome by tiredness.

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.For the French-speaking Russian aristocracy, Paris for the last forty years or more had been a home away from home, a safe haven in winter from the bitter cold of the northern Russian climate and the rising threat of revolution that was increasingly targeting their class.

He was a most imposing if not frightening figure, as was his worldly and equally formidable German-born wife, Maria Pavlovna (originally, Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin). The slaughter in January 1905 by Cossack troops of innocent and unarmed protesters on a peaceful protest march for better wages and living conditions had brought shame and ignominy on the Russian tsarist system—both at home and abroad. After the Romanovs covers primarily the 1917-1940 experiences of displaced Russians in Paris with emphasis on former royalty. He was keenly intelligent and cultured, a man whose refinement thus raised him above the level of merely an “old buck about town. 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.

At his famous cabaret in Montmartre, the singer Aristide Bruant would yell out “Here come the Cossacks” whenever the Russians descended for an evening’s carousing.