After the Romanovs

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

By: Helen Rappaport

Narrated by: Pearl Hewitt

Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

From Helen Rappaport, the New York Times best-selling 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.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press.

©2022 Lily Anderson (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

2022, Christian Science Monitor Best Books of the Year, Long-listed

Well written and researched- A Romanov PostScript

This book is very well researched. I have read a number of works by this author and she has the ability to make history interesting. The facts flow. This particular work will be specially enjoyable for those with some knowledge of the last generation of Romanovs and imperial Russia. I recommend it to those in particular. The author manages to convey the painful experiences related to exile along with all the other facts. The performance was as it should be for a book of this kind. For me it was a 5 in all respect but I am very interested in Imperial Russia and this painted the end of it and what came immediately after rather well.

Mildly interesting story of Russians exiles

The book covers a little covered story of what happened to Russian aristocrats, military officers and intellectuals who fled Russia to Paris after the Revolution. A mildly interesting addition to the history of the Russian Revolution. Sadly marred by a terrible narrator. Sounds like it is being read by a 14 year old school girl.