Few historians are better prepared to clear away the fog of confusion, error, and self-serving dishonesty that has kept these questions unanswered for so long than Helen Rappaport, one of today’s leading experts on the last Romanovs. Rappaport has dug deeply in archives around the world and uncovered a wealth of new information that is certain to make The Race to Save the Romanovs the definitive work on the subject ... The story is both fascinating and tragic, but it certainly was no race. Quite the opposite, in fact, as Rappaport herself acknowledges. If universally hated at home, the Romanovs were not exactly popular abroad either ... Rappaport does away with the mistaken notion that it was all somehow King George’s fault ... excellent.
Ms. Rappaport’s treatment of the various writers who ended up in Paris is one of her book’s many strengths. She writes with sensitivity of Gazdanov, Nina Berberova, Teffi, and especially Ivan Bunin, one of the greatest Russian writers of the last century, winner of the Nobel Prize in 1933, and the voice for Russia Abroad. Few of these names are remembered, and even fewer, unfortunately, are still read, but After the Romanovs brings them marvelously back to life.
Rappaport’s account of this escape in 1920 of thousands in overcrowded, listing ships from Crimea to Constantinople and onward is vivid and harrowing ... As she narrates the broad story of displaced thousands over decades, Rappaport also illuminates individual lives ... It is a sad story, and Helen Rappaport tells it well.
Nursing hopes of regime change made life in exile bearable. But did the émigrés ever stand a chance of overthrowing the Bolsheviks? What impact did they have on European political and artistic culture as the clock ticked down to World War II? Rappaport’s thickly descriptive, often gossipy history veers determinedly away from the wider and more urgent questions that arise naturally through her narrative ... With new waves of refugees now breaking on Europe’s shores, After the Romanovs offers few grounds for optimism. Those seeking safety beyond the borders of their native lands might aspire to return and reclaim their former lives. But as the fate of those fleeing Bolshevism shows, dreams of restoration often turn to ashes.
... a thorough and extremely well-researched examination of the Russian experience in Paris before and after the Bolshevik uprising of 1917. Although most of the book focuses on the Russian aristocracy, who had been coming to Paris since the time of Peter the Great, Rappaport also details the lives of a number of artists, writers, musicians, and dancers that made Paris their home, like Marc Chagall, Igor Stravinsky, and the Ballet Russe ... Overall, those interested in exploring a variety of unique perspectives on the Russian Revolution will find a wealth of information within these pages.
Throughout, the author, 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.
... a glossy portrait of Russian artists and nobles who flocked to Paris in the late 19th and early 20th centuries ... Full of colorful anecdotes and sharp character sketches, this breezy account of life in exile entertains.
