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. -- Publisher Marketing
No comments:
Post a Comment