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

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Paul was stripped of his military honors, his assets were confiscated, and in 1902 he was banished from Russia. Alexis was no intellectual or aesthete like his brother Vladimir, but rather a plain-speaking, good-natured navy man who could be an interminable bore on the subject of his glorious past days in sailing ships (equally, he would draw a veil over his incompetence as an admiral of the fleet during the naval battles of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05). I would absolutely recommend this book to any who have an interest in the events of the Russian Revolution. The fall of the Romanov dynasty in 1917 forced thousands of Russians to flee their homeland with only the clothes on their backs. The French birth registrars were soon recording increasing numbers of little Ivans, Dimitris, Olgas, and Serges.

But she and her husband were at least able to thrill, in splendid isolation, at the beauties of Versailles and be entertained in style at a sumptuous banquet followed by a theatrical performance from the French actress Sarah Bernhardt. President Fauré accompanied Nicholas and Alexandra on a whistle-stop tour of the Paris Opera, the Louvre, and Notre Dame, the mint, and the Sèvres factory.

The Russian aristocracy fitted in perfectly with Le Tout-Paris of the Belle Époque, which operated as one large private club with its own rules. Once installed at his favorite Hôtel Continental on rue Castiglione opposite the Tuileries, Vladimir would indulge his libidinous and sometimes violent behavior, his colossal appetite for gourmet food and wines, and his extravagant spending habit (a trait that rubbed off on his son Boris).

HELEN RAPPAPORT is the New York Times bestselling author of several books, including A Magnificent Obsession, The Romanov Sisters and Caught in the Revolution . Cries of “ Vive le bébé et la nounou” greeted even little Olga and her nanny as they drove in an open carriage down a Champs-Élysées festooned with decorations and artificial blooms in the chestnut trees. It also answers questions over why they could not stage a counter revolution as they were so fractured and unable to support each other.

The police were sent for and, wrapping the grand duke in a tablecloth, put him in a cab to take him to the police station. Petersburg and Paris and aware of German intrigues to try to force Russia into an alliance against Britain. He was extremely erudite—history and art being his passions—an amateur painter of some talent, and a collector of icons. Paul was, however, a sad figure for many years, having lost his young wife, Princess Alexandra of Greece, in 1891 after only three years of marriage, leaving him with two young children, Maria and Dmitri. So many were now traveling to Paris on a regular basis that Tsar Alexander II donated 200,000 francs to help build a new and dedicated place of worship for them—the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, which opened on the rue Daru in the 8th arrondissement in 1861.

Petersburg his wife might be a shamed woman, a persona non grata, but in Paris Olga would become the meteoric star of French high society. 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. For years, Russian aristocrats had enjoyed all that Belle Époque Paris had to offer, spending lavishly when they visited. Grand Duke Vladimir, Nicholas II’s most senior uncle (and, until the birth of the tsarevich in 1904, third in line to the throne), had been the focal point of an “avuncular oligarchy” that dominated court in the years up to the 1917 revolution.To avoid drastic changes (and in many cases, to preserve their lives) many aristocrats, artists, musicians, authors and various other intellectuals sought refuge in Paris which became a culture hub in Europe. By then the French were showing an increasing interest in Russian literature and culture, thanks to their promotion in French journals by the diplomat and critic Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé. The Exposition Universelle of 1867 brought a huge influx of twenty thousand Russian visitors into Paris.