Books: “After the Romanovs” by Helen Rappoport

The Russian incursion into Ukraine is deplorable. But a little over a century ago, a Russian invasion of another kind occurred, and it was much more benign. In “After the Romanovs,” Helen Rapoport describes this early 20th century phenomenon, as well as the city that would become a second home for upper-class Russians: Paris.

In the decades prior to World War I, Russian nobility and artists flocked to the City of Light. They bought up and furnished extensive flats in the best neighborhoods, bought jewels by the bushelful at Cartier, and changed the face of music and dance forever (think Diaghilev, Bakst, and Stravinsky). In short, they loved France and France loved them right back.

The Great War changed all that. When patriotic Russian returned to the mother country to fight the Germans, they soon found a second enemy awaiting them: the Bolsheviks. Lenin had earlier vowed to kill all Romanovs and their ilk. He carried out his threat, in addition to expropriating their private property.

As to be expected, the anti-Bolshies (aka White Russians) were appalled and fled for the exits. Thousands made their way into Turkey, and onto greater Europe. Most wound up in Paris, and lived a life far less luxurious than they had previously. The nobility had no workable skills, so many of the men became cab drivers, or worked in the Renault automobile factories. The women who had learned to sew in Russia became embroiderers, and while a fortunate few started fashion houses, most of them had to settle for piecework, living on a few centimes a day.

Rapoport weaves a fascinating tale of these exiles, who range from literary figures (Nabokov) to artists (Chagall and Chaim Soutine) to distant cousins of the Romanovs who nursed dreams of leading an army against the Soviets. As the world began to accept the reality of the Soviet Union, the exiles were soon forgotten and increasingly resented by the French for taking French jobs. (Sound familiar?) Many of these exiles fell into depression. Some became so homesick, they actually returned to Russia—but were often executed when they did.

If

you find 20th-century Russian history as fascinating as I do, you’ll devour this book faster than a plate of blinis in Brighton Beach. Na Zdorovie.