The Pages of My Life. Memoirs of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna's Friend

Anna Alexandrovna Vyrobnova (maiden name Taneeva) - a close person to the royal family, a friend of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, one of the few who did not renounce the Romanovs in 1917. Anna Vyrobnova held the court position of maid of honor for a short time, only until her marriage, which was brief and unsuccessful, and then remained simply a friend to the imperial family. Empress Alexandra Feodorovna found it difficult to connect with people, and those who were close to her faced envy and gossip from the court circle. This fate did not spare Anna Vyrobnova either. Gossipmongers especially tried to embellish her acquaintance with Rasputin, which occurred thanks to the empress, with vivid and wild details. Anna Vyrobnova faced wild persecutions, mockery, denunciations, and imprisonments immediately after Nicholas II's abdication, but she endured everything without betraying the royal family, to which she was sincerely attached. And only in her memoirs, somewhat naive and candid, did she try to reveal the truth.  The first editions of A.A. Vyrobnova's memoirs were accompanied by the publication of letters to her from members of the royal family (Paris, 1922) and letters from Anna herself from prison to her parents and acquaintances in the post-revolutionary period (Berlin, 1923). These letters, representing significant historical interest, are included in the appendix to this publication.