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

Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova (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 Vyrubova held the court position of a lady-in-waiting 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 get close to people, and those who were close to her faced envy and gossip from the court circle. This fate did not spare Anna Vyrubova either.

The gossips especially tried to embellish her acquaintance with Rasputin, which happened thanks to the empress, with particularly vivid and wild details. Anna Vyrubova faced wild persecution, ridicule, denunciations, and imprisonment immediately after Nicholas II's abdication, but endured it all without betraying the royal family, to which she was sincerely attached. Only in her memories, somewhat naive and candid, did she try to reveal the truth.
The first editions of A.A. Vyrubova'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 edition.