My Russian Life Memories of a High Society Lady 1870-1918

The memoirs of high society lady Maria Sergeevna Baryatinskaya, great-great-granddaughter of Field Marshal Suvorov and wife of the chamberlain of Nicholas II, Anatoly Baryatinsky, meticulously restore the nuances of court etiquette and ceremony. She recalls the solemnity of the coronation and the celebrations of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, as well as Europe at the beginning of the century. Baryatinskaya begins her narrative with the description of the death of Alexander III and the ascension of Nicholas II to the throne, tells about Rasputin and the assassination of Stolypin, the beginning of the war, and how she organized the work of a military hospital in Kyiv. Maria Sergeevna carefully preserved records of important and fleeting events, invaluable testimonies full of the unique charm of a lost paradise.