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The Real Tsaritsa
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This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
183 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 12, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 27, 2015
Lili Dehn wrote this compelling insiders view about the last Russian Tsaritsa, Alexandra, her very close friend. I first happened upon the Russian language version of this book while doing genealogical research about my own family. I was thrilled to find this version in English as she writes about my great-grandfather, Sergei Miasoedov-Ivanov (though she misspells his name in her book), a naval officer protecting the Tsaritsa and her family (including Lili Dehn and the family entourage) at the climax of the Russian Revulution. I and other family members will be forever indebted to Lili Dehn for presenting the fateful moments of this event, both recounting the Tsaritsa's actions (Dehn's intention) but also describing the heroic actions of my great-grandfather as he attempted to protect the family. Our family history tells little of this man, other than explaining his service to the Tsar, so it is particularly gratifying to read this up close and personal account. This book tells his actions at this critical moment in history, so it was a thrilling genealogical find because other information out there doesn't tell this full picture.
Dehn is a woman to be admired in her own right for her loyalty to her good friend, Tsaritsa Alexandra. She risked her own safety to stay with her at that very dangerous moment. She's the kind of loyal friend many would want.
Yet she was was less kind however to another of the Tsaritsa's good friends, Anna Vyrubova, who she describes in very unflattering terms. I suspect that because she and Anna were both friends of the Tsaritsa, maybe there was a rivalry between them for her affections. I've read Anna Vyrubova's autobiographical account of this time, and don't quite understand where Dehn's animosity comes from, but in my view it helps show Dehn in an unflattering light herself. To clear up these views, I recommend that any serious student of this era read both accounts to gain a fuller picture.
While Dehn isn't a sparkling writer, her story is the star of this book. It's well worth the read if you want to learn more about Tsaritsa Alexandra, the last moments of the Russian Revolutuion, and the Romanovs.
Dehn is a woman to be admired in her own right for her loyalty to her good friend, Tsaritsa Alexandra. She risked her own safety to stay with her at that very dangerous moment. She's the kind of loyal friend many would want.
Yet she was was less kind however to another of the Tsaritsa's good friends, Anna Vyrubova, who she describes in very unflattering terms. I suspect that because she and Anna were both friends of the Tsaritsa, maybe there was a rivalry between them for her affections. I've read Anna Vyrubova's autobiographical account of this time, and don't quite understand where Dehn's animosity comes from, but in my view it helps show Dehn in an unflattering light herself. To clear up these views, I recommend that any serious student of this era read both accounts to gain a fuller picture.
While Dehn isn't a sparkling writer, her story is the star of this book. It's well worth the read if you want to learn more about Tsaritsa Alexandra, the last moments of the Russian Revolutuion, and the Romanovs.
May 29, 2019
As to be expected, Lili writes of the Empress as a loyal friend and even explains that the raison d’entre of the memoir is to counteract the prevailing attitudes towards the Empress in England and other places after the events of the Russian Revolution.
She gives us a detailed and vivid account of what was happening in the Alexander Palace in those critical days when Imperial Russia sank to its knees. It is painful to read as the days pass by and Lili and Alexandra are burning letters and diaries instead of getting on the road as those few days were the only days they to make their escape. But the children were ill, and they did not have the imagination to understand what was coming next and their stubborn refusal to leave Russia would end in the deaths of their innocent children as well as themselves.
From Lili we know that the Empress was drug addicted - being “saturated in veronal” and we know what it was like during those terrible days when their world was swept away. It is a valuable memoir from that perspective as Lili was an eyewitness to important historical events. She obviously felt a strong sense of duty towards the empress and even left her son without a parent during the revolution so she could be at the palace. Kerensky later told her what he thought of her motherhood when she asked to be released so she could return to her child. But she was released and escaped to South Russia and then eventually to Constantinople, Gibraltar and then England. So many sad exiles spent the rest of their lives reliving the trauma, feeling themselves at home nowhere.
She gives us a detailed and vivid account of what was happening in the Alexander Palace in those critical days when Imperial Russia sank to its knees. It is painful to read as the days pass by and Lili and Alexandra are burning letters and diaries instead of getting on the road as those few days were the only days they to make their escape. But the children were ill, and they did not have the imagination to understand what was coming next and their stubborn refusal to leave Russia would end in the deaths of their innocent children as well as themselves.
From Lili we know that the Empress was drug addicted - being “saturated in veronal” and we know what it was like during those terrible days when their world was swept away. It is a valuable memoir from that perspective as Lili was an eyewitness to important historical events. She obviously felt a strong sense of duty towards the empress and even left her son without a parent during the revolution so she could be at the palace. Kerensky later told her what he thought of her motherhood when she asked to be released so she could return to her child. But she was released and escaped to South Russia and then eventually to Constantinople, Gibraltar and then England. So many sad exiles spent the rest of their lives reliving the trauma, feeling themselves at home nowhere.
September 1, 2021
It was informative to hear a first hand experience of the last days of the imperial family.
December 22, 2021
Personal account of Nicholas and Alexandra by palace confidante
This memoir about the last Tsar and Tsarina of Imperial Russia was written by a close personal friend of the Empress Alexandra, Madame Lili Dehn, a member of the upper classes whose family owned extensive estates, who was befriended by the Empress at the time of Lili's marriage to a high-ranking naval officer. The Empress became godmother to the couple's son. Madame Dehn writes of her observations of the Imperial Family over the years, allowing us a window on the lives of the Tsar, Tsarina, their four daughters and the hemophiliac son. She devotes two chapters to Rasputin. This work is a defense of the Empress and Lili's harrowing days with the family as Revolution comes to Russia, the Tsar is forced to abdicate, and Lili stays by their side until she's taken away for questioning but allowed to return to her own home and ill son. Eventually she makes her way to safety in England to join her husband in exile.
This memoir about the last Tsar and Tsarina of Imperial Russia was written by a close personal friend of the Empress Alexandra, Madame Lili Dehn, a member of the upper classes whose family owned extensive estates, who was befriended by the Empress at the time of Lili's marriage to a high-ranking naval officer. The Empress became godmother to the couple's son. Madame Dehn writes of her observations of the Imperial Family over the years, allowing us a window on the lives of the Tsar, Tsarina, their four daughters and the hemophiliac son. She devotes two chapters to Rasputin. This work is a defense of the Empress and Lili's harrowing days with the family as Revolution comes to Russia, the Tsar is forced to abdicate, and Lili stays by their side until she's taken away for questioning but allowed to return to her own home and ill son. Eventually she makes her way to safety in England to join her husband in exile.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews