Revolutionary Days: Recollections of Romanoffs and Bolsheviki 1914-1917

by Julia Dent Grant Cantacuzène Spéransky

Julia Dent Grant Cantacuzène Spiransky, Princess Cantacuzène, Countess Spiransky (6 June 1876 – 4 October 1975), was an American author and historian. She was the eldest child of Frederick Dent Grant and his wife Ida Marie Honoré, and the first grandchild of Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States. In 1899, she married Prince Mikhail Cantacuzène, a Russian general and diplomat.Princess Cantacuzène was the author of three first-person accounts of the events leading up to the Russian Revolution in 1917, as well as a personal historian of the Russian people during that time. As the wife of a Russian nobleman, she was in a primary position to observe both the Imperial and Bolshevik positions during the Revolution. The title of Countess Spiransky has been alternatively spelled "Spéransky" and "Speranski."

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Memoir

442 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 1999

About the author

Also named Julia Dent Grant Cantacuzène Spiransky

Reviews

[Jaylia3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Princess Julia Grant Cantacuzène, President Ulysses S Grant’s oldest grandchild, was born at the White House, married a Russian prince, danced at imperial balls, and witnessed up close the tumultuous final 20 years of Tsar Nicolas II’s reign, all of which she chronicles in this fascinating and thrilling memoir. With her husband, diplomat and military officer Prince Mikhail Mikhailovich Cantacuzène, Julia struggled through the early years of the Russian revolution, alternating between hope for a better future and regret for the loss of a culture she had come to love and adopt as her own. While they wanted to stay and be part of the new Russia, ultimately they had to flee and Julia’s gripping account of that episode gives a sense of what it’s like to live through a transitional collapse of social order.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read a good deal about the Russian revolution, mostly books by historians and disenchanted leftists who left the Soviet Union before Stalin’s terror. But I had never read anything from the point of view of aristocrats so when amazon.com offered me this book for $.99, I thought “why not?” About a third of the way into the book when I was already struck by the insightful observations of this Russian Princess who was married to a very high level aristocrat and highly-respected military commander, I decided to look her up online and discovered that the author was the granddaughter of President Ulysses Grant! This put her perceptions in a somewhat different light. I was also struck by her love of Russia and the Russian people after 20 years of having lived in that country. This memoir covers the last years of the Romanov’s and the revolutionary period before the Bolsheviks came to power. Julia Cantacuzene was in position to have a great deal of inside knowledge of what was going on, including the German influence on the clique around the Empress and then on her not very able and luckless husband as well as about the vagaries of the brief rule of social revolutionaries. She had a keen ethical sense and respected those who were honorable and kind, no matter what social class they may have belonged to. As the revolution and chaos spread, with revolutionaries struggling with one another and the creation of worker and soldier power through the famous Order No. 1 that broke down hierarchies completely – the Cantacuzenes began their journeys through Russia that finally, after many months, led to exile in the United States. It is these journeys in trains full of shoving people inside and on top of the wagons that illustrate how revolution can start in chaos and how dangerous this chaos can be. But Julia’s descriptions also illustrate something else and that is that when the Russian people were not part of a mob or being led for political or other purposes, they were capable of many acts of kindness and generosity. Of course one suspects that one of the reasons Julia was shown so much kindness was because she herself was very kind. And her husband was held in the highest esteem by his soldiers and others. This was the old pre-revolutionary culture so paternalistic relations existed and were still sometimes respected when the patron merited it. Finally, the book also paints a brief picture of how step by step, a whole social class lost all its power, its wealth, and experienced hunger and sometimes death and it does so without anger. I should add that this is certainly not essential reading about the Russian Revolution but it is an intelligent and insightful account of some of its aspects and humanizes many of the people encountered by the author.

[Evan Þ. · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1899, Julia Grant, granddaughter of President U. S. Grant, married Prince Mikhail Cantacuzène of Russia. (The title of "Prince" was honorary; he wasn't related to the royal family.) After some years in Russia which she describes as happy, the war - and then revolution - erupted around them. Julia's autobiography serves essentially as a diary here amid the swiftly-changing hopes, shortages, difficulties, and fears of the revolution and Provisional Government and Bolsheviks. A few weeks after the Bolshevik coup, they escaped via train to Sweden - thanks to Bolshevik soldiers formerly in her husband's regiment who remembered him fondly.

My great shock here is at what reads to me as Julia's naivete and shallowness. She seems to view Russian aristocratic rule as fundamentally benevolent, and the moderate-liberal factions in the Tsarist government as modernizing and democratizing as quickly as practicable. Judging by the loyalty of her husband's former soldiers to him, it's possible that her husband specifically might have been benevolent - but even if so, she appears to generalize over-hastily here, and her venom toward allegedly pro-German factions in the government shows me that she is capable of passion. And also, she got engaged less than three weeks from meeting her husband.

Or at least, that's what she wrote. She wrote her autobiography in America between 1919-1922, and for all I know she could've painted the Tsarist aristocracy as benevolent just to rouse American sympathies for the anti-Bolshevik cause.

This isn't primarily a history of the Revolution, but it's a fascinating view of it.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I already knew from previous readings of other books that the author of this book was an American, indeed: she was the granddaughter of President Ulysses S Grant! l do wish l had more of her background previous to the Russian Revolution, as well as after they succeeded in escaping to the United States after the collapse of the Russian empire. She wrote eloquently, and well, of the plight of aristocratic Russians, but seemed very insulated from the true lives of the peasantry and lower classes at the time of the war and revolution. Perhaps her husband's family WERE good landowners and employers, but so many other aristocrats were not; however, all of them paid for it during/after the Revolution with the loss of entire estates, factories, fortunes, and often lives. She also seemed to be very anti Anna Virubova, the Empress's friend/confidant, though many were during this time period, both those who knew her and the many more who did not, as she was tainted with the shadow of introducing Rasputin to the Imperial Family. All in all, l found this an interesting memoir of times past, and a window into a time which will never come again.

[Jeffrey ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reads like an action adventure

I couldn't put this book down, so much danger and intrigue, it felt like a spy novel at times. I learned a lot about the Revolution and it's actual causes I had never heard before. Loved it! Now I want it know more about what happened to Princess Julia and her family after their escape

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting first hand account of the Russian Revolution from the point of view of the aristocracy. What makes it even more interesting is that the author is the granddaughter of Ulysses S Grant who was married to a Russian prince and lived in Russia for twenty years before being forced to flee during the Revolution.

[Mgb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is fascinating. The author goes from being the granddaughter of US Grant to becoming a princess in Russia, escapes the revolution, and writes about it. She goes from a republic where women have few rights and are cared for by their husbands to an autocracy where she and her husband, a prince, care for their peasants. The politics of the revolution were difficult for me to follow.

[Craig Mirkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

Very interesting first person view of the power players in Russia during WW1 and the succeeding revolutions. The author was an american who married into the Russian aristocracy who happened to be president Grant's granddaughter.

[Cory Briggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok

This book is good at telling you what happened however many times I wanted to know what motivated people to act the way they did. In other words why did this happen or that happen?

[Dav · Rating 4 out of 5]

Revolutionary Days ● by Julia Grant Kantakuzen

Lakeside Press publication (one book per year) gives us the account of Princess Julia 'Grant' Cantacuzene, her life and marriage to Mikhail Cantacuzène, a Russian prince, military officer & diplomat. Julia, the grandchild of Prez Grant & born at the White House tells of her life in Russia and escape from the termoil of the Russian revolution.

The book begins with a long Historical Introduction followed by Julia's even longer but fascinating life story and historic perspective. It does bog down with all the minutia she's compelled to include. And, there's an air of superiority as she comments on all the little people who serve them in their travels. It is a mostly interesting perspective, but for such a small book it's a very long read.

"Julia (1876 – 1975), was an American author and historian. She was the eldest child of Frederick Dent Grant and his wife Ida Marie Honoré, and the first grandchild of Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States. In 1899, she married Prince Mikhail Cantacuzène, a Russian general and diplomat.

Princess Cantacuzène was the author of three first-person accounts of the events leading up to the Russian Revolution in 1917, as well as a personal historian of the Russian people during that time. As the wife of a Russian nobleman, she was in a primary position to observe both the Imperial and Bolshevik positions during the Revolution." wiki/edited

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lakeside Press, a printing company, every year publishes one small book of personal American history. This one is written by the granddaughter of US Grant who met a Russian prince while on the European Grand Tour with her aunt, the wife of Potter Palmer. They married and she lived the last years of the Russian aristocracy, World War I and the fall to the Bolsheviks. She describes these years with sympathy and great detail, a look into history from someone who knew even the Tsar. Reading third person history always makes me wonder what it was like for people who were alive as history was made. This and the other Lakeside books provide that view. Great small books to pick up in used bookstores.

[patricia j patane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it. There are not many Americans who had this front row seat at the court of the last Tsar and then the 1917 Revolution. That world is gone forever but she gives you an important glimpse of events that shook the world

[Ronald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing, first-hand narrative of the Russian Revolution by a Russian Princess who also happened to be Ulysses S. Grant's granddaughter.

[Tina Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

good

i recommend this to anyone interested in a personal account of life, culture, history in the era of Romanoffs. well done.