Bread of Exile

by Dimitri Obolensky

In Bread of Exile, two opposing worlds are a world of privilege and power that saw the end of imperial Russia and struggled to survive Communist persecution and military attack, and one of dispossession and exile. Dimitri Obolensky's family belonged to the upper echelons of the Russian aristocracy. This collection of unpublished memoirs, diaries, and notebooks by six different family members spans more than one hundred years. Russia's turbulent history is made vividly real through intimate recollections of those who suffered the dramatic consequences of the Russian Revolution and lived the rest of their lives as migrs.

245 pages, Hardcover

First published September 23, 1999

About the author

Scholar of Byzantium, the early medieval Balkans and Russia who could claim descent from Rurik.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of memoirs of various antecedents of Dimitry Oblensky. That of his father was a bizarre remembrance of the land on which he grew up and traversed. Those of his grandmother and great aunt were fascinating. These two girls grew up as contemporaries and friends with the future Nicholas II and his siblings. They’re remembrances of the homey atmosphere of the Romanov’s under Alexander III and Empress Minnie was fantastic. I must admit that I lost interest after that and did not read the last segment, which was the actual meme jot of Professor Oblensky.