‘So, you are writing another novel about Catherine the Great?’
Err – no!
Before there was Catherine II, or the Great, whose life and rule has inspired dozens of adaptations, there was Catherine I of Russia—the most … Read the article
For the Romanov family at the Ipatiev House, Tuesday, 16 July, in Ekaterinburg was much like any other day, punctuated by the same frugal meals, brief periods of recreation in the garden, reading, and games of cards. … Read the article
It began many years ago – around twenty, if I recall correctly, when I visited a dusty and cluttered second-hand book shop in Burford in the Cotswolds. ‘Have you got any old books about Russia?’, I … Read the article
The first time I traveled across Russia, in the fall of 1995, most people I met seemed to love Americans. The Soviet Union had collapsed four years earlier, leading to an abrupt thaw in the Cold War. … Read the article
The Yusupov household was staunchly anti-Rasputin. Felix Yusupov’s father could not bear even to hear the name spoken in his presence, and his mother let the empress know of her hatred for the man, which poisoned their … Read the article
When Harold Macmillan, now the Prime Minister, visited the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in February 1959, Guy Burgess told Harold Nicolson that he was ‘able to give advice at a suitable level’ and remembered how he … Read the article
One of the things that struck me most about Russia in the 1990s, when I was working in Moscow, was how quickly people’s fear of the unknown turned into violent suspicions of other … Read the article