Why read Former People?

Book cover of Former People: The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy

Book description

The riveting and harrowing story of the Russian nobility caught in the upheaval of the Revolution

Winner of the Pushkin House Russian Book Prize
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Kansas City Star and Salon

Epic in scope, precise in detail, and heartbreaking in its human drama,…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Former People as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Asya Pereltsvaig

Author

This is another “aftermath of the Russian Revolution” book that I was deeply moved by.

While reading about the aristocrats who decided to leave Russia, I felt totally on the same page with them when it came to missing my family and friends left behind and the little things about the place I grew up in. But even more so, I was stirred by the chapters about those of their family members who decided to stay in Russia – and most of them did not end well, courtesy of the Bolsheviks. I kept screaming into the pages: “Leave, leave while…

From Asya's list on Asya Pereltsvaig's favorite books about the Romanovs, Rasputin and the Russian Revolution.

Michael Khodarkovsky

Author

Beautifully written, the book follows the lives of Russia’s two great aristocratic families in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution. Their fate was typical of the entire Russian aristocracy. It is a story of the Bolsheviks' cruelty and a painful survival of their many victims.

From Michael's list on The best books on Russia and USSR in the 20th Century.