Once a Grand Duchess

Born into the wealth and splendour of the Russian imperial family as the shy fourth child of the Tsarevich, Xenia might well have expected to play only a minor role in the Romanov story. Yet when she was just six years old, the assassination of her grandfather, Alexander II, moved her father and his family into the centre. She became a key witness to the events of the tumultuous years that followed, seeing her brother Nicholas crowned as Emperor; the Revolution; and the 'terrible. horror' as the first rumours of the imperial family's capture and death began to circulate. She endured her own, and her family's, exile to Europe. Previously unpublished photographs and correspondence are used to reveal the intimate private life of the sister of the last Tsar, making this essential reading for anyone interested in the ill-fated Romanov dynasty.

Born into the wealth and splendour of the Russian imperial family as the shy fourth child of the Tsarevich, Xenia might well have expected to play only a minor role in the Romanov story. Yet when she was just six years old, the assassination of her grandfather, Alexander II, moved her father and his family into the centre. She became a key witness to the events of the tumultuous years that followed, seeing her brother Nicholas crowned as Emperor; the Revolution; and the 'terrible. horror' as the first rumours of the imperial family's capture and death began to circulate. She endured her own, and her family's, exile to Europe. Previously unpublished photographs and correspondence are used to reveal the intimate private life of the sister of the last Tsar, making this essential reading for anyone interested in the ill-fated Romanov dynasty.