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Little Mother Of Russia: A Biography Of Empress Marie FeodorovnyaEditions
ReviewThe Empress Marie Feodorovna died in exile in 1928, outliving her son, Nicholas II, and his family, and many other Romanovs who were murdered after the Russian Revolution. Before being Dowager Empress, she was Empress, wife of Alexander III who was assassinated. She married him in 1867 when he was the Tsarevitch. So for 50 years she was at the centre of the Russian Imperial family. Before marrying the Tsarevitch and converting to Orthodoxy, she was simply the Danish Princess Dagmar. Or not so simple, because at birth she was not a princess at all, just plain Dagmar, second daughter of a not very rich man who was about 3rd in line (via a couple of Knight’s moves through the female line) to the Danish throne. Her elder sister, Alexandra, married the English Prince of Wales and one of her brothers became King George of Greece; her father, who by now was King Christian IX, was known as the Father-in-law of Europe. I found this an intensely fascinating book. Dagmar’s extraordinary life is told with verve and close attention to detail: it does not stray into waffle about the politics or the social conditions of the period but sticks closely to its subject. You can read Orlando Figes or Richard Pipes for historical analysis, but they will not give you the acute insights into this remarkable woman that can be found here. When reading, at first I thought it odd, for example, that so much attention was paid to clothes and jewels, but after a while I felt that the author was quite correct because it is a fair reflection of Dagmar’s tastes as well as her duties. This is definitely biography rather than history, and all the better for being so. - review by Johnny de Falbe |
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