A blog for substantive reviews of royal books published in the USA and Abroad !

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Exciting Publishing News: Eurohistory to Publish RUSSIA AND EUROPE

It is with much satisfaction and joy that Eurohistory announces a joint venture with Russian publisher Liki Rossii, publisher of some exquisite books about the Romanovs and the history of the Imperial family.

Our first joint effort is to be RUSSIA AND EUROPE: Dynastic Ties. Authored by Galina Korneva and T. Cheboksarova, renowned Russian historians and prolific authors.

Liki Rossii describes their book as:"The book includes fascinating stories of the life and tragic end of one of the most powerful and wealthy dynasties of the Romanovs (1613-1917) with more than 500 photographs collected from the main archives of Russia and European countries.

The vanished world of the Russian Imperial Family is still attractive in many of its aspects. Magnificent residences of the Romanovs, which were built by the best architects, and the extraordinary collections of fine arts they contained continue to attract authors and readers. For 80 years Russian archives, which could be compared with undiscovered treasure mines, were closed to a wide range of specialists around the world. Foreign archives in turn were not available to Russian researchers. The authors of Russia and Europe worked in archives in Russia, Denmark, Germany, England, and the USA, identified previously unrecognized photographs contained in Russian resources and introduced them to the reader with extensive commentary on their origins.

The “language” of original photographs is sometimes able to tell more than pages of texts about the special world of royalty and the circle of nobility. The authors also used information from Russian and foreign periodicals, memoirs and special literature. Readers will find new and well-structured materials about the main events in the lives of the Romanovs and their relatives in Europe, the masters in all kinds of art who worked on commission of the sovereigns, the state and family visits of members of European dynasties and the prominent companies that started their businesses thanks to the support of rulers.

Two chapters about Germany and Denmark and their princesses who became Russian Empresses during this period. A few chapters are devoted to the descriptions of the two-way influences between Russia and Greece, Württemberg, and Mecklenburg-Schwerin, countries where Russian Grand Duchesses lived as spouses of sovereigns."

Eurohistory's official book reviewer, renowned author Coryne Hall recently received a copy of the Russian-printed English edition of the book. Her review, which we share with you here, will also appear inside EuroHistory XC (December 2012).

Coryne tells us:

"Every now and then something comes along which is truly worth waiting for. This book was originally published in Russian and many of us having been waiting for the translation ever since – and it does not disappoint. “Russia and Europe” examines the ties between the 19th century Romanovs and the royal houses in Germany, Denmark and Greece with which they were allied by marriage. Although the book was written for Russians, every fan of the Romanovs will find something new and interesting in here. Palaces, trains, yachts and churches are all included in a real treasure trove of information.

The authors begin with Germany which, as the small German courts provided brides for many of the Grand Dukes, occupies the most space in the book. Wurttemberg, Baden, Hesse and Mecklenburg-Schwerin all have their place here, but there are also articles on the dawn of the automotive industry and the St Vladimir Brotherhood. We meet Romanovs about which less has been written – Vera of Württemberg, Elena Pavlovna and her family as well of course as Alix and Ella of Hesse and Victoria Melita. The section on Anastasia Michaelovna is particularly interesting, covering not only Schwerin but the palaces of her relatives – Xenia’s palace in St Petersburg, Harax in the Crimea, and Borzhomi in the Caucasus.

Denmark comes next, concentrating of course on the family of the only Danish Empress, Marie Feodorovna, the former Princess Dagmar. Much of this will be familiar to readers but it was nice to see a mention of the Kaiservilla at Fredensborg, which is less well-known, and also the Danish Ambassador, Harald Scavenius, who did so much to help the imprisoned Grand Dukes after the revolution.

The section on Greece concentrates on Queen Olga and her numerous family, including Queen Olga’s charity work, Strelna, Crete, Corfu and a lovely section on Grand Duchess Elena.

The illustrations, mostly taken from archives in Moscow and St Petersburg, are outstanding. It is really hard to pick out a highlight but for me it has to be the picture of Grand Duchess Elena sitting with her dolls – who are almost as big as the Grand Duchess herself. Some of the photographs will be familiar to western readers but others will not.

This is an outstanding book, with detailed family trees, a huge bibliography and, rare in foreign books, an index. A “must” for all devotees of the Romanovs!"

RUSSIA AND EUROPE will be our first book of 2013 and if all goes according to schedule, it will be one of six books Eurohistory plans to print in 2013, as we begin our business plan to focus more on newer, unique, in-house produced titles instead of used books.

Of course, we will continue publication of our magazine as well. Eurohistory will celebrate 16 years of publication next year and we are fast approaching the 100th edition of a highly respected and widely supported magazine, now with subscribers in all continents and more than 70 countries!