Memories of the Russian Court

The court of Tsar Nicholas II, once one of the most glorious courts in the world, was devastated in a few short months and the lives of those who knew it were changed irredeemably.

Anna Viroubova, a lady-in-waiting and confident of the Tsar’s wife, Alexandra Feodorovna, witnessed this destruction first-hand.

Her memoirs, Memories of the Russian Court , takes the reader from her entry in 1905 into the world of pomp and power at the center of the Russian Empire, through the subsequent twelve years that she spent with the Tsar’s family, finally providing captivating insight into the turmoil of the Russian Revolution shook the foundations of her world.

Particularly fascinating are the chapters that focus on Grigori Rasputin as she attempts to set the record straight again detractors like Alexander Spiridovich who claimed that Viroubova was Rasputin’s "fanatical admirer, the driving force of his cult, and was at the head of his loyalists".

Viroubova explains of the great strain that the First World War placed upon her country and how she assisted as a nurse through those years before she was arrested and thrown into prison by the Bolsheviks. But even through these dark days Viroubova remained in contact with the Tsarina Alexandra through letters thus providing continuing insight into the last few months of the Imperial family’s life.

Memories of the Russian Court has been published to commemorate the centenary of the Russian Revolution and to provide readers with a view into how life was before, during and after this momentous event for those at the top of Russian society.

Anna Virobouva eventually escaped prison to Finland where she lived out her final days in Helsinki in 1964. This book was first published in 1923.