Romanov Riches: Russian Writers and Artists Under the Tsars

280 Pages·2011·3.42 MB·English

by  Solomon Volkov

ALSO BY SOLOMON VOLKOV

The Magical Chorus:
A History of Russian Culture from Tolstoy to Solzhenitsyn

Shostakovich and Stalin:
The Extraordinary Relationship Between the Great Composer and the Brutal
Dictator

Conversations with Joseph Brodsky

St. Petersburg: A Cultural History

From Russia to the West:
The Musical Memoirs and Reminiscences of Nathan Milstein

Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky:
Conversations with Balanchine on His Life, Ballet, and Music

Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

Translation copyright © 2011 by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House,
Inc.

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House,
Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
www.aaknopf.com

This translation is from an unpublished Russian-language manuscript by
Solomon Volkov, copyright © by Solomon Volkov.

All illustrations are from the personal collection of Solomon Volkov.

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random
House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Volkov, Solomon.
Romanov riches: Russian writers and artists under the tsars / by Solomon
Volkov; translated from the Russian by Antonina W. Bouis.—1st ed.
p. cm.
“Translation is from an unpublished manuscript”—T.p. verso.
“Published in … Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto”—T.p.
verso.
“This is a Borzoi book”—T.p. verso.
eISBN: 978-0-307-59552-2
1. Romanov, House of—History. 2. Romanov, House of—Art patronage. 3.
Russia—Kings and rulers—Biography. 4. Authors, Russian—Biography. 5.
Russian literature—History and criticism. 6. Artists—Russia—Biography. 7.
Composers—Russia—Biography. 8. Arts, Russian—History. 9. Russia—
Intellectual life. 10. Russia—History—1613–1917. I. Title.
DK37.8.R6V55 2011
700.9470903—dc22
2010045132

Jacket image: Crest of the Romanov Imperial House, Bettmann / Corbis
Jacket design by Helen Yentus and Jason Booher

v3.1
Contents

Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Photo Insert
Introduction

PART I
CHAPTER 1
The First Romanovs: From Tsar Mikhail to Peter I
CHAPTER 2
Kantemir, Lomonosov, and Barkov
CHAPTER 3
Catherine the Great and the Culture of Her Era
PART II
CHAPTER 4
Paul I and Alexander I; Karamzin and Zhukovsky
CHAPTER 5
Alexander I, Zhukovsky, and Young Pushkin
CHAPTER 6
Nicholas I and Pushkin
PART III
CHAPTER 7
Lermontov and Briullov
CHAPTER 8
Gogol, Ivanov, Tyutchev and the End of the Nicholas I Era
PART IV
CHAPTER 9
Alexander II, Tolstoy, Turgenev, and Dostoevsky
CHAPTER 10
Herzen, Tolstoy, and the Women’s Issue
CHAPTER 11
Tchaikovsky and Homosexuality in Imperial Russia
PART V
CHAPTER 12
Dostoevsky and the Romanovs
CHAPTER 13
Alexander III, the Wanderers, and Mussorgsky
CHAPTER 14
Nicholas II and Lenin as Art Connoisseurs
Notes
A Note About the Author
A Note About the Translator
Tsar Mikhail (1596–1645), the first in the Romanov dynasty
Ivan Susanin, the peasant who saved Tsar Mikhail, as portrayed by the
bass Ossip Petrov, in a photograph
The composer Mikhail Glinka (1804–1857), whose opera A Life for the
Tsar (1836) glorified Mikhail’s accession to the throne in 1613