House of Romanov - Romanov riches: Russian writers and artists under the tsars

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

Balanchines 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This translation is from an unpublished Russian-language manuscript by Solomon Volkov, copyright by Solomon Volkov.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Translation is from an unpublished manuscriptT.p. verso.
Published in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, TorontoT.p. verso.
This is a Borzoi bookT.p. verso.
eISBN: 978-0-307-59552-2
1. Romanov, House ofHistory. 2. Romanov, House ofArt patronage. 3. RussiaKings and rulersBiography. 4. Authors, RussianBiography. 5. Russian literatureHistory and criticism. 6. ArtistsRussiaBiography. 7. ComposersRussiaBiography. 8. Arts, RussianHistory. 9. RussiaIntellectual life. 10. RussiaHistory16131917. I. Title.
DK 37.8. R 6 V 55 2011
700.9470903dc22
2010045132

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

v3.1

Tsar Mikhail (15961645), 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 (18041857), whose opera A Life for the Tsar (1836) glorified Mikhails accession to the throne in 1613

The second Romanov on the throne, Tsar Alexei (16291676)

Peter the Great (16721725), Tsar Alexeis famous and controversial son

The poet and diplomat Antioch Kantemir (17091744), Tsar Peters apologist

The multitalented Mikhail Lomonosov (17111765)

Ivan Barkov (c. 17321768), the Russian Franois Villon

Catherine the Great (17291796) who was vilified in Soviet times as a depraved and criminal woman

The state minister Gavrila Derzhavin (17431816), Catherines most esteemed poet

Alexander I (17771825), Napoleons nemesis

Nikolai Karamzin (17661826), Alexanders court historian

Alexander Pushkin (17991837), Russias greatest poet

The poet Vassily Zhukovsky (17831852), Pushkins mentor and protector

The popular fabulist Ivan Krylov (17691844)

Nicholas I (17961855), who called Pushkin the wisest man in Russia