Thirteen Years At The Russian Court A Personal Record Of The Last Years And Death Of The Czar Nicholas Ii And His Family

This book is a memoir written by Pierre Gilliard, the French language tutor to the five children of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia from 1905 to 1918. It was published following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the execution of the Russian Imperial family. In this book, Gilliard described Tsarina Alexandra's torment over her son's hemophilia and her faith in the ability of starets Grigori Rasputin to heal the boy.

First published in 1921, this book contains the memoirs of Pierre Gilliard. Pierre Gilliard (1879 – 1962) was a Swiss author and academic famous for being the French language tutor of Russian Emperor Nicholas II's children between 1905 and 1918. Within these pages, Gilliard describes Tsarina Alexandra's sadness relating to her son's haemophilia and her belief in Grigori Rasputin's ability to help the boy. This volume constitutes a must-read for those with an interest in Russian history, and it would make for a fantastic addition to collections of related literature. Contents include: “My First Lessons at the Court (Autumn, 1905)”, “Alexis Nicolaievitch—Visits to the Crimea”, “I Begin my Duties as Tutor—The Czarevitch's Illness”, “The Czarina, Alexandra Feodorovna”, “Rasputin”, “Life at the Tsarskoie-Selo—My Pupils (The Winter of 1913-14)”, “Journeys to the Crimea and Rumania”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with the original text and artwork.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Excerpt from Thirteen Years at the Russian Court: A Personal Record of the Last Years and Death of the Czar Nicholas II, and His Family In September, 1920, after staying three years in Siberia, I was able to return to Europe. My mind was still full of the poignant drama with which I had been closely associated, but I was also still deeply impressed by the wonderful serenity and flaming faith of those who had been its victims. Cut off from communication with the rest of the world for many months, I was unfamiliar with recent publications on the subject of the Czar Nicholas II. and his family. I was not slow to discover that though some of these works revealed a painful anxiety for accuracy and their authors endeavoured to rely on serious records (although the information they gave was often erroneous or incomplete so far as the Imperial family was concerned), the majority of them were simply a tissue of absurdities and falsehoods - in other words, vulgar outpourings exploiting the most unworthy calumnies. I was simply appalled to read some of them. But my indignation was far greater when I realised to my amazement that they had been accepted by the general public. To rehabilitate the moral character of the Russian sovereigns was a duty - a duty called for by honesty and justice. I decided at once to attempt the task. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

In September 1905 Pierre Gilliard entered Tsar Nicholas II's household as the French tutor of Duchesses Olga Nicolaievna and Tatiana Nicolaievna. He would go on to spend a further thirteen years in the close company of the Romanov family. Within that time he would be a witness to one of the most remarkable and tragic events of modern history as a close-knit family was torn apart and executed in the midst of the Revolution. But this book is more than simply an eyewitness account of the Revolution. As one of the books early reviews notes, Gilliard 'had unusual opportunities of knowing their simple domestic life, and when the tragedy that had befallen the Royal house inevitably drew its members, and the few of their attendants who were left to them, more closely together, he was able to learn more and more intimately the ties that bound them together and the difficulties that had brought them to such a doom.' The Tablet Throughout his thirteen years Gilliard built strong personal relationships with those at the Russian court and his eyewitness account of that time is a beautifully intimate portrayal of the family. From little Aleksey who despite his haemophilia remained the centre of attention to his mischievous sisters, their anxious mother and proud father, Gilliard provides vivid sketches of each of the family members. He was also witness to figures outside of the family circle, including the infamous Rasputin. Throughout the account there are extremely personal notes interspersed with humour which provide a humanising view of the Romanov family, including the moment when Gilliard forgets to censor some of the language in Les Miserables to which Tsar Nicholas II teases with him: "You are teaching my daughters a very curious vocabulary, monsieur..." In 1914 Russia descended into war and over the coming years as the situation on the front becomes more tense so too does life within the court. The strain upon court and nation comes to a climax in March 1917 as the Revolution begins. Even through their abdication and imprisonment Gilliard remained with the family, until finally in 1918, after the Bolshevik's coup d'etat, Gilliard is separated from them, never to see them again. Pierre Gilliard's remarkable and tragic account of the last years of the Romanov dynasty was first published in 1921. He later became a French professor at the University of Lausanne and died in 1962.