ISBN: Ostalo
Godina izdanja: 2222
Jezik: Engleski
Autor: Strani

Romanovi
retka knjiga
The Grand Duke`s Woman: The story of the morganatic marriage of Grand Duke Michael, the younger brother of Tsar Nicolas II
Hollywood would surely have made a movie about the story of Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia and his wife Natasha if it had a happier ending. An outline script could read:

“The handsome Grand Duke falls in love with a beautiful divorcee, which scandalises society and brings heated objections from his brother the tsar. He forces them to live hundreds of miles apart, in a hope that this ends their relationship, but they keep seeing each other when they can. Tensions increase when their son George is born, and they later marry in secret while on holiday abroad.

​The tsar loses his patience, removes his younger brother from the line of succession, discharges him from the army, siezes all his assets and banishes him from Russia to live in exile.​

Then the great war breaks out across Europe. The tsar forgives the Grand Duke and allows the family to return to Russia. The Grand Duke serves in the army to defend his country.​

And then revolution comes……..`


The Hollywood script would have Michael, Natasha and their young son George escaping Russia, pursued all the way by a bunch of darkly malevolent Bolshevik thugs. They’d eventually end up living in some foreign land until they were able to return to Russia, where they’d all live happily ever after.

​But Michael and Natasha were both arrested by the Bolsheviks, and while Natasha was later released, Michael was taken away, held for months and, we now know, murdered on the 13th June 1918.

Natasha escaped Russia and eventually made it to England with their son George, all the while knowing only that she hadn’t heard from Michael for some time.

​The years passed in England, and later in France. As time went by, with still no news from Michael, each day must have brought a growing realisation that he hadn’t survived. But George, their son, was growing into a handsome young man, some consolation for a woman whose husband was missing.

​But then tragedy struck again, in 1931, when George was killed in a car crash, just before his 21st birthday. Now both her husband and her son had been taken from her. She lived alone in Paris for another 20 years before dying from cancer, alone in a charity hospital, in 1952.

This book was written and researched by Natasha`s grandaughter Pauline Gray and is based on the personal reminiscences of Natasha and an archive of her papers, letters and photographs.