Review: Rogue Agent by James Crossland

Synopsis: The thrilling biography of Robert Bruce Lockhart, Britain's 'Agent' in Moscow

Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart (1887–1970) was an impressive figure: a diplomat, intelligence agent, conspirator, journalist and propagandist who played a key role in both world wars. He was a man who charmed his way into the confidences of everyone from Leon Trotsky to Anthony Eden. A man whom the influential press baron Lord Beaverbook claimed ‘could well have been prime minister’. And yet Lockhart died almost forgotten and near destitute, a Scottish footnote in the pages of history.

Rogue Agent is the first biography of this gifted yet habitually flawed maverick. It chronicles his many exploits, from his time as Britain’s ‘Agent’ in Moscow, and his role in a plot to bring down the communist regime, to leading the Political Warfare Executive, a secret body responsible for disinformation and propaganda in the Second World War.

Exploring Lockhart’s unorthodox thinking and contributions to the development of psychological warfare as well as his hedonistic lifestyle, late nights and many affairs that left him in a state of perpetual debt, Rogue Agent tells the thrilling story of this unconventional war hero.

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I was familiar with events in Russia both leading up to and following the removal of the Tsar and the installation of the Bolsheviks. However, not as much as I thought I did.

Crossland provides the reader with what seems to be akin to a "boys own adventure" but is - in reality - something far from fiction. Lockhart is an intriguing yet elusive character, a man at odds with himself, a man somewhat ahead of the political game, but one who contributed to his own downfall - a victim of his own story.

Here was a man, aged 31yo, who was given a brief by the British Foreign Office, and had it impressed upon him to undertake and ensure its success "by whatever means" - then he was unleashed into the storm. Left to his own devices, Lockhart cavorted, womanized, drank and plotted to the point that any crucial information forwarded from him was considered suspect. He ignored all the signs that would eventually lead to his own capture and imprisonment, but was lucky in that he left nothing behind to incriminate himself.

Returning to Britain upon his release, and after various jobs for the Foreign Office, he eventually found himself in the political warfare executive (WWII propaganda department).  When the war was over, so too Lockhart's career effectively came to a close. He chose writing as a means to dig his way out of his perpetual cycle of debt, producing a number of works, many of which touched upon his own life experiences.

Crossland has managed to strip back the myth and ambiguity, to reveal a little more of the real man - a man full of human foibles, whose adventures seem larger than life, but one with the sheer audacity to stand face to face with Bolshevik Russia and walk away to tell the tale. Excellent read.

Review: The Murder of Alexander Litvinenko by Boris Volodarsky

Synopsis: In his famous Moonlight and Vodka , Chris de Burgh got it Espionage is a serious business. And like every serious business, it must be taken seriously. Less than two decades after the untimely death of Sasha Litvinenko, poisoned at the heart of London’s Mayfair by Russian secret agents by the previously unknown radioactive substance containing a fatal dose of Polonium-210, it is hardly remembered by anyone in the West. No wonder, we live in an information-rich world when the wealth of information means a dearth of something a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. Such an obvious thing was suddenly discovered by a simple old man from Milwaukee, and he’s got a point there.

This book is about the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, whose legal case seems to many people like open-and-shut. Even to his widow Marina and their son. To MI6, MI5 and the Special Operations branch of the London’s Metropolitan Police who presented it to the public as thoroughly investigated and closed. To judge Sir Robert Owen appointed to hold the inquest “into the death of a Russian Spy” as the BBC and other media has put it – a terrible mistake. To journalists and writers who had been following this case for as long as a decade, not to mention the prime suspect living a good life in Moscow. But not for me. For me this case remains open.

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The death of Alexander "Sasha" Litvinenko on 23 November 2006, after being poisoned with polonium-210 made headlines worldwide. Litvinenko was a senior investigating officer fighting organised crime and corruption in Russia before rebelling, being imprisoned and ultimately escaping and defecting to the UK, where he worked as a journalist, activist,and commentator.

However, Volodarsky's book is far from a straight forward piece of investigative journalism - which is disappointing as the author's views might have been better served had he followed this well-worn path.

For the reader, there is a lot of information of the state of Russian politics prior to Litvinenko - we begin with a brief summary of events, the author's further questions, the rise of Putin and then the focus centers on Boris Berezovsky. I seriously wondered when the author was actually going to get around to Litvinenko. The fact the there was such a focus on Berezovsky rather than Litvinenko ensured that I became rather disenchanted with the whole tme. I did push on till then end, but Volodarsky provides nothing that a google or wikipedia search could not provide. Litvinenko was never the main focus - he should have been.

Whilst I myself was deeply intrigued by the whole Litvinenko saga as it was played out in real time (at the time), this particular tome barely satisfied my curiosity and the conspiracy theorist in me.

The Berlin Exchange by Joseph Kanon

From “master of the genre” (The Washington Post) Joseph Kanon, an espionage thriller set at the height of the Cold War, when a captured American who has spied for the KGB is swapped by the British and returns to East Berlin needing to know who arranged his release and what they want from him.

Berlin. 1963. The height of the Cold War. An early morning spy swap, not at the familiar setting for such exchanges, or at Checkpoint Charlie, where international visitors cross into the East, but at a more discreet border crossing, usually reserved for East German VIPs. The Communists are trading two American students caught helping people to escape over the wall and an aging MI6 operative. On the other side of the trade: Martin Keller, a physicist who once made headlines, but who then disappeared into the English prison system. Keller’s most critical possession: his American passport. Keller’s most ardent desire: to see his ex-wife Sabine and their young son.

The exchange is made with the formality characteristic of these swaps. But Martin has other questions: who asked for him? Who negotiated the deal? The KGB? He has worked for the service long enough to know that nothing happens by chance. They want him for something. Not physics—his expertise is out of date. Something else, which he cannot learn until he arrives in East Berlin, when suddenly the game is afoot.

Filled with intriguing characters, atmospheric detail, and plenty of action Kanon’s latest espionage thriller is one you won’t soon forget.

Too Secret Too Long by Chapman Pincher

Chapman Pincher, the Cold War and the spy scandals which shocked the nation.

Chapman Pincher, the “lone wolf of Fleet Street”, is now regarded as the godfather of investigative journalism. During the Cold War era he became notorious as a relentless investigator of spies, uncovering the shocking extent of Soviet infiltration of the British Secret Services – and the collusion and incompetence at the heart of the British Establishment.

Pincher’s Their Trade is Treachery, published in 1981, became an instant classic. While helping to unmask the Cambridge five, the conclusion he drew was that there must be someone right at the heart of the Secret Services who allowed these men to go undetected. And he concluded that it could be none other than Roger Hollis, then head of MI5 (as did Peter Wright in his autobiography, Spy Catcher).

In this sequel he presents a compelling case against Hollis, with a torrent of new disclosures about the appalling extent to which the British secret services had been penetrated and manipulated by Soviet agents. Pincher builds evidence that Hollis, the man he calls ‘Spy of the Century’, must have colluded. Working with him was a woman, Moscow trained, of such dedication and courage that she qualifies to be regarded as the most successful female spy ever.

Too Secret Too Long paints a riveting picture of Cold War espionage, of corruption within the British Secret Service and the cover-ups by successive governments.

Review: Untraceable by Sergei Lebedev

Synopsis: In 2018, a former Russian secret agent and his daughter were poisoned with a lethal neurotoxin that left them slumped over on a British park bench in critical condition. The story of who did it, and how these horrendous contaminants were developed, captivates and terrifies in equal measure. It has inspired acclaimed author Sergei Lebedev’s latest page-turning novel. At its center is a scheming chemist named Professor Kalitin, obsessed with developing an absolutely deadly, undetectable and untraceable poison for which there is no antidote. He becomes consumed by guilt over the death of his wife, the first accidental victim of his Faustian pact to create the ultimate venom, and the deaths of hundreds of test subjects. After he defects from the Soviet Union to spend his “retirement” years in the West, two Russian secret agents are dispatched to assassinate him. In this fast-paced, genre-bending novel, Lebedev weaves tension-filled pages of stunningly beautiful prose exploring the historical trajectories of evil. From Nazi labs, Stalinist plots, the Chechen Wars, to present-day Russia, Lebedev probes the ethical responsibilities of scientists supplying modern tyrants and autocrats with ever newer instruments of retribution, destruction and control. Lebedev, one of Russia’s most important and exciting writers, has never been better.

This really is the tale of assassination. We open with an assassination and we finish with one.

It took me a little while to get into the rhythm of the narrative style of the author, and to be honest, I nearly put it aside (I wasn't really sure where this was set - ie: locations - and what time period - though guessed late 20th / early 21st century). However, upon persevering, it became quite a good story. 

Chemical and biological warfare is nothing new in the spying game, but we only ever hear of the main players - the victims, the politicians - we never read about the creators of these fiendish weapons. Lebedev does just that - we are taken into the private world of a defecting scientist who has created the perfect, untraceable, weapon, as he grapples with his current lot in life and wonders whether the grass was actually greener on the other side. Played against the chemist Kalitin, the prey in this cat and mouse game, is the soldier - the hunter - Lt Colonel Shershnev. He too grapples with his past as he and his companion embark on their mission.

The narrative alternates between Kalitin and Shershnev as each recall events in their past that have led to this point in time. There is not thrilling chase scenes (Bourne style) - well, not to we get towards the end.

Not your standard espionage novel - but definitely one to read.

See also:

- Spy Assassinations: Top 5 Deadly Poisons

- The Devilish Art of Assassination

- List of Soviet & Russian Assassinations

Blog Tour: Wicked By Design by Katy Moran

About the book 

1819: CORNWALL. 

Four women sit in the candlelit drawing-room at Nansmornow, an ancient Cornish manor house. The air is thick with unspoken suspicion and secret malice. As Hester Lamorna pours tea for her three guests, she has no idea one of them is about to rock her new marriage to its very foundations. 

ST PETERSBURG. 

Half a world away, Hester's impossible and charmismatic husband, Jack 'Crow' Crowlas, will be caught up in a chess game of sexual manipulation, played out across the sumptuous ballrooms of St Petersburg. All Hester and Crow hold most dear will be tested to the limit and beyond: their love for each other and their child, and for Crow, the loyalty of his only brother.

Here is an extract from the book:

Shouting to those of his men still on horseback, Crow called on them all to dismount. If he could not reach the Deliverance by sea, he must reach her from Carn Du itself: there was nothing to do but to send a rope-team into the water, himself at the fore. There was just a chance that men could be pulled from the water so close to the wreck, even if the gig could never reach them without also being smashed against the rocks with those waves rising like great whales. Whisking the coiled rope from his saddlebag, Crow slung it over his shoulder and sprinted to the narrow, winding path that led away from the beach and up towards the cliff-top, along to Carn Du itself. He snatched at handfuls of broom to steady himself, careless of the needles tearing into the palms of his hands. Once he reached the cliff-top, wind tearing at his face, his hair, he saw waves and spray smashing against the cliffs, against the rocks, and the spars of the Deliverance again, still sliding beneath the waves, with now only two figures clinging to them.

‘Run!’ Crow shouted at the men behind him. ‘With me, come on!’ And where in hell’s name were Castlereagh, Mulgrave, Vansittart or any of the others? Peers of the realm still asleep in bed, leaving servants and fishermen to save lives? Reaching the outcrop of Carn Du itself, the heap of vast grey rocks rearing up against a sodden sky, Crow tore off his coat and jacket and unshouldered the rope. He lashed it around his waist with swift expertise, leaving one long end for his men to belay him with, and the rest to throw. This he coiled for now, and slung over his shoulder. Looking again, there was but a single man still clinging to the yards of the Deliverance. Squinting through spray and rain, Crow saw that the survivor was not even a man, but a boy. If he climbed down the seaward face of Carn Du as far as he could, there was a chance he could toss the rope to him, and failing that to anyone still clinging to wreckage below even as it was flung at the rocks. Amid the thundering roar of the surf and the hideous crunch of wood against rock as the top spars of the Deliverance were smashed against granite by the force of the ocean, he shouted to Hughes to take up the belaying end of the line.

‘My lord,’ Hughes said, his face rigid with emotion, rain streaming down his dark skin from grizzled, short-cropped hair, ‘if you will permit me to speak? This is suicide. The waves are too high – you’ll be washed away yourself.’ 

Crow turned to his assembled servants and tenants, rain-soaked, hair splattered across their faces as they passed the rope from one man to the next. ‘What then must I do? Stand here on my own land and watch people die? Just for Christ’s sake don’t let go of the line.’

He ran light-footed to the great carn; he had climbed down it many times as a boy, clinging to fissures in the rock and leaping from narrow, algae-speckled ledges into the ocean twenty feet below, and he had clouted his young brother for doing the same too, but even then there had not been waves almost as high as the rock itself. Amid the roar of water and the groan of failing timber, Crow glanced over his shoulder as he climbed and saw the boy still clinging to a spar like kelp splattered against the upright timber of a jetty. What remained of the mast leaned at a heart-stopping angle. Wave-soaked, Crow clung to the rock, the rope taut above him, digging into the spare flesh of his midriff through his wet shirt. One boy out of a crew of seventy: was that really to be all? Another wave crashed into him, and he dug the fingers of one hand into a fissure in the rock, grasping a heaven-sent handful of sprouting marram grass with the other as he yelled over his shoulder at the boy, ‘Hold on.’ Crow could see now that he was really very young, perhaps only eight or nine, his face familiar – one of the many urchins one saw on the cobbled streets of St Erth. Crow knew in the same instant that the child was losing the will to hold on, that he was too cold, and too afraid, his face white and pinched with exhaustion and terror.

About the author 

Katy Moran is a Carnegie nominated author, she write high-octane Regency romance, which include, muskets, gunpowder, Cornwall and Russia. She writes that when she is inspired by a new place ‘Regency England, Cornwall, Russia, the ancient palace of Fontainebleau — I want to actually be there. I want to take you there too, in the company of complex characters that you will fall a little (or a lot) in love with on the way.’

Review: A Short Life of Pushkin

"A short yet fascinating account of Russia's most celebrated writer. "   And that's it in a nut-shell.  

I was initially drawn to this work by Robert Chamdler as I have been reading many "Pushkin Press" titles and was intrigued - was this publishing company named after or in honour of the man, Pushkin?  And if so, why was he so deserving of such an honour?

Apart from being one of Russia's great historians and poets who left a lasting literary legacy, Alexander Pushkin's own story was larger than life.

Here was a man whose family was from the old Russian nobility, who were loyal to Peter III, fell under Catherine the Great; whose maternal great-grandfather was referred to as the "Blackamoor" of Peter the Great.  Pushkin himself lived on the edge - from an early age, his life was dedicated to writing, poetry, women, gambling, did I mention women, drinking, politics, theatre, frivolity - a dissolute life by all standards which led to duelling, imprisonment, exile, then repeat again and again - ".... only the intervention of friends and the dowager empress forestalled a worse fate and not for the first time ..."  A man who lived a charmed life, though towards the end, this lavish lifestyle led to his latter years spent in debt and ended in a fatal duel (1837).

I doubt very much any writer of fiction could have created such an extraordinary life for any character.  I very much want to track down and read not only is poetry but more in-depth biographies.

The Day Will Pass Away: The Diary of a Gulag Prison Guard 1935-1936

Read a review of "The Day Will Pass Away: The Diary of a Gulag Prison Guard 1935-1936" by Ivan Christyakov at the StarTribune:

Police states spread complicity by forcing citizens into immoral roles. With “The Day Will Pass Away,” readers get a remarkable opportunity to peek into the 1930s diary of one such citizen — Ivan Chistyakov, a guard in the Soviet gulag.

Under Communist rule during the 20th century, Russia herded millions of residents into labor camps without trial. Many were sent thousands of miles to vast infrastructure projects in an attempt to shock-industrialize the nation. As purges under Stalin began and executions swept the country, Chistyakov found himself in command of an armed platoon on the Baikal-Amur Mainline railway, an eastern outpost of the camp system.

read more here at Star Tribune

Bibliomania, the Dark Desire For Books

Bibliomania, the Dark Desire For Books That Infected Europe in the 1800s | Atlas Obscura 

Dr. Alois Pichler was almost always surrounded by books. In 1869, Pichler, originally from Bavaria, became the so-called “extraordinary librarian” of the Imperial Public Library in St. Petersburg, Russia, a prestigious position that gave him a salary three times higher than the average librarian: 3,000 rubles. 

While many librarians have a deep appreciation for books, Pichler was afflicted with a specific irrepressible illness. A few months after Pichler took his position at the library, the staff discovered that an alarming number of books were disappearing from the collection. They suspected theft. Guards noticed that Pichler had been acting strangely—dropping books by the exit and hurriedly returning them to the shelves, refusing to remove his large overcoat, leaving the library several times within a day—and started paying close attention to him. 

On March, 1871, over 4,500 stolen library books on everything from perfume making to theology were found in his possession, Pichler committing the largest known library theft on record.

Pichler, who was found guilty and exiled to Siberia, was a victim of “bibliomania,” a dark pseudo-psychological illness that swept through the upper classes in Europe and England during the 1800s. Symptoms included a frenzy for culling and hunting down first editions, rare copies, books of certain sizes or printed on specific paper.

Read more here --->> Atlas Obscura

‘The Romanovs: 1613-1918,’ by Simon Sebag Montefiore

‘The Romanovs: 1613-1918,’ by Simon Sebag Montefiore - The New York Times

The story of the Romanov dynasty began in 1613 with Michael Romanov, chosen as Russia’s czar in the Time of Troubles, and ended in 1918 with Alexei Romanov, shot alongside his parents and sisters in the basement of a house in the Urals. 

In his mammoth 744-page opus, “The Romanovs,” Simon Sebag Montefiore, the eminent biographer of Joseph Stalin and Grigory Potemkin, covers the entire dynasty, from its rise to its apogee to its fall — an enterprise that has been accomplished only twice before, for reasons that become apparent just pages into the volume: It takes true historical daring to tackle such an immense subject.

See Simon's website for more details on his books

September Additions - Part 3

And, finally, Part 3 of September's additions to the Library:

Byzantium and the Rise of Russia: A Study of Byzantino-Russian Relations in the Fourteenth Century by John Meyendorff - This book describes the role of Byzantine (predominantly ecclesiastical) diplomacy in the emergence of Moscow as the capital of Russia in the fourteenth century, and the cultural, religious and political ties which connected the Northern periphery of the Byzantine Orthodox 'Commonwealth' with its centre in Constantinople. 

Colonial Ireland, 1169-1369 by Robin Frame - This book examines the processes of conquest and colonization, against the background of economic expansion and seigneurial enterprise apparent elsewhere in Britain and Europe. It also explores the nature and extent of colonial retreat, and the political and cultural adjustments that were evident amid the less favorable conditions of the 14th century.

The Kingdom of the Isles: Scotland's Western Seaboard C.1100-C.1336 by Andrew McDonald - Exploring the history of Scotland's western seaboard during the central Middle Ages, this study discusses three interrelated themes: the existence of the Isles and coastal mainland as a kingdom; the monarchs of the region, from Somerled to his descendant John MacDonald, the first Lord of the Isles; and the complex relations among the Isles, Scotland, Norway, and England. 

Thomas Becket : Warrior, Priest, Rebel, Victim: a 900-year-old Story Retold by John Guy - The story of "Thomas Becket" is the story of an enigma, as well as of one of the most tumultuous periods in English history. Drawing on a vast array of contemporary records, personal letters and first-hand accounts, John Guy has reconstructed a psychologically compelling, stunningly nuanced and utterly convincing account of this most remarkable man, the dramatic times in which he lived and the pivotal role he played in his nation's history.

The Royal Stuarts : A History of the Family That Shaped Britain by Allan Massie - Exploring the family's lineage from the first Stuart king to the last, The Royal Stuarts is a panoramic history of the family that acted as a major player in the Scottish Wars of Independence, the Union of the Crowns, the English Civil War, the Restoration, and more. Drawing on the accounts of historians past and present, novels, and plays, this is the complete story of the Stuart family, documenting their path from the salt marshes of Brittany to the thrones of Scotland and England and eventually to exile. 

The Audacious Crimes of Colonel Blood : The Spy Who Stole the Crown Jewels and Became the King's Secret Agent by Robert Hutchinson - Bestselling historian Robert Hutchinson paints a vivid portrait of a double agent bent on ambiguous political and personal motivation, and provides an extraordinary account of the perils and conspiracies that abounded in Restoration England.

Most Beautiful Princess - Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna

Christina Croft talks about "Most Beautiful Princess – A Novel Based on the life of Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia".

In the early hours of the morning 18^th July 1918, two carts left the small Siberian town of Alapaevsk and followed the Sinyachikhenskaya road to a disused mine. There, soldiers alighting from the carts, ordered eight blindfolded prisoners - six men and two women - to walk forwards and, striking their heads with rifle butts, forced them one after another into the waterlogged shaft. Having hurled hand grenades after them into the pit, the soldiers assumed their task was complete and were about to leave when to their amazement the sound of singing echoed from beneath the ground. From a ledge nineteen metres below a woman was singing the Russian Orthodox hymn: ‘Lord Save Your People.’

Some weeks later as the First World War drew to its bloody conclusion across Europe, battles still raged for control of revolutionary Russia. With the arrival of the White Army in Alapaevsk, the bodies were recovered from the mine: five grand dukes, a companion, and two middle-aged nuns. By the side of the incorrupt body of one of the nuns lay an unexploded grenade, on her breast an icon of Christ.

How did a fairy-tale princess, granddaughter of Queen Victoria, cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm II and King George V, and sister-in-law of two Russian Tsars come to so terrible an end? ‘Ravishingly beautiful’, ‘saintly’, ‘enigmatic’, revered as a saint by the poor of Moscow, what drove the Lutheran daughter of Princess Alice to turn her into the Russian Imperial Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, then ‘Matushka’ mother of the poor, and finally Holy Imperial Martyr Saint Elizabeth? Why did the gentle Elizabeth of Hesse-Darmstadt, described by one her admirers as ‘the most beautiful creature of God I have ever seen’, die of infected wounds and starvation in a mineshaft in Siberia?

These were some of the questions which prompted me to write: Most Beautiful Princess – A novel based on the life of Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia (link: http://www.amazon.com/Most-Beautiful-Princess-Elizabeth-ebook/dp/B004JXVVQG/ref=pd_rhf_dp_p_t_1 ), whose life was so remarkable that it amazes me that so few people have even heard of her.

At the age of nineteen, ‘Ella’ married Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich, a younger brother of Tsar Alexander III. From the moment she arrived in Russia, she became the object of both adulation and gossip, as rumours of her unhappy marriage and the alleged cruelty of her husband swept across Europe, even to the ears of her doting grandmother, Queen Victoria. Highly-strung, domineering and obsessed with order, Serge’s strong reactionary views had made him many enemies in Russia, and Ella’s absolute submission to his whims led to speculation that he treated her as little more than a glamorous ornament. The fact that the couple remained childless suggested that the marriage remained unconsummated, and increasingly salacious stories spread through Russia and beyond. For twenty years Ella endured the slanders and, following her conversion to Orthodoxy, found comfort in the practice of her religion, her devotion to charitable causes, and her overriding determination to bring to bring about the marriage of her younger sister, Alix, to the future Tsar Nicholas II. Despite immense opposition from both families – and especially from Queen Victoria - Ella ardently believed that this marriage was meant to be and promised Nicholas that she ‘move heaven and earth’ to bring Alix to Russia. For six years she argued and cajoled and when at last the engagement was announced, she could take pleasure in the knowledge that she had virtually single-handedly engineered the match...which, sadly, was to lead to such tragedy in 1918.

In 1905, in the wake of the disastrous Russo-Japanese War, discontent spread through Russia bringing the country to the verge of a revolution, which would claim the life of Ella’s husband, by then the Governor General of Moscow. One afternoon as Ella was working on a Red Cross project in the Kremlin, she heard the sound of an explosion outside and knew at once that something had happened to Serge. Running out into the snow she discovered her husband literally blown to pieces and, though the guards tried to hold her back, she gathered the remnants of his body in her own hands and had what was left of him taken to a nearby monastery. After spending the night in prayer, she visited the prison where his assassin was being held captive, to assure him of her forgiveness and to find out what had driven him to commit such a crime. From then on, Ella’s life changed dramatically. After twenty years of stagnation in a glittering palace, she gave away literally all she possessed – her palaces, furs, cars, even her wedding ring – and, purchasing a piece of land in the poorest district of Moscow, built a hospital, orphanage and convent where she trained as nurse and personally treated the most abject of patients. Wandering at night through the slums and backstreets, she gathered the orphans and child prostitutes and provided them with a home. Her schemes for the improvement of housing for students and young workers and her tireless efforts on behalf of the poor soon led the Muscovites to revere her as a saint. Wherever she went crowds gathered to ask for her blessing and to kiss the hem of her garment as she passed, but, while she won the hearts of the poor, the rich could only gaze askance in horror. To the aristocracy her way of life was a scandal, demeaning to the Imperial Family; and further divisions arose between Ella and her sister, Alix, due to Ella’s opposition to the Tsarina’s guide and friend, Rasputin.The First World War brought further heartache for Ella and Alix. Though both worked indefatigably for the Russian wounded, they could not hide their German origins and were accused of spying for the enemy. Spat at or even stoned in the street, Ella continued her work with the poor, while desperately pleading with Alix to part with Rasputin whose constant presence was bringing the dynasty to disaster. Alix refused to listen to the warnings and in one bitter scene, told Ella to leave the palace. They would never meet again.

In the early months of the Revolution, the Communists were so impressed by Ella’s care for the poor that she was allowed to continue her work unimpeded but the Bolsheviks seized power in 1918, the days of the Romanovs were numbered. Ella’s cousin and former suitor, Kaiser Wilhelm pleaded with her to escape to Germany before it was too late, but she refused to abandon her orphans. At Easter 1918, she was arrested and taken to Siberia where, the day after the massacre of the Tsar and his family, she was murdered.

Several weeks after her death, when the bodies were recovered from the mine, Ella’s alone remained incorrupt. Even a year later when the coffins were transported to China, Ella’s body remained intact. In 1921 her elder sister, Victoria (grandmother of the present Duke of Edinburgh), had her body taken to the Orthodox Church on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem from where many miracles have been reported. Sixty years later, she was canonised by the Russian Orthodox Church and her statue now stands above the West Door of Westminster Abbey with those of other 20^th century martyrs.

‘Most Beautiful Princess’ - based on my earlier biography of Ella, which was short listed for the Biographers’ Club Award in 2004 – is available in paperback and in Kindle, Nook and Apple format.

Please visit Christina at:

Hillard & Croft

Shattered Crowns

Christina's Blog: Grand Duchess Elizabeth & Other Stories