A bit too partisan for me, as the author seem determined to see the Russian Aristocracy as uniformly noble, sensitive and cultured and as blameless victims of a monstrous revolution. True of some no doubt, but the tales of eking out a post-revolution living as a museum curator in their old dacha, or having to sell paintings to survive or having to flee to relatives in Switzerland aren't anywhere near as harrowing as what other elements of Russian society had to deal with, both before and after the revolution. Easy for me to write in my comfortable chair in my comfortable house in my comfortable life having never known any hardship.
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