Romanov Riches: Russian Writers and Artists Under the Tsars

In this sweeping cultural history, Solomon Volkov effortlessly unwinds the twisted relationship between art and the royal family from the rise of the Romanovs in 1613 to their downfall in 1917. Throughout the Romanov dynasty, Russia's great artists served two masters: their craft and their tsar. Now, Volkov illuminates as never before the complex system of patronage and loyalty that bound the artists to the monarchs, and vice versa. He explains how Pushkin, the rebellious poet, was suffered by — and then suffered under — Alexander I; he explores why Nicholas I never embraced Gogol, in spite of the writer's outspoken nationalism; we see how Dostoevsky — the last great literary defender of the monarchy — was won over to the tsarist cause after Alexander II released the writer from prison in Siberia; and how composers such as Glinka and Tchaikovsky, and painters including Ivanov and Briullov, navigated the royal court. Romanov Riches is a work of epic scale in which the individual comes vividly to life. It is an essential work that helps us grasp Russia's passionate, and timeless, devotion to its most important artists.