As well as having always been a city of culture, fashion and refinement, Paris has also been a place of refuge for those fleeing persecution, never more so than before and after the Russian Revolution and the fall of the Romanov dynasty. For years Russian aristocrats had enjoyed all that Belle Époque Paris had to offer, spending lavishly when they visited. It was a place of artistic experimentation, as witnessed by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. But the brutality of the Bolshevik takeover in October 1917 forced Russians from all walks of life to flee their homeland. Many sought freedom and refuge in the City of Light. Talented intellectuals, artists, poets, philosophers and writers struggled in exile, eking out a living at menial jobs – while some - like Ivan Bunin, Marc Chagall and Igor Stravinsky – encountered great success. Dr Helen Rappport will appear in conversation with our Chairman, David Brummell, when she will discuss some of the themes and individual stories she sought to explore in her book, After the Romanovs: Russian Exiles in Paris from the Belle Époque Through Revolution and War (Scribe UK – 2022).
Dr Helen Rappaport is a Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author and historian specialising in the period 1837–1918 in late Imperial and revolutionary Russia and Victorian Britain. She has written 16 books covering her broad range of historical knowledge, and is a regular contributor to history and documentary programmes for TV, radio and online media such as Netflix. As a historical consultant she most recently worked on the first two series of the ITV drama Victoria. Her published works include A Magnificent Obsession, The Romanov Sisters, Caught in the Revolution and The Race to Save the Romanovs. As a linguist with a degree in Russian Special Studies from Leeds University, she has also worked for many years as a literal translator in the theatre, specialising in the plays of Anton Chekhov.
In 2016 Helen was awarded an Honorary D.Litt by Leeds University, for her services to history.