Memoirs of a Noble Lady: From Lady-in-Waiting to Emigrant. From a Sunken World

Countess Maria Eduardovna Kleinmichel was a socialite from the upper echelons of the Russian Empire, who lived through the reigns of three emperors and personally knew many individuals who left their mark on history. Having journeyed from a young lady-in-waiting... to an elderly hostess of a Petersburg salon, where she warmly welcomed aristocrats, ministers, generals, and diplomats, she became involved in many secrets of political life. She was already over 70 years old when 1917 forever changed life in Russia. Finding herself in emigration, Countess Kleinmichel felt it her duty to write her memoirs about the 'sunken world' of the Russian Empire, as she certainly had much to recall.