‘12th June 1812 ‘There’s a rumour that our man in Paris, Kurakin, demanded his passport some time ago, and Lauriston, it seems, is now on his way home to France,’ Aristov commented. Pavel looked through the window of the carriage into the warm summer evening. Although this news of the Russian and French ambassadors didn’t […]
Author: Jennifer Antill
Russian connections at Blickling Hall
Recently we revisited Blickling Hall in Norfolk and were reminded that one of the rooms there displays a huge tapestry of Peter the Great at the battle of Poltava. The tapestry was a gift from Catherine the Great to John Hobart, the second Earl of Buckinghamshire (1723 -1793), whose portrait by Thomas Gainsborough (before 1784) […]
Summerfolk, a review
In her illuminating programme note accompanying the recent production of Summerfolk at the National Theatre, the cultural historian, Rosamund Bartlett, describes Maxim Gorky’s third play as a ‘grotesque next chapter’ to Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard (2003). Summerfolk was first staged in Moscow in November 1904, some four months after Chekhov’s death. Chekhov had been corresponding […]
To err is human….
‘Her taste exact for perfect fact amounts to a disease’ W.S. Gilbert (The Mikado) I hope that my novels are historically accurate and that, by and large, the facts within them are correct. I regret to say however that I have spotted one or two small mistakes in my first published novel, Small Acts of […]
Remembering the Decembrists
The Imperial Life Guards Regiment during the uprising of December 14th 1825 Senate Square. (19th Century). Vasily Timm (1820 -1895).The Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg. ‘The historical value of revolutions depends upon three conditions: upon what they destroy, upon what they create and upon the legend that they leave behind…The Decembrists have not destroyed anything or […]
Napoleon in Moscow
Napoleon Bonaparte receiving the keys of Vienna at the Schloss Schonbrunn , 13th November 1805. (1808) Anne-Louise Girodet de Roussey-Trioson (1767-1824) When Napoleon defeated his enemies in battle he expected the vanquished to concede and hand the keys of their capital cities to him. This occurred in Vienna (twice), Berlin and Madrid in the early […]
Mrs Adams in Winter
Sometimes you come across a book that would have been really useful when working on a project years ago! My talk ‘Russian Roads’ was developed in the early 2000’s. It is a rather eclectic mix that examines travelling in Russia through the ages. It also illustrates the work of the Peredvizhniki, the group of Russian […]
The Streltsy
Tom Holland and Dominic Sandford, on their excellent podcast ‘The rest is history’, recently featured a series on the subject of Peter the Great and the Great Northern War. I have not yet had time to listen to the whole narrative, but I much enjoyed the first episode which told the story of Peter’s early […]
Diplomatic Immunity
Right: Charles Whitworth, 1st Baron Whitworth (1675-1725) Guillaume Birochon Left: Andrey Artemovich Matveev (1666-1728) Artist unknown My Royal Connections talk is now complete and I recently delivered it for the first time at Brantham Historical Society. I think that it went well, although it was challenging to fit almost a thousand years of history into […]
A modest proposal
Ivan the Terrible showing his treasure to the English Ambassador. (Alexander Litovchenko 1875) The Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg. Did Ivan the Terrible propose to Elizabeth the First of England? I have been researching my Royal Connections talk that I will be giving to several historical societies later this year. Relations between the Russian and English […]