Born into a privileged world, he lived in lavish luxury growing up in some of the most magnificent of the Romanov palaces: the Marble Palace in St. Petersburg, the Constantine Palace at Strelna, Pavlovsk and the family’s country estate at Ostashevo.

His memoirs, published here for the first time in English, paint a magnificent portrait of the beauty and splendour of the Russian Court in its twilight years before the First World War.

Gabriel recalls many events at the Russian Court, which he describes in vivid detail: elaborate balls and lavish dinners, four royal weddings, the Coronation of Tsar Nicholas II, and the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty.

His memoirs also share many new anecdotes about his parents, his brothers and sisters, as well as those of his extended family. These included grand dukes and duchesses, princes and princesses. Gabriel paints a very sympathetic portrait of the last tsar, whom he held in very high regard.

His more solemn memories relive the personal pain he experienced at the death of his brother Oleg, his beloved father, and the horrors of World War One and his imprisonment.

He experienced the nightmare of the Revolution that was to engulf his beloved Russia. His release from prison and escape from certain death at the hands of the Bolsheviks is nothing short of a miracle, thanks to the efforts of his wife. Together, they fled to Finland and lived the rest of their lives in exile in Paris.

Gabriel’s memoirs are supplemented with excerpts from the diaries of his brother, Oleg, who perished in 1914, and his wife, Antonina Raphailovna Nesterovskaya, whom he married in 1917.

This is the story of a member of the Romanov dynasty who lived to tell his story of life at the Russian Court. Now, after more than half a century, his story may finally be read and appreciated in the English language.