Former People

The riveting and harrowing story of the fate of the Russian nobility, from the Bolshevik Revolution to the Stalinist era.

Winner of the Pushkin House Russian Book Prize

Named a Best Book of the Year by The Kansas City Star and Salon

"Sobering stories about the politics of power―its loss, its gain―and the deep human suffering that inevitably results." ―Kirkus Reviews (starred)

Epic in scope, precise in detail, and heartbreaking in its human drama, Former People is the first book to recount the history of the aristocracy caught up in the maelstrom of the Bolshevik Revolution and the creation of Stalin's Russia. It is the story of how a centuries-old elite, famous for its glittering wealth, its service to the tsar and empire, and its promotion of the arts and culture, was dispossessed and destroyed along with the rest of old Russia. Chronicling the fate of two great aristocratic families―the Sheremetevs and the Golitsyns―it reveals how even in the darkest depths of the terror, daily life went on.

Told with sensitivity and nuance by acclaimed historian Douglas Smith, Former People is the dramatic portrait of two of Russia's most powerful aristocratic families and a sweeping account of their homeland in violent transition.

"An engaging and absorbing book." —The Wall Street Journal

"Although many of the aristocrats thought the end of their caste 'obvious and unavoidable,' few foresaw the destruction of a way of life. Smith's engaging and at times heartbreaking account is an essential record of that loss." —The New Yorker

"Smith has written a remarkable, deeply affecting book." —The Dallas Morning News