32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A worthy companion to Nicholas and Alexandra, March 28, 2002
This review is from: Little Mother of Russia: A Biography of Empress Marie Fedorovna (1847-1928) (Hardcover)
This biography of the last Dowager Empress of Russia should be shelved next to Robert K. Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra. Like Massie's work, this biography by Coryne Hall does more than just cover the life of its subject, it successfully evokes the last sixty years or so of the Romanov Dynasty, Russia, and Europe.
Dowager Empress Marie Fedorovna was born into an obscure branch of the Danish Royal Family with little money and fewer prospects. Her rise to fame and fortune began when her father was adopted as the heir to the Danish throne, making her and her siblings acceptable spouses for the royal houses of Europe. Marie (or Dagmar, as she was originally named) had one sister who married the Prince of Wales, a brother who became King of Greece,and another who became King of Denmark. Dagmar herself was picked to be the wife of the Tsar of Russia's heir.
Dagmar/Marie seems to have sincerely loved her fiancee, Tsarevich Nicholas, and she was devastated when he died a few months after their engagement. Nevertheless she was able to accept and eventually love Nicholas's younger brother Alexander, and together they produced what seems to have been an unusually happy royal family of five children. Marie became Empress of Russia under the horrifying circumstances of the assassination of her father-in-law, and the reign of her husband Tsar Alexander III was tense and reactionary. Marie seems to have been utterly loyal and loving, and although Hall tries to paint her as a secret liberal, no evidence is given that she ever tried to moderate any of her husband's policies.
When Alexander III died in 1894 Marie's oldest son became Tsar Nicholas II. Here we see Marie's less admirable side as her cold treatment of her daughter-in-law Alexandra cut the ground from under the new Empress almost as soon as she arrived in Russia. Hall cannot offer an explanation for the two womens' lack of sympathy beyond saying that they were simply too different. As the book goes on, this lack of sympathy becomes even more tragic, as Alexandra came under the thrall of Rasputin and Nicholas's fatalism caused him to take less and less action as Russia weakened and collapsed. One senses that the Tsar and Empress could have used a dollop of good Danish common sense every now and then!
The last part of the book is the most heroic. Marie stuck it out in Russia, to her own considerable endangerment, until late in the Revolution and only consented to leave if her companions were also allowed to do so. During her last few years she stubbornly maintained as much grandeur as possible (to the considerable aggravation of her relatives who paid her bills) and died in her native country in 1928. She is buried in the Danish Royal Family's crypt. I hope that eventually her last wish, that she be reburied beside her husband in St. Petersburg, can be realized. It would be a fitting final tribute.
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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The first new bio of Dagmar since the 1960's, September 30, 2001
This review is from: Little Mother of Russia: A Biography of Empress Marie Fedorovna (1847-1928) (Hardcover)
It's been a long time since any new research has been done on Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia. Most recent works have concentrated on Nicholas and Alexandra to the exclusion of the rest of the Romanovs.
Marie' was born as Dagmar, a princess of the Danish Royal house and was sister to Queen Alexandra of Britian and King George of Greece. Her life was long and eventful. She came from an impoverished royal familiy, ended empress of the richest royal house in Europe and finally an exile with the bulk of her Russian family and relations killed in the revolution. The sole "imperial" survivor.
This book presents information that I haven't seen before. The author has had access to new sources inside Russia that weren't available for earlier biographies and it makes this book worth reading as I found a few suprises in information, especially in regards to her first engagement.
A worthwhile and timely update of Dagmars life that explains the sorces of many of the conflicts of the 19th century and gives us an overview of imperial life from the 1860's to the 1920's,
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating but flawed..., May 25, 2005
This review is from: Little Mother of Russia: A Biography of Empress Marie Fedorovna (1847-1928) (Hardcover)
As a die-hard Romanov fan, I found the story of Empress Marie Feodorovna in Little Mother of Russia by Coryne Hall to be fascinating. Unfortunately, errors and oversights by Hall kept this from being a truly great biography.
Marie, the former Princess Dagmar of Denmark, is best known as the mother of the ill-fated Tsar Nicholas II. This is a rags to riches to almost rags story. Dagmar was born into one of the poorer branches of the Danish Royal Family. Although not heir to the throne, circumstances lead to her father being crowned King Christian IX. Her sister Alix eventually became Queen Alexandra of England (married to Edward VII), and her brother became King George I of Greece. Dagmar was not as beautiful as Alix, but she had velvety eyes, a caring heart, a petite figure and a sense of style. She was originally engaged to the Russian Tsarevitch Nicholas. When Nicholas died suddenly, his brother Alexander (Sasha) took Dagmar as his bride. This was a marriage of opposites, yet it was one of the happiest among any royal family at that time. When Sasha ascended the throne on the assassination of his father, Alexander II, Dagmar became the glittering and very popular Empress Marie Feodorovna.
Sasha and Marie had a happy family life and reared five children. But their biggest failing was raising Tsarevitch Nicholas to be a weak man, totally unprepared for the crown. When Sasha died suddenly at the age of 49, Marie's life took a dramatic turn when she found herself on the outside looking in.
Nicholas was totally dominated by his wife, Alexandra. The situation became worse when after the birth of four daughters, the empress finally gave birth to a son and heir, Alexis. Soon after his birth, it was discovered that Alexis suffered from hemophilia. In desperation, Nicholas and Alexandra turned to a number of quacks and mystics before meeting up with the infamous Rasputin. Marie could only sit by helplessly as Russia headed toward revolution.
Little Mother Russia shows how Marie was a woman of contradictions. She was a loving and devoted mother to her oldest three children. But after she became empress, she became more remote and detached to the two youngest. She was an anti-Semite, yet treated Jews with kindness. She wasn't the most intelligent woman, but she was clever, witty and possessed a strong political acumen. Marie had a talent for toning down her often stubborn and autocratic husband. It wasn't until after Sasha's death that she became stubborn herself, as well as selfish and demanding.
After the revolution, Marie lost almost everything including two sons, five grandchildren, assorted in-laws, her palaces, her wealth and most of her possessions. She lived the rest of her life in her native Denmark, supported by her two nephews, King George V (England) and King Christian X (Denmark). Her meager allowances did not allow her to live as an empress, although she certainly tried.
Unfortunately, there are a number of problems that detract from this book. First, there are a number of typos and errors that are unacceptable. Little Mother of Russia is generously sprinkled with Russian terms without explanations. I had to go on Google to discover that a panikhida is a memorial service. The ending was rushed and not well documented. On page 357, she states that the remains of two bodies, believed to be Alexis and the missing grand duchess, were discovered near Ekaterinburg and were awaiting DNA testing. She does not document where she got this information, and I have not seen this mentioned anywhere else.
Even with these problems, Marie led a fascinating life and Little Mother of Russia is quite interesting. Just the photos are worth the price of the book-many never before seen. So while I thought this book was good, it could have been much better.
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