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The Romanovs: Their Empire, Their Books
From: The New York Public Library
| By:
Richard WortmanMarc RaeffEdward KasinecRobert Davis |
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION |
After the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, portions of the rich collections of art, music and literature of the emperors and tsars of the Romanov dynasty, who ruled the Russian empire for 300 years, were scattered throughout the world. More than 3,000 books formerly held in the libraries of the Romanov leaders were collected by The New York Public Library in the 1920s and '30s. This collection provides unique insight into the minds of the Romanov leaders and into the values, goals and character of their reigns.
In 1997, the library exhibited a selection of this collection. Here, curators of "The Romanovs: Their Empire, Their Books," examine the Romanovs' collections of historical, cultural and intellectual material and discuss what these books tell us about one of the world's most powerful empires. |
 he glorious palaces, exquisite art and music, and opulent  furniture and jewelry of the Russian imperial family are survivors of a lost age and are familiar to many Westerners, thanks to countless exhibits of such materials here and abroad. A much less well known, yet equally tangible, legacy of the Romanov dynasty is the books that once lined the shelves of their personal and palace collections. The sales to Westerners of nationalized fine and decorative art from Romanov residences in the 1920s--sales that brought the many Fabergé eggs and Old Master paintings into private collections in America--were paralleled by the less readily appreciated sales of books, manuscripts and photographic albums. |
"The Romanovs: Their Empire, Their Books," a 1997 exhibition by The New York Public Library's Slavic and Baltic Division, presented a selection of some 124 items from a collection of more than 3,000 Romanov volumes acquired by The New York Public Library during the 1920s and '30s. Leaving aside their intrinsic intellectual interest, many of these items are also remarkable examples of the "book beautiful and rare," in sumptuous bindings or extra-illustrated editions. Some are unique albums of original photographs; others are handwritten, or hectographed, intended for the eyes of only the very highest echelons of the tsarist government. The exhibit attempted to provide an appreciation and understanding of the complex nature and structure of the Russian empire of the eighteenth century through the twentieth century through the prism of selected volumes once owned by members of the Romanov family. These books reflect certain basic assumptions (correct or incorrect) on the part of the Romanov dynasty, concerning the multi-ethnic culture and society over which it ruled for more than three centuries. |
Interspersed among the volumes on display were objects of Russian secular and ecclesiastical art. During the 1920s and '30s, American dealers of Russian artifacts employed books from the Romanov libraries as decoration for displaying the works of art and religion which they so readily sold. Focusing on the actual library collections, however, stands this traditional idea of Romanov "riches" on its head, making books the focus of attention and demonstrating that, in many respects, a finely bound tome or photo album is, in its own way, every bit as spectacular as the objects we traditionally associate with the imperial house. |
The majority of the books, manuscripts, watercolors and original photographs selected for the 1997 exhibit were primarily the property of five Romanovs: Alexander II, Alexander III, Nicholas II (and his immediate family), and the Grand Dukes Vladimir Aleksandrovich and Konstantin Konstantinovich. Of the many palace collections, the Great Catherine Palace at Tsarskoe Selo was best represented. |
Empire
During the 300-year reign of the Romanov dynasty, their realm kept expanding.  The tsars and emperors acquired (in modern terminology) Ukraine and Crimea, the Baltic States, most of Poland, Belarus, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Maritime Territory in the Pacific, and Russian America. It was not easy to have complete knowledge and understanding of the extremely varied physical features of this empire, whose contours and limits were the object of constant explorations. This was also the case for its economic resources and for its numerous peoples, differing in looks, speech, religion and traditions. While these peoples had long been the subject of study by generations of ethnographers, such works are not in evidence to any great degree in imperial collections, except for the core European regions and the Caucasus. This emphasis says a great deal about the thrust of their intellectual interests and political priorities. |
The legitimacy of a modern state or empire rests largely on a continuity with the past that fosters a sense of stability and identity among the population. The establishment of a "canon" of historical memories to connect past and present is a major element in reaffirming a regime's legitimacy, stability and identity. For the Romanovs, this meant awareness of the earliest periods when Christianity was introduced in Kievan Rus' during the tenth century, and the subsequent centuries when the frontier town of Moscow grew into a large sixteenth-century tsardom that eventually became the "All-Russian (Vserossiiskaia) Empire." The libraries of members of the imperial family offer ample illustration of the glorification of some key episodes in the empire's history. |
War
 Empires grow and maintain themselves through military power. The Russian empire was in constant friction, and sometimes full-scale war, with other expanding Continental (first the Tatars, the Polish-Lithuanian state, the Swedes, Ottomans, Imperial France and Great Britain) and Far Eastern powers. Little wonder that a main task of rulers was to further and preside over this power; and the primary occupation of the male members of the dynasty was to serve in the army and navy, and to enhance the public image of the empire's armed forces. Since the empire's relationships with other powers depended largely on its military strength, issues of foreign policy were part of the dynasty's concern for its armed forces. |
In their libraries, therefore, members of the imperial family allotted much room to books celebrating Russia's past wars and, depending on the owner's official military duties, depicting components of the armed forces and the regulations governing their appearance and activities. |
Exploration
 Up to the fall of the Romanovs, in 1917, the Russians were the largest population group in the empire. Their representation and ways were therefore of prime interest to members of the dynasty. Among the more than 100 other peoples or ethnic groups in the empire, only a few seemed significant enough--by virtue of their location, numbers or quaintness--to deserve attention, so imperial libraries contain only a limited and very selective literature dealing with them. Travel books enabled their owners to extend their knowledge and to document their own visits to some regions of the realm. |
Work and Leisure
The nineteenth century was a period of rapid technological innovations that transformed all aspects of society. The enthusiasm engendered by scientific and technological progress led to the wish to take periodic stock and to display the accomplishments already attained. In imitation of the first universal exhibition of industrial products at the specially built Crystal Palace in London (1851), the major countries organized similar regional, national and international fairs. Members of the imperial family served as sponsors and honorary chairmen of these displays, and their libraries contained informative printed records of many of them. |
The endless stream of formal ceremonies at official functions, coupled with the very real  strains of ruling over an empire with complex political (and often familial) relationships with other nations, all competing for international influence, made for an often stressful, always fatiguing, existence. The Romanovs of the nineteenth century sought relief through the warmth of family life and indulging in favorite leisure activities, from swimming to painting. |
Culture
Russian imperial culture was predominantly secular and of West European inspiration. This also determined the schooling received by all members of the imperial family and their subsequent literary and artistic interests. Since the second half of the eighteenth century, the Russian educational system for the elite classes had included secondary schools and military educational institutions, as well as day and boarding schools for girls on the secondary level. Members of the larger imperial family attended and served as honorary patrons of many of them. |
Publications related to various aspects of cultural and school life occupied a prominent place in imperial libraries. Yet the emphasis on pride in Russia's own cultural achievements went beyond mere recognition--it was also used as an important tool in the government's efforts to assimilate non-Russian populations as well. |
Faith
 In the seventeenth century, Moscow's public culture was still firmly anchored in Orthodoxy and under the aegis of the Church. Although Peter I (the Great) peremptorily reoriented the cultural life of the elites toward Western European secular models, the church--and religion--continued to play a major part in the private life of the people and in ceremonial displays of tsarist authority. But, by the early twentieth century, many among the common people withdrew from the official, state-dominated church and formed separate communities of Orthodox "Old Believers" as well as various sects, which were persecuted, and often prosecuted, for their deviation from the official Church. |
To reinforce the image and authority of the imperial dynasty and to illustrate its antiquity, as well as its close relationship with the church, the government of Nicholas II sponsored the canonization of new saints and, in 1913, staged a series of sumptuous public celebrations of the accession, in 1613, of Michael, the first Romanov, to the Russian throne. |
Sellers, salesmen and buyers
How did these books end up in America? By the time of the October Revolution of 1917, the wealth of the Romanov dynasty and imperial elite was staggering, making the Russian court's rulers and grandees among the most splendid in all of Europe. In the two decades after the Revolution, however, various Soviet ministries and agencies first confiscated much of this wealth, and then sold portions of it abroad to Western collections and collectors at auction and, more surreptitiously, through an assortment of art dealers, antiquarians, businessmen and librarians. The beautiful icons, furniture, decorative arts, books, manuscripts and photographs found receptive buyers among both Western European and American museum and library collections. These Soviet government-sponsored sales provided an additional and much-needed source of foreign (hard) currency during a period of economic and political isolation and rapid industrialization during the late 1920s and early 1930s. |
Western perspectives
It is important to keep in mind that The New York Public Library's beautiful and unusual books from imperial palaces constitute only one component of its documentation of Eastern Europe, the vast Russian empire, and Eurasia. "The Romanovs: Their Empire, Their Books" exhibition contained a small selection of Western views of the Russia of the Romanovs, drawn from the library's non-Slavic-language holdings. Such materials constitute one of North America's greatest rare Rossica collections (i.e., works about Russia by foreigners). The collection specifically reflects the careful selections made by generations of curators and librarians, and, generally, the West's long-standing fascination with Europe's last--and perhaps greatest--empire. |
This feature was derived from "The Romanovs: Their Empire, Their Books. The Political, Religious, Cultural, and Social Life of Russia's Imperial House," a 1997 exhibition held at The New York Public Library, Humanities and Social Sciences Library, of materials drawn from the Slavic, Baltic, East European and Eurasian collections. Copyright 2001 The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. All rights reserved. |
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