Book Review: THE JEWEL OF ST. PETERSBURG by Kate Furnivall

Surprise on me, initially I turned this one down for review because I was in review overload at the moment. After I looked up Kate Furnivall on my usual book sites I quickly recanted my decision.  I can confirm Kate Furnivall is a rising star in historical fiction, now I just need to find the time to fit in  “The Russian Concubine”



Revolutionary Russia was a scary, way scary time period. It is right up there with The French Revolution in my mind. In other words no one was safe and life was filled with constant threats. Kate’s leading lady Valentina was beautiful, kind, and exquisitely talented at playing the piano with her soul. She felt the music because it was part of who she was. Tragedy struck the family home when the revolutionary group the Bolsheviks set off a bomb that left Valentina’s little sister Katya paralyzed. What was shocking is that they would pick on her family like that but her father was part of the Tsar’s group and was a Baron. One positive that came out of such a negative was the attack inspired Valentina to become a dedicated nurse.


Valentina first laid eyes on the hot “Viking” Jens Friis during a private piano performance for the Tsar. Jens was a Danish engineer that came to Russia to work for the Tsar on building Russia a whole underground sewer system. Since Russia never had anything like the sewers before you can only imagine the daily struggles Jens faced. His mission was for the greater good of the people. Valentina and Jens shared that special aspect where at the core they were givers, lovers of people, and the kind of people that would give you the shirt off their back if you needed it.


In the time when the Russian people could not be forced any lower, the political unrest lead to anger among the working class. The people had every right to be angry; they had no clean water, no job safety, and bad politics leading them down an even worse path than before. Sadly the people had eventually lost all hope of the future and had begun to openly rebel. The unrest in Russia came to its zenith when Valentina and Jens were just starting to find their way in life. It became clear that home was not safe and Jens’ job was not safe either because it was the working class who dug out the new sewer tunnels. It was made with the sweat and blood of the working class. Sadly not all who went to work in the morning came back home at the end of the day. Dying at work was a reality, starving was more than likely, and when the hope for the future died it was replaced with anger for the “privileged” people like Jens and Valentina. Russia demanded change, it needed change but Jens and Valentina would become swept up with the blood storm of a country in the middle of a revolution.


5/5 what I enjoyed most about this book was Valentina. Not because she was beautiful or because she played the piano but that she genuinely cared about people. She loved her sister beyond words and did everything she could to care for her not just physically but spiritually also. It is one thing to love a sister but to give that kind of love to a stranger is another thing that Valentina did with out hesitation or thought. The other aspect I most enjoyed was Kate’s impeccable gift of relaying the specific details. Kate gives the readers a real treat; you live and breathe Russia through Valentina. Taking in the smallest details like the smell of the city, smoke billowing off a shotgun, the much humanized staff that cared for Valentina’s home, Kate even covered the filth and garbage in the streets. Historical fiction does not get much better than this. The only thing that would even come close is actually teleporting back into time to Revolutionary Russia. Besides this book has the best ending I have read in a long time.

PG-13 For mild violence and language
FTC- This book was sent to me by the publisher

Amazon

The Amber Room discovered? Time will Tell

The Amber room which falls for me into the category of the Seven Wonders of the world has always fascinated me. It has even been dubbed by some as the "eighth wonder" of the world. Mysterious and alluring as it is what is it that is so fascinating about it? Besides being a whole room made completely of the precious stone Amber, it is a gem of Russian history.

To the left is a picture of the original Amber Room before WWII

It had been said that when all the candles were lit the room glowed gold. Which would not surprise me since amber is light reflective. It had to have been a sight to behold, rendering one speechless.

1716 it was given by Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm I to his then ally, Tsar Peter the Great of Russia. In Russia it was expanded and after several renovations, it covered more than 55 square meters and contained over six tons of amber.

Later the room was looted by Nazi Germany during WWII even after it was covered with wall paper to conceal its location. The Nazi's still found it and German soldiers disassembled the Amber Room within 36 hours under the supervision of two experts supposedly to be sent to Königsberg in East Prussia. The pieces were put into crates and from there is where the mystery begins.

Some believe the crates were seen at a railway station in Königsberg and it is possible they might have been loaded onto a boat that was sunk by a Soviet submarine. Another possible avenue might be it was taken to Weimar, the location of a "planned propaganda center". At one point later in the war Königsberg was heavily bombed and the the remains of the castle were destroyed by The Red Army in the 1960's.

The castle to the left is Königsberg before WWI.

Never to be found again the mysterious disappearance of The Amber Rooms pieces has intrigued many over the years. In 1997 one Italian stone mosaic that was part of a set of four which had decorated the Amber Room did turn up in western Germany, in the possession of the family of a soldier who had helped pack up the Amber Room

Amber which consists of fossilized tree resin, has always been prized for its natural beauty. Yes just like in Jurassic park it does contain some natural elements like animal and plant material. The uniqueness of Amber also come with a down side. If it is not properly cared for it will turn to dust. Even with modern day Amber jewelry you can not spray perfume or hairspray even possibly near it or it will develop a whitish film on it that may be permante. It is so sensitive it can not rub together like in beads, steam cleaners and ultrasonic cleaners will shatter the gem, it can not come into contact with any strong solutions, soaps, detergents, commercial jewelry cleaning solutions. Even kitchen substances such as lard, salad oil, butter and excessive heat of ovens and burners. Do not place amber art objects near heating ducts or in direct sunshine. Displays in lighted showcases should be properly ventilated. Avoid exposure to sudden changes of temperature, such as hot tubs, very cold water, and reaching into ovens, followed by a cold sink.

A recreated Amber room exist today at Catherine Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Someday I would love to see it for myself. I have been following the story of the Amber Room for some time becasue it perodically has showed up in the news. People stating that they think they might have found it but all have came back with empty hands. No Amber, no nothing. Until now a man who might be the closest to come to finding it.

"Priceless Amber Room of the Tsars, looted and hidden by the Nazis, is found by Russia treasure hunter"

"The Amber Room of the Tsars - one of the greatest missing treasures of WW2 that was looted by the Nazis during their invasion of the Soviet Union - may have been found.
A Russian treasure hunter is currently excavating in the enclave of Kaliningrad where he has discovered a World War II era bunker that the local German high command used in the battle for the city in 1945.
If Sergei Trifonov is correct then he has solved one of the greatest riddles left over from the war - and will make himself into a multi-millionaire."

"He anticipates that he will break into the bunker by the end of the month to find the treasure."

The real issue I see is if this man really does get into the bunker and finds the original crates that the Amber panels were loaded into then what about the actual Amber. With no one around to maintain its up keep then the Amber would it not have turned to dust? Time being the enemy here would there really be anything to find or just a pile of dust and some empty crates?


Thank you to the lovely Michelle Moran for posting this wonderful news link on the search for the amber room. It just happens to be another one of my historical obsessions.

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, The Last Royal Family of Imperial Russia

During my college years I became obsessed with the last royal family of Russia. I spent hours in the library reading anything it had to offer on Nicholas II. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that Leslie Carroll include a section all about the last Tsar in "Notorious Royal Marriages". Reading the section on Nicholas and his wife Alexandria from a lovers point of view was a whole new aspect for me. One that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The family that was doomed from the beginning shared a unique quality that as Leslie stated "They were exemplary spouses and parents who lovingly raised their five sweet-natured children in a cozy domestic environment". Their marriage being a true love match they never cheated and truly loved each other.

Almost every living person knows of the story of Nicholas daughter Anastasia. She was labeled as the "lost princess". Rumors were fueled by the fact that the location of her burial was unknown during the decades of Communist rule. 20th Century Fox even went as far as to make a cartoon movie about her in 1997 where Rasputin was chasing her as an undead sorcerer fulfilling his promise of "The Romanov Curse". Through out the years after the families demise many women came forward claiming to be the lost princess, one in particular named Anna Anderson stood out from the rest. Some even believed she really was Anastasia. Later DNA test would prove that Anna had no relation to the Romanov family.

Initially I was drawn to their story because of a story my professor had told me. I am really unclear if it is true or not but the story goes that when the Tsarina was being held with her children and they knew that it was all over, she had sewn into their clothing precious gems mostly diamonds just in case they need money for an escape in the future. When the family was to be executed the bullets from the assassins ricocheted off of the gems and that they had to be executed up close. Here is what the wiki says:

"The executioners drew revolvers and the shooting began. Nicholas was the first to die; Yurovsky shot him multiple times in the head and chest. Anastasia, Tatiana, Olga, and Maria survived the first hail of bullets; the sisters were wearing over 1.3 kilograms of diamonds and precious gems sewn into their clothing, which provided some initial protection from the bullets and bayonets. They were stabbed with bayonets and then shot at close range in the head."

Morbid fascination I know... but then I discovered Faberge eggs. As an artist I was baffled. The detail of craftsmanship is impeccable nothing is even comparable to them. Each one was unique and given for a reason, even if that reason was a just a token of affection for the Easter holiday. The saddest part to me is that to this day there are many missing eggs. Many of them disappeared when the palace was looted. The missing eggs are in chronological order of creation: Hen with Sapphire Pendant, Cherub with Chariot, Nécessaire, Alexander III Portraits, Mauve, Empire Nephrite, Royal Danish.

It would come to be that in our life time the remains of the entire royal family would be found and DNA tested and the family could finally have their peace. Here is the timeline of discovery for the families remains:

1979: The bodies of Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra, three of their daughters, and those of four non-family members killed with them, were discovered near Yekaterinburg by an amateur archaeologist.

1998: The remains excavated from underneath the dirt road near Yekaterinburg were officially identified as those of Nicholas II and his family excluding one of the sisters, and Alexei. After the testing the remains were finally interred at St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg on 17 July 1998, eighty years after they were murdered.

2007: Builder Sergei Pogorelov (part of a team from an amateur history group who spent free summer weekends looking for the lost Romanov's) said that after stumbling on a small burned area of ground covered with nettles near Yekaterinburg he had discovered bones that belonged to "a boy and a young woman roughly the ages of Nicholas’ 13-year-old hemophiliac son, Alexei, and a daughter whose remains also never have been found. Acting on standard procedures, prosecutors reopened the investigation surrounding the deaths of the Imperial Family.

2008: DNA tests performed by a U.S. laboratory proved that bone fragments exhumed in the Ural Mountains belonged to two members of the Imperial Family, Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich and Grand Duchess Maria, according to Russian news agencies. Russia's Supreme Court ruled that Nicholas II and his family were victims of political repression and should be rehabilitated.

2009: Results of the DNA testing were published, confirming that the two bodies discovered in 2007 were those of Alexei and his sister Maria. Details relating to the forthcoming burial procedure will have to be discussed by a Russian State commission and by the Moscow Patriarchate.

I have never read a historical fiction read on the family but I would be very interested if one happened to cross my path. In the meanwhile check out the section in "Notorious Royal Marriages" about Nicholas and Alexandra by Leslie Carroll. Leslie even included the couples love entries in Nicholas journal which will just melt your heart and make you fall in love this royal family. Be sure to check out Arleigh's interview with Leslie on Historical Fiction, it is a good one too!