Emperor Alexander I and His Court: Reminiscences of a Lady-in-Waiting to Two Russian Empresses on the High Nobility of the Era of the Patriotic War of 1812

8 hrs. 2 min.

Language Russian

Author Sofiya de Shuozel'-Guf'e

Narrator Irina Yakovleva

Description

A representative of the Polish-Lithuanian aristocracy, Countess Sophia de Choiseul-Gouffier was awarded the court women’s title of lady-in-waiting in the retinue of the Russian empresses Elizabeth Alexeyevna (the wife of Alexander I) and Maria Feodorovna (the mother of Alexander I). In 1812, she met the Russian Emperor Alexander I, with whom she developed friendly relations that were maintained until the end of the Russian monarch’s life. During the Patriotic War of 1812, she experienced the French occupation of Vilnius, where she met Napoleon Bonaparte, demonstrating in a striking manner her support for the Russian emperor and his policy. These memoirs are not only personal recollections of meetings with the emperors Alexander I and Napoleon, as well as with Field Marshal M.I. Kutuzov, whom she also knew, but also an account of the period of Alexander I’s reign, the Russo-French war, the fate of Vilnius during the occupation and its liberation by the Russian army.
Published in full in Russian for the first time.

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