This book, written by my Mother, is a factual account of what happened to her aristocratic family when the Bolsheviks seized power in the October Revolution of 1.917. Every word spoken at the time was recorded in my mothers diary. The reader will soon understand how vital her survival depended on what was said - to and by - her, and the words quoted as direct discourse are as nearly as possible a faithful account of her experience during that horrific, outrageous period in Russian history. Elizabeth Antonova and her family were all too obvious a target. for the paranoid, xenophobic, and culture hating Revolutionaries. Her lonely, deprived months in prison were punctuated by relentless interrogations by devious, brutal inquisitors. tinder great psychological and physical duress she withstood her persecutors by adamantly insisting on her innocence, and finally - at long last - she triumphed.

Although Elizabeth Antonova's tile contains much suffering and sadness, the book is an exhilarating read, affording the privilege of intimacy with a wonderful writer and courageous woman who embodies the nobility of the human spirit. I am so very proud of her.