Trubetskoi, Kn., G. N.

Gody smuty i nadezhd, 1917–1919 [Years of Turmoil and Hope, 1917–1919]

Montreal: 1981. Item #1402

112 pages. 22 cm. In original wrappers. Very Good. Light crease to lower front wrapper and some toning to spine and edges. Internally clean.

A scarce émigré edition of the candid wartime memoirs of Prince Grigorii Nikolaevich Trubetskoi (†1920), Russian diplomat and former imperial envoy to Serbia (1914–1917), offering a rare and immediate insider’s view of the formative years of the White movement in southern Russia. Based primarily on diaries kept at the time, this account presents the early anti-Bolshevik resistance—centered around the Volunteer Army in the Don region—through the eyes of a participant deeply embedded in its political and military developments.

Written without intent for publication, Trubetskoi’s notes are marked by a striking absence of retrospective myth-making or ideological coloring. The often idealized figures of General Alekseev, Kornilov, Denikin, and Krasnov are portrayed with clarity and nuance, their internal conflicts and miscalculations laid bare. Of particular value is Trubetskoi’s documentation of the tensions between Alekseev and Kornilov—two of the White movement’s foundational leaders—rendered with first-hand immediacy. Also included is a reprint of a significant internal memorandum: Ocherk vzaimootnoshenii Vooruzhennykh Sil Iuga Rossii i predstavitelei frantsuzskogo komandovaniia (May 1919), a detailed analysis of the uneasy coordination between Russian and French command in the South.

Price: $100.00