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Twilight Over Russia

by Alexis Wrangel

238 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); Contains B&W photos and maps; catalogue #05-3150; ISBN 1-4120-8184-x; US$19.42, C$22.33, EUR15.95, £11.17

Alexis Wrangle's Twilight Over Russia is a historical novel set in early 20th-century Russia. Except for the protagonist and his love story, all personalities and facts outlined in it can be authenticated.

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About the Book

About the Author

Excerpts

About the Book

Twilight Over Russia is a historical fiction by Baron Alexis Petrovich Wrangel recollecting most of the events that were experienced by his father, General Peter Nikolaevich Wrangel (1878-1929). General Wrangel was a member of Tsar Nicholas II's household cavalry, the last and most effective leader of the White Russians in Southern Russia during the Civil War that followed the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, and the organizer of the awe-inspiring exodus of most of his army — some 140,000 Russian people — across the Black Sea to Constantinople. Twilight Over Russia is a thought-engendering expression of pietas, which follows Alexis Wrangel's documentary book, General Wrangel 1878-1928: Russian White Crusader (New York, Hippocrene Books, 1987).

The text was left in typescript form by the author when he died, aged 83, in Ireland, on 26 May 2005. With the permission of the widow, Lady Diana Wrangel Conolly Carew, Rosangela Barone, Amedeo Guillet and Pádraig Ó Snodaigh edited the text to make it available in printed form. The aim is to provide the general public with both a stimulus for reflection on a specific sector of contemporary history and an insight into the author's intriguing background and personality, in particular his filial love, but also his competence in horsemanship and love for horses.

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About the Author

Baron Alexis Petrovich Wrangel was born in Belgrade on 7 July 1922. He was the fourth and last child of two heroic figures, Olga and Peter Wrangel, who left an indelible mark in his mind. Lithunian-born Baron Peter Nikolaevich Wrangel, the great commander-in-chief of the White Armies in the South of Russia during the Civil War and the masterly organizer of the massive exodus by sea of the remnants of his troops, went into exile with this family; he died in Belgium (1929) and was buried — with state funeral — in Belgrade, where a great number of Russian refugees had settled.

Alexis studied in Belgium, Britain, the United States. Initiated since chilhood into horse riding with the Cossacks exiled along with his father, he became an expert in horsemanship and a well-accomplished show jumper. In the 1950's he spent seven years in the Middle East as the director of the Tolstoy Foundation Refugee Programme. Then he acted as an adviser to the American Embassy staff in Argentina, where he was dubbed the Equestrian Attaché. Following the example of Ambassador General Baron Amedeo Guillet, an Italian horse rider and trainer of international repute, in 1981 he settled with Dora (his second wife), in Co. Meath, Ireland, where he bred horses, went on riding and hunting, and devoted a good time to reading, writing and drawing. Not long after settling in Ireland, Dora died suddenly. Alexis's sorrow was assuaged and new life ensued when he met and married Lady Diana Conolly Carew, the celebrated Irish international and Olympic show-jumper of the 1960's. A profound shared understanding of horses and passion for horse riding accompanied their reciprocal love until he died in Navan, Co. Meath, on 26 May 2005.

Alexis Wrangel is also the author of the following volumes:

• The Arabian in Arabia, London, J.A. Allen, 1966.
  
• The End of Cavalry: The Last Great Cavalry Battles, 1914-1918, New York, Hippocrene Books, 1982.
  
• General Wrangel: Russia's White Crusader 1878-1929, New York, Hippocrene Books, 1987. Reprint: London-Melbourne-Auckland, Leo Cooper, 1990.

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Excerpts

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