Moscow To Manhattan*

EDUCATION OF A PRINCESS--Marie, Grand Duchess of Russia--Viking ($3.50). Few princesses have had such an "education" as Marie, onetime Grand Duchess of Russia, cousin of the late Tsar Nicholas II, now fashion consultant of Manhattan's Bergdorf-Goodman. Her bitter schooling has not embittered her. "Princes of reigning families are a race apart--a race that has been for centuries shut off in palaces, protected, restricted, compelled to live among its own dreams and illusions. Meantime the world and its needs pass us by. That is why we are destined to be destroyed or forgotten." Orphaned by the death of her mother, Marie and her brother Dmitri were brought up by a grand ducal uncle and aunt. When she was 15 her uncle was killed by a revolutionist's bomb. Her aunt married her off to a Swedish prince when she was 18. Marie liked her husband less and less, got the marriage annulled, went back to Russia. Meantime she visited Italy for her health, and there was a patient of "Dr. M." (Axel Munthe, author of The Story of San Michele), whom she grew to distrust and finally fled. During the War she worked as a nurse, first at the front, later in hospitals. When the Revolution came Marie had met her second husband, Prince Putiatin. They were married in the midst of Red uproars. With him she outlasted the terrors of the winter and in 1918 they escaped over the Ukrainian border. She left her father a prisoner; it was with relief that she heard at last he had been shot, "without further torture."

The last stage of their journey to Bessarabia was guarded by six volunteer White Russians. Marie called them in to the car to thank them and say goodbye. "I wanted to say something significant to them so that they too would remember me for ever, but I could not utter a word; only tears, bitter tears and comfortless, rolled down my cheeks. Thus I said good-bye to Russia." When rumors that Marie intended to apply for U. S. citizenship lately reached Grand Duke Cyril, pretender to the Russian throne, he threatened to revoke her title and rights. The rumor is neither confirmed nor denied. Marie will tour the U. S., lecture, but will keep her job with Bergdorf-Goodman. She started to write her book in English, got excited, changed to French, got more excited, went on in Russian. Says she, "I wrote it with my heart."

Education of a Princess is the January choice of the Book-of-the-Month Club.

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