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Douglas Smith

Biography

Douglas Smith

Douglas Smith is an award-winning historian and translator and the author of FORMER PEOPLE, RASPUTIN and other books on Russia. Before becoming a historian, he worked for the U. S. State Department in the Soviet Union and as a Russian affairs analyst for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich. He lives in Seattle with his wife and two children.

Douglas Smith

Books by Douglas Smith

Rasputin: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs
by Douglas Smith - Biography, History, Nonfiction

A hundred years after his murder, Rasputin continues to excite the popular imagination as the personification of evil. Numerous biographies, novels and films recount his mysterious rise to power as Nicholas and Alexandra's confidant and the guardian of the sickly heir to the Russian throne. His debauchery and sinister political influence are the stuff of legend, and the downfall of the Romanov dynasty was laid at his feet. But as the prize-winning historian Douglas Smith shows, the true story of Rasputin's life and death has remained shrouded in myth. Combining probing scholarship and powerful storytelling, RASPUTIN separates fact from fiction to reveal the real life of one of history's most alluring figures.

Former People: The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy
by Douglas Smith - History, Nonfiction

FORMER PEOPLE is the story of how a centuries-old elite, famous for its glittering wealth, its service to the tsar and empire, and its promotion of the arts and culture, was dispossessed and destroyed along with the rest of old Russia. Chronicling the fate of two great aristocratic families --- the Sheremetevs and the Golitsyns --- it reveals how even in the darkest depths of the terror, daily life went on.