author
Lili Den
1888–1963
A close friend of Empress Alexandra, she left behind one of the most personal firsthand accounts of the last years of the Russian imperial family. Her writing brings the Romanovs into view not as distant symbols, but as people seen up close during a collapsing world.
1 Audiobook
The Real Tsaritsa
by Lili Den
About the author
Born Yulia Alexandrovna von Dehn in 1888, Lili Dehn was a Russian aristocrat and memoirist who became known for her friendship with Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. She was married to a Russian naval officer and moved in the world of the imperial court, which later gave her unusual insight into the private lives of the Romanovs.
After the Russian Revolution, she wrote about what she had witnessed, most notably in The Real Tsaritsa, a memoir centered on Alexandra and the final years of imperial Russia. The book is still remembered for its intimate, sympathetic portrait of the empress and for preserving the perspective of someone who knew the family personally.
Dehn died in 1963. Today, her work remains of interest to readers drawn to memoir, Russian history, and the human stories behind the fall of the Romanov dynasty.