Princess Vera Konstantinovna of Russia was born on 24 April 1906 as the daughter of Grand Duke Konstantine Konstantinovich of Russia and his wife, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mavrikievna (born Princess Elisabeth of Saxe-Altenburg). She had six brothers and one surviving sister.
She grew up in the splendour of Imperial Russia and was just eight years old when the First World War broke out. During the war, her father died of a heart attack in her presence, and her brother Prince Oleg was killed in action. Three other brothers were killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918, alongside Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna. Her mother had initially been unwilling to leave Russia, but Vera eventually left for Sweden, along with her brother George, her nephews (Prince Teymuraz Constantinovich and Prince Vsevolod Ivanovich of Russia) and her nieces (Princess Natalia Konstantinovna Bagration-Mukhransky and Princess Catherine Ivanovna of Russia) at the invitation of Queen Victoria of Sweden.
She would spend the rest of her life in exile, first in Sweden, then Belgium and Germany and later the United States. During the Second World War, she worked as a translator. She died in New York in 2001.
VERA: Princess of the Imperial Blood Vera Konstantinovna by Paul Gilbert tries to bring Princess Vera back to life but fails to do so. The chapters are written by several people, including Princess Vera herself, as she describes her father and her family. This leads to information being repeated several times over. The information on Princess Vera is also pretty limited, so having it repeated made no sense. It probably would have been best if the information had been merged to form a single narrative rather than this. The only redeeming quality is the number of photographs, which is great.
VERA: Princess of the Imperial Blood Vera Konstantinovna by Paul Gilbert is available now in the US and the UK.
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