Lost Tales: Stories for the Tsar's Children

In early September 1911, a young brother and sister boarded the Russian Imperial yacht Standart as it lay at anchor in the waters of the Crimea. Gleb Botkin, eleven, and his thirteen-year-old sister, Tatiana, had come to visit their father, Dr. Eugene Botkin, personal physician to the Russian Imperial family. It was during their eleven-day stay on board that Gleb and Tatiana formed what was to be a lifelong relationship with the children of Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra. While aboard, Gleb amused his Imperial hosts by drawing for them; his special talent was depicting animals dressed in court uniforms.
Within six years a revolution would sweep the tsar from his throne, forever changing the lives of both the Romanov family and the Botkins.
Now, for the first time, Gleb Botkin's stories for the Romanov children are being published; these amazing documents are a joy to the eye and a painful reminder of the lives and imaginations snuffed out during the Bolshevik revolution. They also provide a glimpse of a brilliant talent at work; Botkin's fantastic renderings engage the eye and mind with a power that belies the artist's youth.
Now, many years later, we learn that before his death, Gleb Botkin passed these stories on to his daughter, Marina Botkin Schweitzer. To honor her father and the Romanov family, Mrs. Schweitzer offers them to us.