This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918 edition. Excerpt: ... TO MONSIEUR JEAN FINOT Editor of the "Revue" My dear Mr. Finot: -- Allow me to offer you this little book, which may remind you of the many conversations we have had together, and of the many Utters which we have exchanged. In doing so, 1 am fulfilling one of the pUasantest of duties and trying to express to you all the gratitude which I feel towards you. Without your kind help, and without your advice, I would never have had the courage to take a pen in my hand, and all the small success I may have had in my literary career is entirely due to you, and to the constant encouragement which you have always given to me, and which I shall never forget, just as I shall always remember that it was in the "Revue" that the first article I ever published appeared. Permit me to-day to thank you from the bottom of my heart, and believe me to be, Always yours most affectionately, Catherine Radziwill (Catherine Kolb-Danvin) PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD When the book called "Behind the Veil at the Russian Court" was published the Romanoffs were reigning and, considering the fact that she was living in Russia at the time, the author of it, had her identity become known, would have risked being subjected to grave annoyances, and even being sent to that distant Siberia where Nicholas II is at present exiled. It was therefore deemed advisable to produce that work as a posthumous one, and "Count Paul Vassili" was represented as having died before the publication of "his" Memoirs. This however was not the case, because on the contrary "he" went on collecting information as to all that was taking place at the Russian Court as well as in the whole of Russia, and, consigning this information to a diary, "he" went on writing. If one remembers, "Count Vassili" di