A Family of the Old Russian Empire by Stanislas Yassukovich
Some family stories are passed down in full color — told over dinner tables, captured in photographs, celebrated in anniversaries and holidays. Others disappear into silence, scattered by war, migration or politics.
Stanislas M. Yassukovich’s A Family of the Old Russian Empire explores the latter: a beautifully written, deeply personal account of how one family was splintered by revolution, lost to history for generations and miraculously rediscovered through fate and archival detective work.
Yassukovich is no stranger to storytelling. An accomplished author and financier, he previously penned memoirs and fiction. But this latest book strikes a different chord — part historical memoir, part emotional excavation and wholly compelling. What begins as a personal quest to understand what happened to a long-lost aunt, presumed dead in the chaos following the Bolshevik Revolution, becomes a transcontinental journey of reconnection and revelation. The result is a vivid and moving family saga, rich in historical detail and emotional depth.
From Aristocracy to Exile: The Fall of a Family
The book’s early chapters transport readers to imperial Russia at the dawn of the 20th century. The Yassukovich family, steeped in nobility and military tradition, resides in a grand apartment in St. Petersburg — a city as beautiful as it is fated to become ground zero for revolutionary upheaval. The author’s grandfather, Mikhail Stanislavovich Yassukovich, is a military engineer and professor; his father, Dimitri, a promising cadet. It’s a household of discipline, order and privilege. That world unravels swiftly and violently with the Russian Revolution of 1917.
The revolution splits the family in more ways than one. Mikhail is abroad on a military procurement assignment in the United States when the Bolsheviks seize power, effectively saving his life. His wife and children remain in Petrograd, navigating the sudden transformation from elite citizens to “former people” — a Soviet term for those stripped of rights and status. The family’s two daughters, Irina and Marie Magdalena, each face their own fates: one marries and stays behind in Russia, the other escapes to Poland. Meanwhile, Dimitri flees across borders and eventually lands in New York, where he begins anew.
It is Irina’s fate that lies at the heart of this book. For decades, she was presumed to have perished during the revolution or its aftermath. But as Yassukovich reveals, her story was far from over.
The Discovery That Changed Everything
Many years later — almost a century after the family was torn apart — a message arrives from Russia. A woman named Alla Semenova believes she may be related to the Yassukovich family. Through a series of email exchanges, photographs and historical breadcrumbs, Yassukovich uncovers a truth more astonishing than fiction: Irina survived. She lived through the worst of the Soviet regime. She raised a family. And her descendants were now reaching across history to reconnect.
What follows is an extraordinary voyage of rediscovery. With the help of scholars, cousins and archivists, Yassukovich pieces together the missing half of his family tree. His prose during these sections is particularly touching — full of gratitude, awe and gentle reflection. As the narrative stitches the family back together, we witness not only a reunion of people, but a reconciliation with the past. It’s a reminder of how much can be lost in a single generation, and how much joy can be found in its recovery.
A Window Into a Vanished World
Yassukovich’s gift lies in his ability to make history feel intimate. He doesn’t just recount battles and political shifts — he shows us how these events felt in kitchens and living rooms. Whether he’s describing the elegance of St. Petersburg before the fall, the fear of Soviet interrogations or the quiet dignity of Irina’s later years, his attention to detail brings the past to life in vivid, often heartbreaking color.
The book is also surprisingly global in scope. We move from the drawing rooms of czarist Russia to postwar Poland, to a bustling, Prohibition-era New York. Through it all, the story maintains its emotional center: the idea that family — even one stretched across continents and regimes — can survive time, trauma and political violence.
More Than Memoir: A Testament to Resilience
Though the book is rooted in personal history, it will resonate with a wide audience. Anyone who has ever lost touch with relatives, wondered about their ancestry, or felt the tug of history in their bones will find something here. It’s a book about what happens when borders shift and generations turn — and the courage it takes to remember what came before.
Importantly, Yassukovich never romanticizes the past. The narrative acknowledges the privilege of the imperial elite while paying equal attention to the suffering wrought by the new regime. In doing so, he avoids nostalgia in favor of truth — an approach that makes the rediscovered moments of connection all the more poignant.
For Readers Who Love Rich History and Real Emotion
A Family of the Old Russian Empire is, at its heart, a celebration of continuity. In rediscovering his Russian cousins, Yassukovich doesn’t just reclaim a personal history — he reminds us all that even the deepest losses may one day be healed. For readers drawn to historical memoirs, multigenerational family sagas or stories of cultural and political transformation, this book offers a moving, memorable experience.
The prose is clear, elegant and grounded in real feeling. The pacing — though deliberate — rewards readers with rich context, nuanced storytelling and emotional resonance. It’s a book to savor slowly, one that lingers after the last page. Without ever veering into sentimentality, Yassukovich invites us to witness a story of rediscovery, forgiveness and quiet triumph.
A Bridge Across the Century
It’s not every day a book manages to be historically enlightening and deeply moving in equal measure, but A Family of the Old Russian Empire does just that. Through masterful narrative and meticulous research, Stanislas M. Yassukovich brings a lost world into focus — not as an abstract history, but as a living, breathing legacy.
By following the threads of memory, resilience and family, this book offers readers a window not only into Russia’s past, but into the universal human longing for belonging. In a world still shaped by migrations and divided histories, this story reminds us that it’s never too late for reunion, and never too late for truth to come home.
About Stanislas M. Yassukovich
Stanislas Yassukovich was born in Paris of a White Russian émigré father and a French mother. Settling in the United States at the outset of World War II, he was brought up on the North Shore of Long Island, N.Y., attending Green Vale School there, Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, and Harvard College. After service in the U.S Marine Corps, he joined White, Weld & Co., New York investment bankers and was posted to its London office. Yassukovich subsequently formed and managed European Banking Company, became a Deputy Chairman of The Stock Exchange, London, Chairman of the Securities & Futures Authority, and, finally, Chairman of Merrill Lynch Europe, Middle East & Africa. After service as a non-executive director on various boards, he retired to the South of France. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is married to the former Diana Townsend, and has three children: Tatyana, Michael and Nicholas.
