Memoirs of a Survivor
Published in Russia in 1990, Nicholas Witter's translation of Sergei Golitsyn's memoirs was published in 2008 by Reportage Press.
The memoirs
The Golitsyns were one of Russia’s most powerful families until the revolution turned their world upside down and life became a battle to survive. Sergei Golitsyn was just eight-years old, his head full of stories about knights in shining armour, but the reality was a bowl of gruel for supper and panic when there was a knock at the door. Golitsyn longed to be a writer, but in fear of his life he fled Moscow to work on remote construction sites deep in Siberia, before fighting with the Red Army across Europe to Berlin. Written in secret, his memoirs paint a rich and colourful picture of life in Stalin’s Russia. Like Tolstoy, Golitsyn tells the story of a family saga – of love and happiness, terror and endurance – while also drawing a panoramic picture of a world that was about to be destroyed.
