Second Edition Available 13 October 2025 · Online Book Launch: 15 October 2025, 7PM AEST
In 1932, Olga Woronoff published Upheaval, a memoir that quietly distinguished itself from the more sensational accounts of Russia’s fall. Her voice — measured, lucid, and deeply humane — offered readers a rare glimpse into the final years of Imperial Russia from within its gilded walls. Born Countess Olga Konstantinovna Kleinmichel, she was no distant observer. Her life was entwined with the Romanovs, her marriage to naval officer Paul Woronoff attended by Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra, and her friendships with the Grand Duchesses forged in the intimate spaces of court life.
Now, nearly a century later, Upheaval returns in a second edition, revised and expanded by her granddaughter, Alex de Fircks. Drawing from family archives, personal letters, and newly uncovered diary entries, de Fircks has restored Olga’s memoir to its full historical and emotional weight. This edition includes:
- Previously unpublished diary entries from 1919, written during Olga’s final year in Russia
- Correspondence with Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana, sourced from the State Archive of the Russian Federation
- Rare photographs from the family collection of Alex de Fircks
- Extensive annotations and historical context, illuminating the memoir’s subtleties
The result is a work that transcends memoir. Upheaval is a document of witness — not only to revolution and exile, but to the quiet endurance of memory.
Online Book Launch and Live Panel Discussion
To mark the release of this new edition, Downingfield Press invites readers to a Online Book Launch on Wednesday, 15 October at 7PM AEST. The event will feature a panel discussion between Alex de Fircks and Helen Azar, Romanov historian and author, whose own work has helped bring the voices of Russia’s last imperial family into the present.
Virtual Book Launch – 15 October, 7PM AEST
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