Empress Maria Feodorovna portrayed on the pages of the book written by Presidential Library’s specialist

In St. Petersburg the outgoing 2018 presented the book by the Presidential Library’s specialist Lyubov Zavyalova “Maria Feodorovna. Wife, Mother, Empress" and immediately attracted attention of both specialists and a wide range of lovers of national history.

Research interest of the graduate of the Faculty of History of St. Petersburg State University, Candidate of Historical Sciences L. Zavyalova - the history of Russia of the XVIII – early XX century, the history of St. Petersburg. Lyubov Vladimirovna is the author of about 80 works, including the monograph “Petersburg English Club: 1770–1918: Essays on History” and others.

The last published book by Zavyalova is the biography of Empress Maria Feodorovna, née Princess Sofia Dorothea of ​​Württemberg. In 1776 she came to Russia as the bride of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich, son of Empress Catherine II, and has lived in our country for more than half a century.

Historians rightly called the XVIII century the century of women. E. Fuchs noted: “The age of absolutism is the classical age of women. She commands not only as a secret sovereign, her rights as queen are officially recognized in the face of the whole world”. Indeed, the “eighteenth” century gave the world quite a few women who decided the destinies of states or were glittering in various arts and sciences. Rethinking the role of women in society and culture marked the beginning of emancipation. One of the most remarkable heroines on the historical scene of the XVIII - the first quarter of the XIX century was Empress Maria Feodorovna.

Her most terrible suffer was the tragic death of her husband and their five children. Misfortunes did not break the empress but hardened her character. Maria Feodorovna entered the history as a person who made a huge contribution to the development of national philanthropy, health care and education. Thanks to her direct participation, a magnificent palace and park ensemble in Pavlovsk was created.

The book is based on diaries, letters, memoirs, left by members of the imperial family and their contemporaries. The biography of Maria Feodorovna is presented in the context of the historical events of the second half of the XVIII - the first quarter of the XIX century. The author tried to take into account the full range of assessments of the activities of her heroine both in the works of pre-revolutionary historians and in publications of recent years.

It seems that anyone having read this book will be able to imagine Maria Feodorovna in all her guises - woman, wife, mother, empress.

The publication is supplemented with an annotated reference of the persons mentioned and a list of the main bibliography, and also contains about one hundred color and more than three hundred black and white illustrations.