In writing this book, I worked in the Frederick Lewis Allen Room of the New York Public Library, the Butler Library of Columbia University, the Firestone Library of Princeton University, the British Museum Library in London and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. I am grateful to the staffs of all of these institutions for their assistance and courtesy.
I am greatly indebted to my friends, Janet Kellock, Edward Kline and Juan de Beistegui, whose encouragement was constant and whose reading of the manuscript provided many wise and helpful suggestions.
For specific help in working with parts of the manuscript or for assistance in obtaining not easily available materials, I wish to thank Valery and Galina Panov, Constantine Kuzminsky, the late Max Hayward, Helen Semmler, Marilyn Swezey, Valery and Irina Kuharets, George Riabov, Nikita Romanov, Dr. Ismail Amin, Professors John Malmstad, Andrew Blane, Elizabeth Valkenier and Zoya Trifunovich, as well as Professor Martin Bos of the University of Utrecht and Vice Admiral H. Bos of the Royal Netherlands Navy. I am especially grateful to the late Prince Paul of Yugoslavia and to Princess Olga of Yugoslavia who provided me with rare materials from their private library. For their support and guidance in a time of troubles, I would like to thank Nicholas A. Robinson and Charles H. Miller.
In writing this book, I made many trips to the Soviet Union. In museums, libraries and at historical sites, I was always made to feel welcome. This was particularly true in Leningrad when people learned that my subject was the founder of their beloved city. For reasons that would seem exaggerated to most Western readers, but that Soviet citizens will abundantly understand, I prefer not to give the names of those who helped me. They know who they are and I thank them.
Some years ago, I mentioned to a friend who is a distinguished French editor that I was working with Robert Gottlieb of Knopf on this book. I said that I thought that Bob was the best editor in New York, but my friend corrected me; “In the world,” he said. Truly, Bob Gottlieb’s combination of dedication to his authors, enthusiasm for their work, skill in seeing how a book should be constructed and precisely where it should be cut must be unique. I am fortunate and grateful.
Few readers are aware of the endless, essential details of transforming a long manuscript into a printed book. Katherine Hourigan of Knopf has been superb at this, working with problems of text, pictures, maps and many other things, never losing her serenity or her smile.
There were others at Knopf who helped to create this book: Martha Kaplan, Lesley Krauss, Virginia Tan, William Luckey, Nina Bourne, Anne McCormick, William Loverd, Jane Becker Friedman, Eleanor French, and Toinette Lippe. The House of Knopf is like a family, and for six months, while I worked there almost daily, I was made by everyone to feel a member of the family. Now that this book is finished, I must look for new excuses to visit.
My children, Bob, Susanna and Elizabeth, have given me their love, their encouragement and above all their patience for many years. When I began working on this book, they were quite young; now they have reached or are approaching adulthood. All this while, they have had faith that “Dad’s book” would someday appear.
Authors usually thank their wives, but how does one thank a wife who is also an author? While I have been writing this book, Suzanne Massie has written two of her own books, at the same time caring for our home and children, and never failing her myriad of friends, East and West. To this extraordinary woman, I express my gratitude and admiration.