Thomas, Valentina (“Valli”) Leontina Anna Hoffman (2nd wife), 1
affair with Bolshevik commissar, 1, 2, 3
background and overview, 1
Elvira Thomas and, 1, 2, 3
finances, 1, 2, 3
Frederick’s citizenship and, 1, 2, 3
Frederick’s conflicts with, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Frederick’s marriage to, 1, 2
in Germany, 1, 2, 3, 4
Irma Thomas and, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
as nanny for Frederick’s children, 1, 2
passports and, 1, 2, 3
residences, 1, 2
Thomas, William (brother), 1
Thomas, Yancy (brother), 1, 2
“Thomas and Co.,” 1, 2.
See also Aquarium
Thomas Chapel, 1
Thomass, Bruce, 1
Thomass, Chantal, 1
Thorne, Isaiah, 1, 2, 3
“Tobacco for the Soldier,” 1
Tomas, F. F., 1
Trotsky, Leon, 1
Trukhanova, Natalia, 1
Tsarev, Mikhail Prokofyevich, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
tsars, 1
Turkey, 1, 2, 3.
See also Constantinople; Istanbul changes in, 1
Turkish National Movement, 1, 2, 3
See also Kemal, Mustafa
Turks, 1
typhus, 1, 2
Ukraine. See Odessa
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Stowe), 1
Vertinsky, Aleksandr, 1, 2, 3
Villa Stella. See Anglo-American Garden Villa
Villa Tom, 1, 2
Volunteer Army. See White Volunteer Army
Weir, Joseph A., 1
White Volunteer Army, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Williams, Percy G., 1
World War I, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Odessa and, 1
Wrangel, Pyotr, 1, 2, 3
Yar Restaurant, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Yeni Maxim, 1, 2.
See also Maxim
Yildiz Municipal Casino, 1, 2, 3
Yildiz Palace complex, 1, 2
Zavadsky, Alexey Vladimirovich, 1
Zhichkovsky, Richard Fomich, 1
Zia Bey, Mufty-Zade K., 1
About the Author
Vladimir Alexandrov received a PhD in comparative literature from Princeton, and taught at Harvard before moving to Yale, where he is now B.E. Bensinger Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures.
Also by Vladimir Alexandrov
Andrei Bely: The Major Symbolist Fiction
Nabokov’s Otherworld
Limits to Interpretation: The Meanings of Anna Karenina
About this Book
Born the son of slaves in America’s Deep South, he escaped the stifling racism of his native land to pursue a dream of freedom, wealth and personal happiness that took him from Brussels to Monte Carlo, and from Moscow to Constantinople. Embracing triumph and tragedy and spanning continents, wars and revolution, his life story is as colourful as it is improbable. He is the ‘Black Russian’. Frederick Bruce Thomas was born in 1872 to former slaves who had become prosperous farmers in Mississippi. When his father was brutally murdered, the teenaged Frederick fled the Deep South and headed for New York City, where he worked as a waiter and valet. Deploying charm, charisma and cunning, he emigrated to Europe, criss-crossing that continent to find employment as a multilingual waiter in locations as diverse as London and Leipzig, Venice and Vienna, before settling in Moscow in 1899. There he married twice, acquired a mistress, and became one of that city’s richest and most fêted restaurateurs and nightclub impresarios. But then came the shock of the Bolshevik Revolution. Frederick and his family were forced to flee Russia for Constantinople, where, ever resourceful, he reinvented himself afresh, opening nightclubs that introduced jazz to Turkey. However, Frederick’s luck was finally running out: the long arm of American racism and his own extravagance landed him in a debtor’s prison in 1927, after which death came swiftly. Written with a novelist’s verve, The Black Russian is both the extraordinary story of the most engaging and unexpected of heroes, and a meticulously researched and richly characterized tour of the changing political and cultural landscape of the early twentieth century.
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Reviews
‘A fascinating tale of culture clash and historical change, researched with energy and written with verve.’
‘As a reader, I found myself fascinated by this well-written story. As a writer, I found myself envious of Vladimir Alexandrov for having discovered such a remarkable man whose life, both triumphant and tragic, spans continents, wars and a revolution—and whom no one seems to have noticed before. An extraordinary and gripping book.’
‘Hang on for the ride of a lifetime. With the verve of a novelist, historian Alexandrov takes one on an adventure through pre-war Mississippi, London, Paris, Tsarist Russia and the Bolshevik Revolution, ending up in decadent Constantinople.’
Copyright
First published in the United States of America in 2013 by Atlantic Monthly Press, an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc , New York
Published in the UK in 2013 by Head of Zeus Ltd
Copyright © 2013 by Vladimir Alexandrov
The moral right of Vladimir Alexandrov to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
9 7 5 3 1 2 4 6 8
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
The quotations from Prince Andrey Lobanov-Rostovsky on pp. xvii–xviii are reprinted with the permission of Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., from The Grinding Milclass="underline" Reminiscences of War and Revolution in Russia, 1913–1920 by Prince A. Lobanov-Rostovsky. Copyright © 1935 by The Macmillan Company.
All rights reserved.
The quoted passage on pp. 178–179 from Morris Gilbert, “Alors, Pourquoi?” The Smart Set. Vol. LXXII, No. 3 (November 1923), 47–48, is reprinted with the permission of Hearst Corporation.
ISBN (HB) 9781781855195
ISBN (XTPB) 9781781855201
ISBN (E) 9781781855188
Head of Zeus Ltd