When Papa Sent Me to Petrograd (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798275642964)

Silver from a slaughtered regiment and a Turkmen carpet stripped from the Winter Palace enshroud a true century-old family secret of misadventure, born of idealism, delusion, and greed.

Arndt and Maria grow up in early 1900s Chicago, where refugees from Europe's crumbling empires mutiny in torturous sweatshops and exiled revolutionaries sow the seed of Bolshevism. When the First World War erupts, the unfledged siblings serve as agents for their war-profiteer father, a frustrated Russian history scholar denied his highfalutin American dream.

Arndt indulges in the splendor of Imperial Petrograd, and soon after, the euphoria of revolutionary Russia on the brink of its first democratic election-until Bolsheviks murder their competition. Maria quickens her skills among Soviet hagglers trading pirated treasure for war matériel. Rapturous indulgence in faux glamour and intrigue leaves her caught at the center of treacherous squabbles among Lenin's minions. Their splendid adventure pivots to a calamitous odyssey, crushing their breaking points. Based on a true and cautionary tale of chasing delusions of grandeur.

Author: Jan C. Näslund
ISBN-13: 9798275642964
Publisher: Independently Published
Language: English
Published: 12/15/2025
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.72d