Bread of Exile tells a remarkable story of the Russian nobility both before and after the October Revolution. It draws on hitherto unpublished private diaries, memoirs and notebooks spanning almost two centuries, written by Dimitri Obolensky's father, Prince Dimitri Aleksandrovich Obolensky, his mother, Countess Mary Shuvalov, his step-father Count Andre Tolstoy, his grandmother Countess Sandra Shuvalov, and his great-aunt, Sofka Demidov. The members of Dimitri Obolensky's family were aristocratic witnesses to successive phases of Russian history. These texts provide a fascinating documentation of life at the courts of Tsar Alexander III and Nicholas II, of the revolutionary unrest before and during World War I, the rise of Bolshevism, civil war and the realities of exile and emigration. The book gives an exceptional insight into the state of mind of the Russian emigre population and concludes with reminiscences of his childhood and his distinguished academic career by Sir Dimitri Obolensky himself.