Book review: Engaging tales of Irish in Russia

Every now and then something comes along to reaffirm the wisdom of those old, chastising cliches your grandmother used, and the publication of this unexpectedly engaging book is such a moment.

It underlines that old saw, never judge a book by its cover — or its title.

Anarchy and Authority: Irish Encounters with Romanov Russia, leans towards stilted academia, yet many of the characters remembered by Angela Byrne are more Indiana Jones than a professor emeritus.

This is a pity as her work deserves more attention, and readers should leap over that unfortunate title as they will be well-rewarded. 

These are tales of adventurous, curious Irish travellers in Russia who defied the limitations — geographical, political, social, or gender — of their time to travel from this tiny island to the largest country in the world where, in some instances, they won disproportionate influence, wealth, and a degree of sexual liberation not available in Ireland.

The Battle of the Boyne was the event that convinced many Irish soldiers or landowners that they had no future in their homeland so many fled to soldier on continental Europe or, later, in Russia.

Peter de Lacy (1678 – 1751) epitomises that cohort of Wild Geese. Born outside Newcastle West in Limerick, he played a leading role in the War of Polish Succession, leading 30,000 Russian troops into Poland in 1733 and laying siege to Gdansk. 

He famously led the Russian seizure of the Crimean fortress of Azov from Ottoman forces in 1736. 

He was conferred with Russia’s then second-highest honour, the Order of St Alexander Nevsky, receiving extensive estates his family held until the early 20th century.

Not bad for an uprooted son of Killeedy.

The mercenaries, particularly Leitrim’s John O’Rourke, are memorable — if sometimes less than empathetic to their surroundings.

However, by far the most interesting members of her cast are the women whom Byrne describes with entirely justifiable admiration.

The sisters were doing it for themselves long before their hidebound, patriarchal society allowed them.

Martha and Katerine Wilmot, believed to have been born in Glanmire, Co Cork, were in Russia in 1804 and lived in the circle of Princess Ekaterina Romanova Dashkova, described as one of the “most important women in Enlightenment Europe”. 

Martha was appalled by the terrible lives of Russia’s serfs and was one of those who stirred an awakening that led to the serfs’ partial emancipation.

She was uneasy at the great contrasts in Russian life but when she and three other women lived at Troitskow, one of Dashkova’s estates, they were attended by 200 servants.

Selina Bunbury was born in Kilsaran Co Louth in 1802, one of 15 children, to a Church of Ireland clergyman. 

She left Ireland for Russia in July 1856 to describe Russia after the Crimean War: Unusually for her time, she was a successful, single, professional writer, and one of the most memorable figures in Byrne’s tremendous cast.

Another force of nature was Ethel Lilian Boole Voynich, born in 1864 in Cork’s Ballintemple, the daughter of mathematician George Boole. 

At the age of 15, she decided she would only wear black as a commentary on the dreadful state of the world. 

Beautifully educated and cultured, she built a role for herself in the radicalism aiming for huge political and social change across Europe and Russia.

This is a very fine publication, one of those welcome jewels that stirs curiosity and admiration on nearly every page — especially as Byrne’s subjects are the very antithesis of today’s tender snowflakes. 

Anarchy and Authority is, like all good histories, a series of stepping stones to further investigation and enquiry despite the lame duck title. 

Take granny’s advice, and don’t judge this book by its cover.