Alexander II (1818–1881), emperor, husband and father of adult children, was 28 years older than Princess Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgoruky. Their romance lasted for many years, and in 1880 the widowed emperor entered into a morganatic marriage, legitimizing their common children and ordering his beloved Katya to be named His Serene Highness Princess Yuryevskaya. However, less than a year later, in the spring of 1881, Alexander II died at the hands of terrorists. The young French diplomat Maurice Paleologue was present at the funeral of the Tsar the Liberator - his essay “Alexander II and Catherine Yurievskaya” opens this book. And then it contains the memoirs of the princess herself, published by her in Europe immediately after the death of her husband, under the pseudonym Victor Laferte. The book also contains rare illustrative material from 1881.