​“Dined with Raymond and Katharine [Asquith]. Katharine told me a long story about the Grand Duke Serge [Mikhailovich]. He was at the head of the Russian ammunition department and it appears all the money that was supposed to be spent on ammunition was going to his mistress. He has been disgraced and sent to Siberia.”
 
Duff Cooper, The Duff Cooper Diaries: 1915-1951, July 31, 1915

“You must realize that to us in Europe, Russia & America seem exactly the same, two enormous countries where you can’t get servants & where everything in the shops is machine-made.”
 
Nancy Mitford, The Mitfords, Letters Between Six Sisters

Image Credit: Sotsart

“Russian servants do not differ from any other servants except by the amount of what they leave undone. Once you accept the fact that it is boring to give the same service every day, and, worse still, to the same people, relationships are most pleasant, even affectionate.”
 
Pauline de Rothschild, The Irrational Journey

Image Credit: Horst, His Work and His World