Kyra by Kyra Petrovskaya - 1961

London, UK: Jarrolds, 1961. Hardcover. Very Good/Good. 5.5" X 8.75. h/b 344 pages, condition is very good, some edge wear to the DJ. THIS is the story of a beautiful and desirable woman . . . the daughter of a Russian prince ... a talented actress ... an officer in the Russian Army ... a citizen of the Soviet Union ... all combined in a startlingly dramatic account of one woman's life-the autobiography of Kyra Petrovskaya. Kyra faced execution by a Red firing squad when she was less than a year old-and was rescued, to travel with her mother in a cattle car across Russia to safety. Trained as a "druzhinniza"-a field nurse-during World War II, Kyra served with entertainment units at the front lines, spent gruelling months as a hospital worker, and endured the horrors of the siege of Leningrad. She went on a sniping mission "to kill a Nazi", was wounded by shrapnel, and received a military medal for the exploit. Kyra relates in intimate detail the happiness and the despair of her marriage at 18 to a distinguished musician twice her age, the tragic ending of her second to a theatrical director, the disillusionment and drastic events that followed her third marriage to a Russian athlete, and finally, how she met and was married to an American diplomat. Here, against the background of the historical events in Russia through which she lived and which shaped her life, is Kyra-a remarkable and courageous woman.