Alexandra Grabbe

“A compassionate rendering of acclimation and its many challenges.” — Booklist This bold debut collection of stories follows the lives of those displaced by the Bolshevik Revolution and their descendants, shining a light on the lasting impact of displacement and the resiliency of the human spirit. Norwegian diplomat Fridtjof Nansen created a passport for stateless persons used by refugees as a valid travel document from 1922-1937. The world is all too aware of what has happened to Russia in the century since then—Lenin, Stalin, and now Putin with his iron-fist policies and invasion of Ukraine. But what about the aristocrats whose ancestors governed Russia before Communism? How did they fare in displacement? Civil War, Red Terror, and Bolshevik rule caused over one million to flee Russia. Written by the daughter of one such émigré, The Nansen Factor traces the lives of these refugees and their descendants across a century of upheaval and displacement. From the turmoil of the Bolshevik Revolution to the echoes of the past in modern-day America, these interconnected tales vividly portray the resilience of individuals uprooted by history at a moment when migrants are once again on the move in search of refuge, highlighting how the pain of losing one’s homeland may fade, but the injury to the psyche is slow to heal.

The author, whose father was an aide to the last tsar, describes a privileged childhood in St. Petersburg where, at fifteen, he witnesses the beginning of the Russian Revolution. The Grabbe family seeks refuge in Southern Russia and narrowly escapes from the Bolsheviks. In Part II, safe in Denmark, Paul rescues the hand of St. John the Baptist for the Dowager Empress of Russia and falls in love with a fellow refugee, beautiful Veta Bezobrasov. When Veta marries a rich Dane, Paul leaves for the United States. In Part III, he pursues the "American Dream," slowly realizing the difference between immigration and exile. He finally accepts his fate, but never stops missing his homeland.