ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the fate of families who, before the February and October Revolutions of 1917, belonged to the ruling or simply privileged classes under the Czarist regime. It suggests a few hypotheses concerning certain aspects of transmission in extreme situations, based on a presentation of a few authentic experiences. The study of 'transmission in extreme situations', as author have defined it, namely the efforts made at transmission in a societal context thrown into turmoil by a social revolution, is only at its beginning. But it is already possible to see beyond its field proper to the contributions it can make to the study of 'transmission in normal situations': indeed it highlights the considerable importance of the overall societal context in transmission. Societal context is not an inert backdrop; it facilitates transmission for families of the dominant classes. It even invites these transmissions, raises them to the status of norm.
