Dimitri Alexandrovich Obolensky
|
Prince Dimitri Alexandrovich Obolensky |
|
|---|---|
| Born | 19 March (old style)/ 31 March 1882 |
| Died | 27 April 1964 (aged 82) |
| Occupation |
|
| Known for | Russian nobleman |
| Spouse(s) |
|
Prince Dimitri Alexandrovich Obolensky (19 March (old style) 1882 – 27 April 1964) was a Russian nobleman, landowner and marshal of the nobility who after the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War became a night watchman and a taxi driver in Paris. He wrote a memoir of his experiences.
Obolensky was descended from the 9th century Varangian chieftain Rurik, founder of the Rurik dynasty, and from Igor I, Svyatoslav I, and St Vladimir of Kiev, as well as from the 13th century St Michael of Chernigov.
The son of Prince Alexander Dimitrievich Obolensky (1847–1917), by his marriage to Countess Anna Alexandrovna Polovtzova (1862–1917), Obolensky was born at Saint Petersburg on 24 April 1882.
On 22 Sep 1905 Obolensky married firstly, in Berlin, Countess Helene Bobrinsky (1885–1937), daughter of Count Alexander Alexandrovich Bobrinsky. They had two sons and a daughter: Alexander, born 1906, Andrei (1907–1969), and Helena (1909–1978). Their son Andrei grew up to be a notable chess player.
As a landowner, Obolensky led "a country life reminiscent of Turgenev's tales" and as well as being a marshal of the nobility was a lover of nature, a patriot and an improver. When news came of the Austro-Hungarian monitor bombardment of the Serbian city of Belgrade beginning on 29 July 1914, Obolensky spoke stirringly to the peasants on his estate of the need for war, and they reacted enthusiastically. He later learned that his hearers had understood him to mean Belgorod near Kharkov, which held the relics of the recently glorified Saint Ioasaph.
...
Wikipedia