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David Chavchavadze

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David Chavchavadze
David Chavchavadze in 2012
Born(1924-05-20)May 20, 1924
DiedOctober 5, 2014(2014-10-05) (aged 90)
Occupation(s)Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer
Author
Parents

David Chavchavadze (May 20, 1924 – October 5, 2014) was an American author and a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer of Georgian-Russian origin.

Chavchavadze was born in London to Prince Paul Chavchavadze (1899–1971) and Princess Nina Georgievna of Russia (1901–1974), a descendant of a prominent Georgian noble family and the Imperial Russian dynasty.[1] His father, Prince Paul, was a fiction writer and translator of writings from Georgian into English, and an émigré in the United Kingdom, and then the United States. [citation needed]

Chavchavadze entered the United States Army in 1943 and served during World War II as liaison for the U.S. Army Air Force Lend-Lease supply operations to the Soviet Union. After the war, he entered Yale University where he was a member of The Society of Orpheus and Bacchus, the second longest running a cappella group in the United States. He spent more than two decades of his career as a CIA officer in the Soviet Union Division.[2]

After his retirement, Chavchavadze specialized in tracing the nobility of Imperial Russia and authored The Grand Dukes (1989). He also published Crowns and Trenchcoats: A Russian Prince in the CIA (1989) based on his CIA experiences, and translated Stronger Than Power: A Collection of Stories by Sandji B. Balykov.

As a grandchild of a Russian Grand Duke, he was an Associate Member of the Romanov Family Association. Via his mother, Chavchavadze is great-great-grandson (through Grand Duke Mikhail Nicholaevich) and simultaneously great-great-great-grandson (through Queen of Greece, Olga Constantinovna) of Nicholas I.[3]

Death

David Chavchavadze died in his sleep on October 5, 2014, aged 90, after a long illness.

See also

References

  1. ^ Genealogy, capecodhistory.us; accessed March 18, 2015.
  2. ^ Chavchavadze, David (1990). Crowns and Trenchcoats. A Russian Prince in the CIA. New York, NY: Atlantic International Publications. p. 315.
  3. ^ Chavchavadze, David. "The artistic legacy of two grandmothers" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-05-02.