David Chavchavadze
David Chavchavadze | |
|---|---|
 David Chavchavadze in 2012 | |
| Born | May 20, 1924 London, England, UK |
| Died | October 5, 2014 (aged 90) |
| Occupation(s) | Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer Author |
| Parents |
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Prince 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 from Russian Stronger Than Power: A Collection of Stories by Sandji B. Balykov, an emigre Kalmyk writer. Additionally, he lectured part-time at Georgetown and George Mason Universities on Russian history and culture.
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
- Chavchavadze, Georgian surname
References
- ^ Genealogy, capecodhistory.us; accessed March 18, 2015.
- ^ Chavchavadze, David (1990). Crowns and Trenchcoats. A Russian Prince in the CIA. New York, NY: Atlantic International Publications. p. 315.
- ^ Chavchavadze, David. "The artistic legacy of two grandmothers" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-05-02.
External links
- Vladimir F. Wertsman, Georgian Americans. Multicultural America. Every Culture.
- Profile, namebase.org; accessed March 18, 2015.
- Profile, Genealogics.org;m accessed March 18, 2015.
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- 1924 births
- 2014 deaths
- Imperial Russian emigrants to the United Kingdom
- American people of Russian descent
- American people of Georgian (country) descent
- Nobility of Georgia (country)
- Russian nobility
- People of the Central Intelligence Agency
- Romanov Family Association members
- Yale University alumni
- Disease-related deaths in Washington, D.C.
- Imperial Russian emigrants to the United States
- American non-fiction writer stubs
- United States military personnel stubs
- Georgia (country) nobility stubs