Princess Aleksandra Nikolaevna Obolensky, nee Topornin, was born in 1861 in the town of Simbirsk, in an Eastern province of the same name in the Russian Empire. She was the only daughter of Nicholas Topornin, a prominent landowner and ranking officer in the Horse Guards Regiment. Her mother's maiden name was Foulon. Her ancestors included Joseph Francois Foulon, a Frenchman who held the position of Financial Comptroller for the city of Paris in 1789. At the onset of the French Revolution, Foulon was to become one of its very first victims. Since the guillotine had not yet been introduced, he was strung up from a street lamppost, thus, he had the sad honor of illustrating to the letter the words of some of the popular revolutionary songs of the time: La Carmagnole, "a ira, a ira, a ira ... les aristos on les pendra"! Some of Foulon's relatives fled to Russia and settled there.

It was through her cousins, then serving in the imperial Navy, that the young Aleksandra Topornin met their shipmate, Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Obolensky. The war with Turkey had just ended. Soon after their wedding, Prince Ivan Obolensky gave up his career in the Navy to devote himself to running the Province of Simbirsk in the capacity of Marshal of the Nobility. Owing to the Topornins' substantial wealth - Aleksandra Nikolaevna being the last, and the only heiress, of this old aristocratic family, the young couple enjoyed great luxury. On one of their estates - the one overlooking the Volga River - there was a huge field of rare cultivated roses, designed to cover acres of land, right up to the very banks of the river. Roses were the favorite flower of Princess Aleksandra Nikolaevna. Of the couple's five children, the three older ones, all boys, died at an early age, victims of the typhoid and cholera epidemics which were rampant in the Volga region. The welfare of their remaining two children, Mary and her sister Olga, eight years younger, prompted them to leave Simbirsk. Prince Ivan Mikhailovich's career took on a new direction in the Civil Service.

First, as Governor of the Province of Kherson, then of Kharkov, one of his duties was to deal with suppressing sporadic agrarian uprisings. As early as 1902, during his tenure as Governor of Kharkov, an attempt was made on Prince Obolensky's life by an anarchist - as the terrorists of that time were called. Of course, our part of the twentieth century does not hold a patent on terrorism! Although Prince Ivan Mikhailovich's life was saved through the brave intervention of one of his bodyguards, the latter was shot. The terrorist was arrested and sentenced to be hanged. However, Governor Obolensky and his wife petitioned the Tsar and the death sentence was commuted to hard labor.

It was this act of compassion which later on played such a decisive role in obtaining the liberation from a Bolshevik prison of their daughter Olga and her husband Peter. Subsequently, from 1904 to 1906, Prince Obolensky served as the Governor of Finland - as the personal representative of the Tsar. who bore the title of Grand Duke of Finland. This post was particularly important and sensitive as it involved dealing with the first significant political unrest - known as the "Russian Revolution of 1905". Thanks to Obolensky's ability and diplomacy, this explosive episode was resolved without bloodshed.

At the turn of the century, Mary, their eldest daughter, was presented at Court. Soon after. she was invited to become a lady-in-waiting to Her Imperial Majesty Tsarina Aleksandra Fedorovna. Subsequently, Princess Mary married Dimitry Zvegintsov, at the time a Squadron Captain in Her Imperial Majesty's Horse Guards.

The younger daughter, Olga, had a more tragic destiny. She married her second cousin, Peter Obolensky, in 1912, but it was not until 1942 that she managed to escape from Soviet Russia. Princess Aleksandra Nikolaevna Obolensky was widowed in 1910. During the Revolution, her eldest daughter, Mary Zvegintsov, fled to England via Siberia with her five children. Two of her sons served in the British Army: Ivan, who was killed at El Alamein, and Brigadier-General Dimitri Zvegintsov, who died in England in 1987. Soon after the outbreak of the Revolution, both Princess Aleksandra Nikolaevna's daughter, Olga, and her son-in-law were arrested and imprisoned on charges of spying for a foreign country.

It is worth noting that, as my father could not be drafted for active service during the war of 1914-1918 because of a varicose vein condition, he had been assigned as translator/ interpreter to the staff of General Poole", Head of the British Mission in Petrograd. In addition, because of their widespread-connections, my parents' residence on Mokhovaia Street had become a sort of "headquarters" for the British Naval Mission.

In the light of such suspicions, they would most certainly have been shot had it not been for my grandmother's quick thinking and initiative. She was able to obtain their release by appealing to Maxim Gorky on the strength of her late husband's magnanimous and effective gesture while serving as Governor of Kharkov, when he had interceded on behalf of the man who had made an attempt on his life.

In the meantime, my grandmother was left to care for two small boys, my brother, Ivan, age six and myself, then four years old. In 1921, she managed to escape from Russia through Finland and reached London, where her daughter Mary had already settled. A few months later, we boys were smuggled out, also through Finland. We reached France, where we were brought up.

Although ill prepared to earn a living, Princess Aleksandra Nikolaevna Obolensky courageously set out to perform menial tasks, such as mending linen and the like. Her dedication, courage and dignified approach to things material in her adversity earned her the boundless admiration of everyone with whom she came in contact. It was through the initiative of such newly acquired friends that the Queen Mother, Queen Mary, was petitioned for a modest "grace and favour" pension to be granted to Princess Obolensky. Yet, however meager her resources, she still managed to divert a portion to her grandsons, for whom she cared as long as she lived.

She died in London in 1945.

Alexander P. Obolensky New York, October 1, 1989