David Chavchavadze

David Chavchavadze

David Chavchavadze in 2012
Born (1924-05-20)May 20, 1924
London, England, UK
Died October 5, 2014(2014-10-05) (aged 90)
Washington DC, USA
Occupation 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.

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.

External links


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