The Schakovskoy Family Papers document the professional and personal activities of Russian Princess Zinaida Schakovskoy (1906 - 2001); her husband, Sviatoslav Malewsky-Malevich (1905 - 1973); and her brother, Prince Dmitrii Schakovskoy, later Ioann, Archbishop of San Francisco and Western United States (1902 - 1989). The papers reflect Z. Schakovskoy's prolific career as a bilingual journalist, poet and writer, as well as the involvement of her husband and her brother with Russian literature, art and culture in exile.
The 14.5 linear feet of materials include: extensive correspondence; clippings; drafts and published versions of articles, broadcast programs and essays; research materials chiefly on Russian poets and writers; genealogical tables; family documents; medals; sketchbooks; drawings and photographs. The bulk of the material is written in Russian. A considerable amount is in French, and a small amount is in Dutch, English, and German. The materials date from 1906 until 1984, the bulk of the collection dating from 1930 to 1979.
The most complex and significant series in the papers is Series I - Zinaida Schakovskoy Papers. Zinaida Schakovskoy, a French writer of Russian descent, who became a Belgian citizen, was born in Moscow as the fourth child and third daughter of Prince Alexis Schakovskoy and the former Anne von Kninen. Schakovskoy was exiled with her family after the October Revolution first to Turkey and then to France. Eventually, the family found asylum in Belgium.
In 1926 Z. Schakovskoy married Sviatoslav Malewsky-Malevich and left with him for the Belgian Congo, where they spent two years. During World War II she joined the Service de SantŽ of the French army and participated in the French Resistance. She was reunited with her husband in 1942 in London, where she worked for the French Information Agency.
A real witness of her time, Zinaida Schakovskoy associated with Belgian, French and Russian literary circles; worked as a correspondent both at the NŸrnberg trials and in Greece during its Civil war. She published numerous novels in French and Russian, using two pseudonyms - Zinaida Sarrana and Jacques CroisŽ.
The multi-faceted life of Zinaida Schakovskoy has allowed her to get in touch with different social strata. Her literary reflections on the complexities of the 20th century are non-conformist and comprehensive.
Series II - Sviatoslav Malewsky-Malevich Papers - reflects the most important events of Zinaida Schakovskoy's husband's personal life and professional career within a broader context of Russian emigre life.
Sviatoslav Malewsky-Malevich, was born in Russia and after the October Revolution emigrated to Yugoslavia. In the early 1920s he attended Belgrad University but his family moved to Paris, where he graduated from the Sorbonne.
Sviatoslav Malewsky-Malevich's interests were versatile - from politics and philosophy to the arts and painting. In the 1930s he was very close to the Europasian movement, and in the late 1950s devoted himself to painting.
In the early 1950s Sviatoslav Malewsky-Malevich became the first Belgian diplomat of Russian descent. He and his wife returned to Russia on a diplomatic mission for Belgium. In 1956 S. Malewsky-Malevich was appointed the First Secretary of the Belgian Embassy in Moscow. Although S. Malewsky-Malevich was forced to leave Russia, he was always interested in the future of his country. In 1972 he published a book entitled USSR Today and Tomorrow, in which he developed some of the geopolitical and economic theories of the Europasians, predicting that the coup d'Žtat in the USSR could be done only from the top of the political hierarchy.
Series III - Dmitrii Schakovskoy Papers - centers on D. Schakovskoy's literary activities in the early 1920s.
Dmitrii Schakovskoy, (Ioann, Archbishop of San Francisco and Western United States), Zinaida Schakovskoy's brother, was born in Moscow and educated at the St. Petersburg Imperial Lyceum and University of Louvain in Belgium. In 1925-1926 he initiated the publication and became the editor of Blagonamerennyi, a Russian language journal published in Brussels. Soon after the second issue was published he decided to change the course of his life and took monastic vows at Mt. Athos in Greece (1926). In 1946 after being a priest in Yugoslavia (1927-1931) and Berlin (1932-1945), he was transferred to the U.S., where he served as a dean of St. Vladimir Seminary in New York City and Bishop of Brooklyn. In 1961 he became Archbishop of San Francisco and Western United States. His literary pseudonym was Strannik.
Series IV - Third Party Materials - includes correspondence, writings and personal documents of Russian emigres belonging to the Schakovskoys' circle. Among the correspondence of significance or magnitude in the papers are letters to and from: Georgii Adamovich, Nikolai Andreev, Aleksandr Bakhrak, Iosif Brodskii, Ivan Bunin, Albert Camus, Igor Chinnov, Boris Filippov, General de Gaulle, Otto von Habsburg, Yurii Ivask, Vladimir and Vera Nabokov, Sergei Lifar, Nadezhda Mandelshtam, Sergei Prokofiev, Princess Janet Romanoff, Andrei Siniavskii, Anatolii Shteiger, Gleb Struve, Yurii Terapiano, Marina Tsvetaeva and others.
RELATED MATERIAL: The Amherst Center for Russian Culture has information about Z. Schakovskoy, S. Malewsky-Malevich and D. Schakovskoy beyond that found in this collection. Sources include: Zinaida Gippius and Dmitrii Merezhkovskii Papers, Yurii [George] P. Ivask Papers, A. Remizov and S. Remizova-Dovgello Papers (in process), Union of Russian Writers and Journalists Abroad Records. Contact the Amherst Center for Russian Culture for further information.