Byzantium and the Slavs by Dimitri Obolensky

Obolensky also wanted to go to the front, he even covered a preparatory course, but actually he did not go as he was promoted in an officer’s rank and headed the military training of Russian students. The Second World War broke in 1939 and many students enlisted in the army. At first he chose philosophy as his major, but soon changed his mind and started studying Russian and French. At the entrance exams he scored very high and thus he was allowed the maximum scholarship of 100 pounds. In 1937, Dimitri Obolensky applied at Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. In 1931, the young man returned to France and continued his studies at Lycée Pasteur in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Obolensky was sent to England at Lynchmere Preparatory School in Eastbourne, the principal of which was Gary Gilbert, former governor of the Tolstoys. In 1929, Tolstoy started working for an insurance company in Paris and they had to relocate again. Young Dimitri attended a Russian lyceum in which lessons were taught in his native language. In 1923, the Count got a job at a bank in Nice and the family left for France. In 1922, Maria Pavlovna married Count Andrey Tolstoy. Dimitri divorced his wife and returned to his home country to join the civil war. In 1919, via the Crimea, they left for England and settled in Kent. The revolution in Russia forced the family to emigrate when the child was one year old. He was born on March 19/Apin St Petersburg in the family of Prince Dimitri Obolensky and Countess Maria Pavlovna Shuvalova, both descendants of ancient noble families.

Byzantium and the Slavs by Dimitri Obolensky