Prince Eggert Volkonsky
(By H. A. T.)
Queensland Magazine (Brisbane, Qld. : 1923 - 1925), Tuesday 1 January 1924, page 32
It is reckoned that over 20,000,000 Russians, mostly of the aristocratic and bourgeois classes, are now living in exile outside of Russia, which testifies to the severity of the political and economic storms which have swept of recent years over that unfortunate country. Some of the wreckages of that unprecedented social upheaval find their way even to our distant Australia. Among them is the young Russian prince, Eggert Volkonsky, who arrived in Brisbane a few days ago. The house of Volkonsky is well known as one of the most ancient and most illustrious of Russia's princely families, having throughout history supplied distinguished servants of the State in the administration, the army, the navy, and in literature.
The grandfather of the young prince is a well-known Russian writer; his father was an admiral in command of the Baltic fleet.
The young prince, Serguiei Alexandrovitch, was educated in the Petrograd Corps des Pages. Then he became a cadet in the Imperial Naval College at Petrograd, and formed one of the Imperial guard.
When Kerensky sent the Tsar to Tsarskoe Selo, the cadet guard accompanied him. And when the Tsar was sent in exile to Ekaterinenburg, in Siberia, the cadets were disbanded. When the sailors of the Baltic Fleet started murdering their officers, Admiral Volkonsky succeeded in escaping to France with a part of his family and, it is believed, also a part at least of the family's assets.
The young prince Sergei followed later on in company of two friends, the young French prince Murat, and Viscount de Lori. Having been unable to find his father and any other members of his family in France, he surmised that they had returned to Russia, and he decided to try and trace them there. He and his two friends left for Finland, and hence through Norway, as sailors on a fishing boat, right up to Archangel in the White Sea. Hence up the Obi River into the heart of Siberia, where they were captured and imprisoned by the Bolsheviks, but managed to escape into Mongolia, and hence through Thibet into China and Japan. Parting with his friends at Shanghai, he went to Hongkong, and right up to Siam, inhere he was for a time the guest of the Crown Prince Pitznaluck Chakrabon, who had been educated in Russia. With Lord Hamilton and the Siamese Crown Prince he travelled to Burma, in India, and finally reached Singapore, whence he sailed for Sydney, where he knew that his fiancee, the charming Princess Kutuzova, was waiting for him. Unfortunately, on the way to Australia he got infected with smallpox and had, on arrival, to be detained for a considerable time in quarantine. When he was released he found that his fiancee, having no tidings of him and despairing of ever meeting him, had sailed for America. And so it is that he is now stranded in our midst, anxious to find something to do for a living. Although he has already done some physical work and is willing to tackle more of it, he is hardly robust enough to earn his living in that way, in as much as he was rather severely wounded in a bayonet charge and had an arm somewhat mauled by a tigress in big game hunting at Siam.
From what I know of him, he should make a good teacher of modern languages or correspondence clerk for a firm doing business with foreign countries for he is a good linguist. In spite of the vicissitudes of such an eventful career for one so young, Prince Volkonsky is a buoyant young man, full of go and energy, a good all round athlete, excelling especially in fencing, a man of good address and good education, a fluent speaker and a bright conversationalist in several modern languages, the literatures of which are familiar to him. And last, but not least, he is possessed of a fine literary talent, feeling equally at home not only in his mother tongue, in which he has written excellent poetry, plays, novels, etc., but also in French, which he has learned in French Colleges, and in English, which he speaks and writes well, having learned it at the Cambridge University.
He has already published in the leading Sydney papers short stories, travels, personal experiences, etc. Having had the privilege of peeping into his literary baggage, I found there a good stock of versatile literary stuff, written by a racy writer. Our readers will be glad to learn that arrangements have been made to publish some parts of it in this magazine. Any communications addressed to him, care of Mr. Henry A. Tardent, Wynnum, will reach him wherever he happens to be.
Prince EGGERT VOLKONSKY
1923 '"BLACK PRINCE"', The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930), 17 May, p. 6.
1924 'Advertising', Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931), 16 January, p. 3.
Left Australia on RMS Niagara, for Vancouver via Auckland, Suva and Honolulu
7 November 1925 - He arrived at Wellington from Sydney a few days ago and is seeing something of New Zealand before leaving for Canada by the Niagara on his trip to Vancouver. His mission in Canada is to rejoin his sister, Princess Volkonsky, whom he found only last year in Norway...
He had not long returned there from finishing his education at St. John’s College, Cambridge University, when the storm broke over the Romanoffs and all the nobility.
Left NZ on 24.11.1925 with Miss P Novohreschenov in First Saloon.
In an interview given for the Winnipeg Tribune in November, 1926, Prince Sergeie Alexandrovish Volkonsky claimed that he’d been on a world tour, searching for his parents, from whom he’d become separated during the Revolution. According to the Tribune, the last trace he had of them was that they had gone to France. After a fruitless search through the country, the prince went to England and there he spent two years. Since that time he has visited every corner of the globe. He arrived in Victoria, B.C. nine months ago from New Zealand . . . . he came to Canada as a director of the Musical Publishing Company of New Zealand and also to meet his sister who was to come to Canada from Norway. On his way to Winnipeg from the Pacific Coast, the prince stayed near Calgary for a few weeks on a ranch owned by a Russian count . . . . Speaking of Canada, the prince termed it as “not a bad place at all. I like Canada and Canadians,” he said, “and would like to stay here, as it reminds me of Russia.” His ambition is to own a sheep ranch. “I want to become a good naturalized Canadian,” he said. (Winnipeg Tribune. November 1, 1926)
CVA 99-1533 – Prince Volkonsky. Passport photograph. 1926. Stuart Thomson photo.
It seems to me likely that while his missing parents may have motivated his travels early on, surely by the time he reached Canada nearly a decade later, his motivation would have become, at least, mixed; that the principal reason for his being in Canada was to put down roots.
"Of course, after the Russian revolution, the whole Pacific coast was littered with desolate refugees from that unhappy country. Vancouver was full of them . . . . Prince Volkonski . . . was haunting afternoon tea parties for the bread and butter he could unnoticed consume . . . . He had been in turn insurance agent, bill poster, waiter and actor. " (The Autobiography of Sir John Martin-Harvey. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co. 1933, pp 435-36).
...there was a mention of the location of Volkonsky’s fencing studio in the Sun: it was apparently located (albeit briefly, by all accounts) at Robson and Howe in “the Court House block”. (Sun, 20 Mar 1926).
It seems plain from Sir John’s report (and, reading between the lines in the Tribune article, too) that Volkonsky was tired out, hungry, and desperate to establish himself in a new, friendlier nation.
But I’ve been unable to find out what ultimately happened to Prince Volkonsky.¹ I can find no evidence that he ever became a naturalized Canadian (sheep farmer or otherwise). I have not even been able to ascertain where he died and was buried. Indeed, the later years of Sergeie Alexandrovish Volkonsky seem to be every bit as clouded in mystery to contemporary researchers as were his parents’ latter years to him!
VPL 8916. Sir John Martin-Harvey (left) and Russian Prince Volkonsky (right) fencing at the Fencing Academy in Vancouver. 1926. Stuart Thomson.
Paraskovia Novokreshenov
Arrival - Seattle, Washington, USA and to Niagara Falls, New York, USA as Paraskovia Novokreshenov
Arrival - Seattle, Washington, USA and to Niagara Falls, New York, USA as Paraskovia Novokreshenov
Portrait Of Prince Sergius Volkonsky
Informal full-length portrait of Prince Sergius Alexander Volkonsky, member of the Russian aristocracy, wearing pilot's gear, in front of a building in Chicago, Illinois, 1929. A roll of chain-link fence is standing in the background. (Photo by Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News collection/Chicago History Museum/Getty Images)
Prince Sergius Alexander Volkonsky (often referred to as Prince Sergei Volkonsky) was a Russian aristocrat who gained recognition as a pilot and instructor in the United States, particularly in
Illinois, following the Russian Revolution.
Key Details and Illinois ConnectionAviation Background: Volkonsky was a pioneer aviator who served as a pilot during World War I.
Public Persona: Often photographed in his pilot's gear, he was a prominent figure in the Russian émigré community in Illinois. Historical archives, such as those at the University of Illinois, document the presence of the Volkonsky family and other Russian aristocrats who contributed to the cultural and educational landscape of the state.
Montovideo Uruguay ???
Учитель фехтования
После революции и Гражданской войны князь Сергей Александрович Волконский путешествовал по миру в поисках своих родителей, с которыми его разлучили годы лихолетья. Сергей узнал, что они уехали во Францию. Через несколько лет безрезультатных поисков по всей Франции и другим странам, он отправился в Англию, где познакомился с актёром театра и немого кино сэром Джоном Харви, который был впечатлён рассказами Сергея о своих скитаниях. После судьба ещё не раз закидывала князя во многие уголки земли.
Он побывал в Британской Колумбии, Новой Зеландии. Однажды, оказавшись в Канаде, в Калгари на ранчо графа Салтыкова, Сергей захотел остаться здесь, потому что это место своей природой напоминало ему Россию. У него появилась мечта заиметь своё ранчо. К тому времени у него уже почти не осталось надежды найти своих родителей.
В двадцатые годы по всему тихоокеанскому побережью расселились беженцы из бывшей Российской империи. Ванкувер, где ютился Сергей, был полон русскими эмигрантами, многие из которых, отнюдь не бедствовали. Для них князь читал так называемые «послеобеденные лекции» ради остатков обедов. Он работал страховым агентом, рекламным агентом, официантом, актёром, переводчиком. Но главной страстью Сергея было фехтование, и он пытался научить ванкуверскую молодежь этому искусству. Сергей открыл школу фехтования, но фехтование не вызывало особенного энтузиазма среди канадцев, поэтому школу пришлось закрыть.
Доподлинно неизвестно что сталось с Сергеем потом. Канадцем он так и не стал. Где умер князь и где обрели вечный покой его родители скрыто пеленой безжалостного двадцатого века.
Maxim Volkonsky (Facebook)
Sources
A WANDERING PRINCE (1924, April 28). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 3. Retrieved November 21, 2025, fromhttp://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23732214
BARON HOSKINS OF KILLARA (1925, June 27). Smith's Weekly (Sydney, NSW : 1919 -
1950), p. 3. Retrieved February 2, 2026, fromhttp://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article234973796
1924 'RUSSIAN ROYALTY.', Tweed Daily (Murwillumbah, NSW : 1914 - 1949), 23
January, p. 3. , viewed 02 Feb 2026,http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article191745272
A RUSSIAN EXILE.Otago Witness, Issue 3739, 10 November 1925, Page 31 -https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/
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