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Chavchavadze, David (11092357): Difference between revisions

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|class_number=10
|class_number=10
|class_section=7D
|class_section=7D
|class_rank=Pvt
|class_rank=Private
|birth_year=1924
|birth_year=1924
|death_year=2014
|death_year=2014
|nativity=GB
|nativity=Great Britain
|religion=GO
|religion=Greek Orthodox
|enlistment_place=FT DEVENS MASSACHUSETTS
|enlistment_place=FT DEVENS MASSACHUSETTS
|state=MASSACHUSETTS
|state=MASSACHUSETTS
|education=4 years of high school
|education=4 years of high school
|occupation=CIA Officer, author
|occupation=CIA officer; author
|marital=Single without dependents
|marital=Single without dependents
|certificate=3288
|certificate=3288
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|death_date=5 October 2014
|death_date=5 October 2014
|birth_place=London, England
|birth_place=London, England
|death_place=Washington, D.C., U.S.
|death_place=Washington, D.C.
|years_of_service=1943-1945
|years_of_service=1943-1945
|battles=WWII
|battles=WWII
|known_for=CIA Officer, author
|known_for=CIA Officer, author
|rank_final=Captain
}}
}}


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<div class="soldier-lead">
David Chavchavadze (May 20, 1924 – October 5, 2014) was a British-born American author and a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer of Georgian-Russian origin.
'''[[Chavchavadze, David (11092357)|David Chavchavadze]]''' (20 May 1924 – 5 October 2014) was a London-born Ritchie Boy, Lend-Lease interpreter, and later a long-serving CIA officer and author of Georgian-Russian origin.
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== Biography ==
== Biography ==
David Chavchavadze was born on 20 May 1924 in London to Prince Paul Chavchavadze and Princess Nina Georgievna of Russia. The family moved to the United States in 1927. He was educated at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, began Yale University on scholarship, and after his freshman year volunteered for the U.S. Army.


Chavchavadze enlisted on 26 February 1943 at Fort Devens, Massachusetts (ASN 11092357). Identified as a Russian speaker, he entered Camp Ritchie Class 10 (Russian) on 23 July 1943, graduated on 20 September 1943 as a classified assistant interpreter, and was promoted to technician third grade on 27 September 1943. He was posted to Alaska interpreting for Soviet personnel connected with Lend-Lease air ferry operations—including work associated with Andrei Gromyko—and later interpreted in postwar Berlin for occupation officials. Contemporary accounts state he was commissioned a second lieutenant around age 20 and left the Army as a captain.


Chavchavadze was born in London to Prince Paul Chavchavadze (1899–1971) and Princess Nina Georgievna of Russia (Romanov) (1901–1974), a descendant of a prominent Georgian noble family and the Imperial Russian dynasty. David Chavchavadze (May 20, 1924 – October 5, 2014) was a British-born American author and a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer of Georgian-Russian origin. They have one son: **Prince David Chavchavadze (born 2016)
After the war he finished his history studies at Yale, joined the CIA in 1950, and spent about twenty-five years as a case officer in Soviet operations, including early work in Berlin. He later wrote ''Crowns and Trenchcoats: A Russian Prince in the CIA'' (1989) and ''The Grand Dukes'' (1989) and lectured on Russian history. He died on 5 October 2014 in Washington, D.C., at age 90.
 
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.
 
During his time in WWII, he trained at Camp Ritchie putting him among the ranks of many Ritchie Boys.
 
Chavchavadze entered the United States Army in 1943 and served during World War II as liaison for the U.S. It's a story that takes place in Berlin, the spy capital of the world in the 1950's, before the construction of the Berlin Wall about the greatest espionage operation of the Cold War. He married Helen Husted on September 13, 1952, and they were divorced in 1959.
 
*Princess Maria Chavchavadze (August 28, 1953) married Alexander Rasic on October 27, 1990, and they were divorced. He remarried Judith Clippinger on December 28, 1959, and they were divorced in 1970. *Princess Catherine Chavchavadze (December 29, 1960) married John Alan Redpath on September 22, 1990.
 
They have one step-son, Paul George Olkhovsky (August 11, 1960). He remarried, again, this time to Euginie de Smitt in 1979. He also published Crowns and Trenchcoats: A Russian Prince in the CIA (1989) based on his CIA experiences, and translated from Russian Stronger Than Power: A Collection of Stories by Sandji B.
 
They have one daughter: **Yelena Rasic (December 16, 1990) *Princess Alexandra Chavchavadze (December 24, 1954) married Puthukuty Krishnan Ramani on November 26, 1988. They have two children: **Alexander Chavchavadze Ramani-Poduval (May 18, 1991) **Caroline Chavchavadze Ramani-Poduval (June 6, 1994) They have two daughters: **Sophia Redpath (July 4, 1996) **Nina Nolan Redpath (October 13, 1998) *Prince Michael Chavchavadze (August 1, 1966) married Colleen Quinn in 2011.
 
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. Army Air Force Lend-Lease supply operations to the Soviet Union. He spent more than two decades of his career as a CIA officer in the Soviet Union Division.
 
Balykov, an emigre Kalmyk writer. Additionally, he lectured part-time at Georgetown, The George Washington and George Mason Universities on Russian history and culture. 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. He is also a second cousin to King Charles III of the United Kingdom via his mother as well. They have two daughters and three grandchildren:
 
They have two children and three grandchildren: My wife very well knows my interest in non-fiction books; especially those related to WWII in general, and the Ritchie Boys in particular. Naturally, I was pleasantly surprised when she got me this book over the holidays.
 
But neither she nor I was aware that there is a Ritchie Boy connection! Ritchie Boy David Chavchavadze was an operative working out of the CIA's Berlin Operations Base. According to Chavchavadze, "Berlin had so many intelligence officers, agents and goons in it that they must have made up a measurable percentage of the population." More on RB David Chavchavadze to follow.
 
After his retirement, Chavchavadze specialized in tracing the nobility of Imperial Russia and authored The Grand Dukes (1989). David Chavchavadze died in his sleep on October 5, 2014, aged 90, after a long illness.
 


== Research notes ==
== Research notes ==
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* Alaska
* Alaska
* Cia
* Cia
* https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11219248/Prince-David-Chavchavadze-obituary.html
* Enlisted Reserve or Medical Administrative Corps (MAC) Officer
* Enlisted Reserve or Medical Administrative Corps (MAC) Officer
* Romanov prince
* Romanov prince
* Author, "Crowns and Trenchcoats: A Russian Prince in the CIA"
* Author, "Crowns and Trenchcoats: A Russian Prince in the CIA"
* Portrait and summary from Notable Ritchie Boys slides ([https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ij8PP9weF976Lb5_Ic4bFimcuAZzXRn3cHfNCk5nTdM source]).
* Class 10 roster lists technician third grade at graduation; Telegraph obituary reports later commission and discharge as captain—rank_final follows the later grade.
 
== Gallery ==
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2914724045216164.jpg
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== Technical record ==
== Technical record ==
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== Timeline ==
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* 20 May 1924 — Born in London, England.
* 1927 — Family moved to the United States.
* Educated at Phillips Academy (Andover, Massachusetts); began Yale University.
* 26 February 1943 — Enlisted at Fort Devens, Massachusetts (ASN 11092357).
* 23 July – 20 September 1943 — Camp Ritchie Class 10 (Russian); graduated as classified assistant interpreter-Russian.
* 27 September 1943 — Promoted to technician third grade.
* 1943–1945 — Alaska Lend-Lease interpreting; later Berlin occupation interpreting; commissioned (accounts report captain by discharge).
* Postwar — Completed Yale history studies; recruited by CIA (report September 1950).
* c. 1950–1974 — CIA Soviet operations case officer (including Berlin); later contract debriefing work.
* 1989 — Published Crowns and Trenchcoats and The Grand Dukes.
* 5 October 2014 — Died in Washington, D.C.
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== Sources ==
== Sources ==
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Chavchavadze Wikipedia: David Chavchavadze]
* Dan Gross timeline research for David Chavchavadze (private research files; selected non-private findings)
* Camp Ritchie class roster (classes 1–31), merged research file
* ProQuest copies of Telegraph obituaries in RB Archive folder “David Chavchavadze…” (private PDFs, not uploaded)
* [https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/david-chavchavadze-cia-spy-with-russian-royal-roots-dies-at-90/2014/11/08/ddd65f86-5ec6-11e4-9f3a-7e28799e0549_story.html Washington Post — David Chavchavadze obituary (8 November 2014)]
* [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11219248/Prince-David-Chavchavadze-obituary.html The Daily Telegraph / Telegraph.co.uk — Prince David Chavchavadze obituary (Nov 2014)]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Chavchavadze Wikipedia — David Chavchavadze]
* Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
* Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records
* NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
* NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
* 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
* 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
* Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2020-01-27 (1 post)
* Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2020-01-27 (1 post)
* Dan Gross, ''Timeline of David Chavchavadze for Camp Ritchie'' (private research document; 1 source documents reviewed)
* Dan Gross, ''Timeline of Chavchavadze, David for Camp Ritchie'' (private research files; selected non-private narrative findings; 1 source files: DAVID  CHAVCHAVADZE.doc)
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