Vladimir Meshchersky

Prince Vladimir Meschersky

Prince Vladimir Petrovich Meshchersky (11 January 1839[1] – 23 July 1914[2]) was a Russian journalist and novelist.

He was the grandson of historian Nikolay Karamzin.[3]

Meshchersky was editor of Grazhdanin (The Citizen), a traditional conservative newspaper which received subsidies from the imperial authorities.[4] He also contributed to the periodicals The Russian Messenger and Moskovskiye Vedomosti (Moscow News). He was the author of several novels and memoirs.

He was a friend of the composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and acquired a reputation as a homosexual philanderer.[5] His patrons, the Tsars Alexander III and Nicholas II, protected him from public disgrace.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Ruvigny, Marquis of (1914) The Titled Nobility of Europe, London: Harrison and Sons, page 1008.
  2. ↑ "Czar's Adviser, Mestchersky, dies", New York Times, 24 July 1914
  3. ↑ Richard Denis Charques (1965) The twilight of imperial Russia, Oxford University Press, p. 51
  4. ↑ Richard Taruskin (2000) Defining Russia Musically: Historical and Hermeneutical Essays, Princeton University Press, p. 281
  5. ↑ Peter Stoneley (2007) A queer history of the ballet, Taylor and Francis, p. 53
  6. ↑ Alexander Poznansky (1999) Tchaikovsky through others' eyes, Indiana University Press, p. 77