Alex N. Kniazeff, 1909 - 1993

Born at Tsitsikhar station on the Chinese Eastern Railway on 5 August 1909, where his father, an army engineer officer, was stationed, Kniazev spent the first half of his life in China. As his father was transferred to Manchuria station, where he was commandant during the Russian Civil War, and later to Harbin, where he was assistant commandant, A. N. Kniazeff moved with him, graduating from American Methodist College in Harbin in 1927. From 1927 to 1933 he was a student at Harbin Polytechnic Institute, receiving his baccalaureate degree in electrical and mechanical engineering. Simultaneously, he completed a training course at the Russkii Obshchevoinskii soiuz military academy in 1934

Following his graduation, he moved to Tientsin, where he worked as an engineer for a number of companies until 1945, when he was forced to escape to Shanghai. He was interned at Tubabao refugee camp until January 1951, when he finally arrived in San Francisco. From 1952 to 1955 he was an instructor at the Army Language School in Monterey until he was able to secure employment closer to his field of specialization, first as an instrumentation designer for Bechtel Corporation (1955-1958), and then at Pacific Gas and Electric Company until retirement (1958-1974).

As a member of the Russian boy scouts since 1922 in Harbin, he rose to become Chief Russian Scout of St. George's Knights (Natsional'naia organizatsiia russkikh skautov). Kniazeff died in San Francisco in 1993.

Detailed processing and preservation microfilming for these materials were made possible by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and by matching funds from the Hoover Institution and Museum of Russian Culture. The grant also provides for depositing a microfilm copy in the Hoover Institution Archives. The original materials and copyright to them (with some exceptions) are the property of the Museum of Russian Culture, San Francisco.

Alex Kniazeff Register