Sir Dimitri Obolensky FBA was a Russian-born historian who settled in England. He was Professor of Russian and Balkan History at the University of Oxford and the author of various historical works. Obolensky was born Prince Dimitri Dimitrievich Obolensky to Prince Dimitri Alexandrovich Obolensky and Countess Maria Shuvalov . He was descended from Rurik, Igor, Svyatoslav, St Vladimir of Kiev, St Michael of Chernigov, and Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov. However, as one of his students has written, "he was a sober enough scholar to know that Riurik may not actually have existed." After... the Revolution, the Royal Navy helped Obolensky and his family to escape from Russia, together with the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna and the Grand Duke Nicholas. Obolensky eventually became a British subject in 1948. In 1988 he returned to Russia as an official delegate to the Sobor of the Russian Orthodox Church convoked to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of the conversion of Russia to Christianity.
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