Pineapples in Champagne (Ananasy v Shampanskom)

Born in St. Petersburg into the family of military engineer Vasily Petrovich Lotarev (1860–1904). On his mother’s side, he was a third cousin of the Russian revolutionary and Soviet stateswoman A. M. Kollontai (née Domontovich), and was also a distant relative of the historian N. M. Karamzin and the poet A. A. Fet. He spent the first nine years of his life in St. Petersburg. After his parents separated, he lived with his aunt and uncle on their estate in Novgorod Governorate. Having completed four classes at the Cherepovets Realschule, in 1904 he left with his father for the Far East.…

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