Vladimir Konkordovich Abdank-Kossovskii, 1885-1962
Vladimir Abdank-Kossovskii was born in Vitebskaia guberniia, Russia, on June 16, 1885. He received his education in the Lazarevskii institut vostochnykh iazykov, the Aleksandrovskoe voennoe uchilishche, the Ofitserskaia elektrotekhnicheskaia shkola, and at the History and Philogoy department of the Imperatorskii Novorossiiskii universitet.
During World War I, Abdank-Kossovskii served in as an engineer officer, and received several medals for his service, including the St. George cross and the order of St. Anna. Enlisting in the White Army, Abdank-Kossovskii was evacuated to Tunis after the end of the Civil War, and arrived in France in the early 1920s, where he became active in Russian émigré monarchist organizations. He shared the fate of numerous émigrés, who were not able to find employment in their profession – Abdank-Kossovskii thus found work in factories and as a cab driver in Paris.
As a journalist, Abdank-Kossovskii was a frequent contributor to Vozrozhdenie and other Russian émigré newspapers, and it was in that capacity, that he followed his passion for Russian history and the fate of the Russian diaspora. He began collecting materials on the lives of Russian émigrés on different continents, and established an exhibit entitled “Zarubezhnaia Rus’,” which chronicled the fate of Russians abroad beginning from 1916 to 1961.
Vladimir Konkordovich Abdank-Kossovskii died on April 19, 1962 in Grasse, France.
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