Alexandra Andreyevna Voronin (''née'' Voronina, later Yourieff; , 20 August 1905 — 1 October 1993) was the Russian wife of Norwegian fascist
Vidkun Quisling
Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling (; ; 18 July 1887 – 24 October 1945) was a Norwegian military officer, politician and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, Nazi collaborator who Quisling regime, headed the government of N ...
, the leader of
Nasjonal Samling
The Nasjonal Samling (, NS; ) was a Norway, Norwegian far-right politics, far-right political party active from 1933 to 1945. It was the only legal party of Norway from 1942 to 1945. It was founded by former minister of defence Vidkun Quisling a ...
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.
Early life
Alexandra was born in
Sevastopol
Sevastopol ( ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea. Due to its strategic location and the navigability of the city's harbours, Sevastopol has been an important port and naval base th ...
into an upper-class family, the daughter of physician Andrei Sergeyevich Voronin. The third of five children, she was the only one to survive infancy.Chapter 2, “Alexandra’s Childhood and Family”, in ''In Quisling's Shadow: The Memoirs of Vidkun Quisling's First Wife, Alexandra'' (1999) Her mother was Irina Theodorovna von Kotzebue, a descendant of a viceroy of Poland and of the 9th century
Varangian
The Varangians ( ; ; ; , or )Varangian ," Online Etymology Dictionary were
Rurik
Rurik (also spelled Rorik, Riurik or Ryurik; ; ; died 879) was a Varangians, Varangian chieftain of the Rus' people, Rus' who, according to tradition, was invited to reign in Veliky Novgorod, Novgorod in the year 862. The ''Primary Chronicle' ...
.Kirsten A. Seaver Introduction to Alexandra Yourieff, W. George Yourieff, ''In Quisling's Shadow'' (1999)
When Alexandra was about three years old, the family moved to
Yalta
Yalta (: ) is a resort town, resort city on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea. It serves as the administrative center of Yalta Municipality, one of the regions within Crimea. Yalta, along with the rest of Crime ...
and moved again to
Kharkiv
Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.
after the First World War began in 1914. There, she attended the Kharkiv Ballet School and was sent to the LV Dombrovskaya women's gymnasium, at that time a prestigious boarding school for the children of the nobility. Her father disappeared without trace during the middle years of the
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, and her mother became a paid hospital nurse, having previously been a volunteer. After the
1917 Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social change in Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government following two successive revolutions and a civil war. It ...
, the family's lifestyle collapsed, as servants fled and rooms in their apartment were confiscated. They returned to Crimea for a time, where her mother considered emigrating to France or Romania.
Alexandra married Quisling in August 1922, the day after her 17th birthday, at a Registry office in Kharkiv, and then travelled to Moscow for the issuing of documents at the Norwegian legation, including her name being added to Quisling’s passport. In March 1923, Alexandra was pregnant, and Quisling insisted on her having an abortion, which greatly distressed her. They made a short trip to Norway, then returned to Kharkiv, where Quisling may have married Maria Pasetshnikova without divorcing Alexandra. In the summer of 1924, the three returned together to Norway, where Vidkun Quisling began to refer to Alexandra as his "foster daughter", instead of his wife, as before. Alexandra Voronin subsequently left Norway to live with an aunt in
Nice
Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one millionRussian Orthodox Archbishop of China annulled her marriage to Quisling, so that she could marry Dr. J. P. Ryabin. They had one son. Her second husband died in an accident in 1936, and the same year she met and married W. George Yourieff, a Russian architect and honorary French consul in
Qingdao
Qingdao, Mandarin: , (Qingdao Mandarin: t͡ɕʰiŋ˧˩ tɒ˥) is a prefecture-level city in the eastern Shandong Province of China. Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, Qingdao was long an important fortress. In 1897, the city was ceded to G ...
, whom she had known since her youth. In 1947, they migrated together to the United States and settled in
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto.
Th ...
. Eventually they wrote a book about Voronin’s life with Vidkun Quisling. W. George Yourieff died in July 1999, aged 94.W. George Yourieff, prominent local architect Wednesday July 28, 1999, at paloaltoonline.com, accessed 1 October 2020