Count Ilya Andreyevich Tolstoy (3 February 1903

Tula Governorate Tula Governorate () was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and the Russian SFSR. The governate existed from 1796 to 1929; its seat was in the city of Tula. It was divided into 12 districts. The main towns w ...

– 28 October 1970 New York City) was a U.S. Army Colonel and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's envoy in Tibet. He was one of the founders of

Marineland of Florida Marineland of Florida (usually just called Marineland), one of Florida's first marine mammal parks, is billed as "the world's first oceanarium". Marineland functions as an entertainment and Human swimming, swim-with-the-dolphins facility, and reo ...

, of the

Bahamas National Trust The Bahamas National Trust is a non-profit organisation in the Bahamas that manages the country's 32 national parks.. Its headquarters is located in New Providence in the Bay Street Business Centre, East Bay Street. Its office was formally locate ...

, and he served on the Caribbean Conservation Commission. He was a grandson of count

Lev Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using pre-reform Russian orthography. ; ), usually referr ...

Life

Count Ilya Tolstoy was born in 1903 at Toptivovo,

Tula, Russia Tula (, ) is the largest city and the administrative center of Tula Oblast in Russia, located south of Moscow. Tula is located in the northern Central Russian Upland on the banks of the Upa (river), Upa River, a tributary of the Oka (river), Ok ...

. His father was Count Andrey Lvovich Tolstoy, son of writer

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

, and his mother was Olga Diterichs, daughter of General of the Infantry Konstantin Diterichs (and sister of General

Mikhail Diterikhs Mikhail Konstantinovich Diterikhs (, ; May 17, 1874 – September 9, 1937) served as a general in the Imperial Russian Army and subsequently became a key figure in the monarchist White movement in Siberia and the Russian Far East area during the R ...

). Tolstoy attended the Moscow School of Agriculture, before joining the Imperial Cavalry and serving in

Tashkent Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...

. In 1917 – 1918 he worked for the Russian Department of Agriculture in

Turkestan Turkestan,; ; ; ; also spelled Turkistan, is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and East Turkestan (Xinjiang). The region is located in the northwest of modern day China and to the northwest of its ...

. Tolstoy emigrated to the United States in 1924. He studied at the

William Penn College William Penn University is a private university in Oskaloosa, Iowa, United States. It was founded by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in 1873 as Penn College. In 1933, the name was changed to William Penn College, and fina ...

and Iowa State University, Ames. In 1927, Tolstoy became associated with the explorer and naturalist, William Douglas Burden, an associate and trustee of the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...

. He was inducted into the Explorers Club in New York in 1931. Tolstoy was one of the pioneers of

underwater photography Underwater photography is the practice of capturing images beneath the surface of the water, often done while scuba diving, but can also be done while diving on surface supply, snorkeling, swimming, from a submersible or remotely operated und ...

and one of the founders and owners of the world's first

oceanarium An oceanarium can be either a marine mammal park, such as Marineland of Canada, or a large-scale Public aquarium, aquarium, such as the Lisbon Oceanarium, presenting an ocean habitat with marine (ocean), marine animals, especially large ocean dwe ...

with William Douglas Burden,

Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Cornelius "Sonny" Vanderbilt Whitney (February 20, 1899 – December 13, 1992) was an American businessman, film producer, government official, writer and philanthropist. He was also a polo player and the owner of a significant stable of Thorough ...

and Sherman Pratt. Brooke Dolan and Ilya Tolstoy

In World War II Tolstoy was an officer in the

Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the first intelligence agency of the United States, formed during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines ...

. He and Brooke Dolan went to Tibet as envoys of the American President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

in 1942 and met the

Dalai Lama The Dalai Lama (, ; ) is the head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. The term is part of the full title "Holiness Knowing Everything Vajradhara Dalai Lama" (圣识一切瓦齐尔达喇达赖喇嘛) given by Altan Khan, the first Shu ...

, then barely seven years old. Dolan and Tolstoy's expedition entered Tibet by the

Nathu La Nathu La(, Sikkimese language, Sikkimese: རྣ་ཐོས་ལ་) is a mountain pass in the Dongkya Range of the Himalayas between China's Yadong County in Tibet, and the Indian states of Sikkim. But minor touch of Bengal in South Asia. T ...

.Rosemary Jones Tung
A Portrait of Lost Tibet
p. 14 In 1945 he headed a top-secret mission into the interior of China of search of

uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

. His first marriage in 1920 was to Zoya Dmitrievna Platonova (born on 18 December 1891, died on 27 September 1978). His son Count Alexander Tolstoy was born in 1921. His second marriage was to Vera Ilinichna Sidorkova (born on 28 September 1894, died on 10 August 1974), by whom he had a daughter, Sofija, born in 1922. The marriage ended in divorce. Tolstoy died on 28 October 1970 in New York and was buried in the cemetery of the

Novo-Diveevo Novo-Diveevo Convent (it is often spelled as Novo-Diveyevo, Novo-Diveievo or Novodiveevo, - "''New Diveyevo''") is a female monastic community in Nanuet, Rockland County, New York in the United States, that was founded in 1949. It is under the au ...

Cemetery, Nanuet, New York, USA.

Life

References

Further reading