Alexandra Andreyevna Voronin (''née'' Voronina, later Yourieff; russian: Александра Андреевна Воронина, 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 Nazi collaborator who nominally headed the government of Norway during the country's occupation by Nazi Germ ...

, the leader of

Nasjonal Samling Nasjonal Samling (, NS; ) was a Norwegian 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 and a group of supporters such a ...

(NS), the political party which collaborated with the German occupational force in Norway during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Early life

Voronin was born in

Sevastopol Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...

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 (; non, Væringjar; gkm, Βάραγγοι, ''Várangoi'';Varangian
" Online Etymo ...

chieftain

Rurik Rurik (also Ryurik; orv, Рюрикъ, Rjurikŭ, from Old Norse '' Hrøríkʀ''; russian: Рюрик; died 879); be, Рурык, Ruryk was a semi-legendary Varangian chieftain of the Rus' who in the year 862 was invited to reign in Novgoro ...

.Kirsten A. Seaver
Introduction
to Alexandra Yourieff, W. George Yourieff, ''In Quisling's Shadow'' (1999) When Voronin was about three years old, the family moved to

Yalta Yalta (: Я́лта) is a 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 Crimea ...

and moved again to

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, 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 revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...

, 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. Voronin 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, Voronin 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 Voronin. In the summer of 1924, the three returned together to Norway, where Vidkun Quisling began to refer to Voronin as his "foster daughter", instead of his wife, as before. Alexandra Voronin subsequently left Norway to live with an aunt in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

and never returned.

Later life

In 1929, Quisling broke off all contact with Voronin, and she migrated to China. There, in 1933, the Russian 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

Tsingtao Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...

, 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 "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

. 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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Voronin, Alexandra 1905 births 1993 deaths People from Kharkiv Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Norway Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Vidkun Quisling Women autobiographers 20th-century Russian women writers 20th-century Russian writers People from Sevastopol