Kazem-Bek, Aleksandr, 1902-1977

Aleksandr Kazem-Bek was born in Kazan on the 2nd (15th old style) of February, 1902, into an old noble family of Persian (Azeri) origin. He came from a line of distinguished academics and professors, the most notable of which, his paternal great grandfather, founded the Institute for Oriental Studies at the University of Kazan. As a child, Aleksandr often moved with his family throughout Europe, and lived for short periods of time in France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria-Hungary. His family finally emigrated in February 1922, and eventually reached Belgrade through Constantinople with the White Army, which he had joined at the age of sixteen. It was during his years with the White Army that the young Kazem-Bek first showed his heroic and fiercely patriotic traits, which would characterize him in his future work as a social and political leader of the White Russian emigration.

In 1923, he moved to Munich, where he began his university studies. It was here that the youth movement called "Young Russia" was born. Kazem-Bek was its founder and leader throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Its members were given the name "Mladorossi," or "Young Russians," and their slogan was "Neither White nor Red, but Russian." The movement was disbanded in 1941.

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