Nabokov, Elena Ivanovna, 1876-1939

Elena Ivanovna Nabokov (neé Rukavishnikov) was born into the family of one of the wealthiest merchants in Russia, Ivan Vasilyevich Rukavishnikov. He graduated from Moscow and Saint-Petrsburg Universities with degrees in engineering and law, before going into gold-mining business. Of all the children in the family, only two survived into adulthood, Elena, end her brother Vasily, making her one of the richest heiresses in Russia. Both children received excellent education. 1n 1897 she married Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov, an aristocrat, a lawyer and a politican. They had five children together; their eldest was the writer, Vladimir Nabokov. She was widowed in 1922, when her husband was assasinated in Berlin by the far-right Russian monarchists. She lived the rest of her life in Prague, where she received a small pension from the government. She died and was burried in Prague in 1939.