Nabokov was born in Tsarskoe Selo into a wealthy and aristocratic family. He studied criminal law at the University of St. Petersburg and taught criminology at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence. From 1904 until 1917, he was the editor of the liberal newspaper Rech. A prominent member of the Constitutional Democratic Party (the "Kadets"), Nabokov was elected to Russia's parliament, the so-called First Duma. In 1917, after the February Revolution, Nabokov was made secretary to the Russian provisional government, but was forced to leave St. Petersburg in December of that year after the provisional government was overthrown by the Bolshevik revolution. In 1918 he served as minister of justice in the regional government of Crimea, where he and his family had taken refuge. In 1919 the Nabokovs fled to England and later settled in Berlin. From 1920 until his death, Nabokov was the editor of the Russian émigré newspaper Rul, which continued to advocate a pro-Western democratic government in Russia.
In Berlin in 1922, two right-wing Russian assassins began firing during a political conference that he was attending, with the intention of killing publisher and politician Pavel Miliukov. Nabokov jumped off the stage and attempted to disarm one of the gunmen, but he was shot twice and died instantly. Nabokov's demise was tragic but fitting for a lifelong democrat: he died defending one of his political opponents. Although the assassins failed to wound their intended target, they were pleased to learn that they had killed a prominent democrat.
V. D. Nabokov married Elena Ivanovna Rukavishnikov in 1897, with whom he was to have five children. Their eldest son was Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, who portrayed his father in his memoirs (Speak, Memory, 1967). The younger Nabokov also included in his novel Pale Fire an assassination scene that parallelled the death of his father.
External link
Dieter E. Zimmer's Nabokov Family Web (http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/nfw_toc.htm)
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was born on (or about) April 23rd, 1899, into a wealthy and aristocratic family in St. Petersburg, Russia.
His father, VladimirDmitrievichNabokov, was a prominent and respected liberal politician; his mother, Elena Ivanovna, was a noble and wealthy Russian with an artistic heritage.
The elder Nabokov leapt off of the stage in an effort to disarm one of the gunmen, was shot twice, and died instantly.
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