Alexis de Sakhnoffsky

Who was Alexis de Sakhnoffsky?

Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky was a Russian Empire - American industrial designer, known principally for his Streamline-style automotive designs. Born in Kiev,nowUkraine in 1901 in the family of Vladimir Sakhnovsky/Sahnovski. The Sakhnovskys are known since Ukrainian cossacks' period.They are united with other Cossack Hetman families, such as the Zabilas, the Lysenkos, the Bezborodkos, the Polubotkos, as well as the famous noble families the Gogol-Yanovskys,the Tereschenkos and others. Alexis came from a wealthy aristocratic family. The son of Prince Vladimir Sakhnovsky who was the new commandant of the station port in the First World War, the port manager in the Petrograd's Customs and Chairman of the acceptance of vehicles supplied by Russia's allies, committed suicide in 1917. Mother was M.I.Tereshchenko's daughter. The family had a "Mercedes" car, which led to a creative future fate of the artist. After his father's death in 1917 he joined the army of General Wrangel. In early 1920 after the Bolshevik revolution he emigrated from his Motherland. At first he lived in Paris, where his mother's aunt lived.