George Trofimoff - Background

Background

Trofimoff was born in Berlin, Germany on March 9, 1927. His father, Vladimir Vladimirovich Trofimoff, was a former Major in the anti-communist White Army during the Russian Civil War. His paternal grandfather, Vladimir Ivanovich Trofimoff, had been a Brigadier General in the Imperial Russian Army General Staff and had been shot by the Soviet secret police in 1919. George's mother, who was born Ekaterina Kartali, had been a concert pianist before marrying Major Trofimoff in 1926.

After the death of his wife in 1928, Major Trofimoff descended into abject poverty. In response, he temporarily gave his son to be raised by Vladimir and Antonina Sharavov, both of whom were fellow White emigres. Antonina's son from a previous marriage was Igor Vladimirovich Susemihl. Even into his old age, Trofimoff continued to describe Susemihl as "my brother."

In 1943, Vladimir Trofimoff remarried and his son moved back in with him and his new wife. However, the family was soon forced to separate again due to Allied bombing raids on Berlin. They would not meet again until 1949, when George Trofimoff was a U.S. Army officer assigned to the occupation of Germany.

In the fall of 1944, George Trofimoff was ordered to report for conscription into the German Army, or Wehrmacht. Rather than comply, he fled to occupied Czechoslovakia and remained in hiding near Pilsen until the end of the Second World War. Trofimoff then fled the advancing Soviet Army into the American Zone of Occupied Germany.

After working as an interpreter for the U.S. Army, Trofimoff made his way illegally to Paris, France. While staying there, he was embraced by Paris' community of White emigres, many of whom had known his father and grandfather. Soon after, Trofimoff was sponsored by the Society of Friends for emigration to the United States. In December 1947, he boarded a KLM Royal Dutch Airliner and flew from Amsterdam to New York City.

Trofimoff enlisted in the United States Army in 1948 and received a commission in the United States Army Reserve in 1953. He received an honorable discharge from active duty in 1956, and retired from the United States Army Reserve with the rank of Colonel in 1987. From 1959 through 1994, Trofimoff was employed by the United States Army as a civilian working in military intelligence, serving primarily in the Kingdom of Laos and in West Germany.