Early Life and Career
Amilakhvari was born in Bazorkino (now Chermen, North Ossetia–Alania, Russian Federation), where his family had moved from their ancestral estate at Gori, Georgia during the Russian Revolution of 1905. The house of Zedguinidze-Amilakhvari had formerly served as hereditary Master of the Horse to the Georgian Crown (Amilakhvari) and retained their princely dignity during the Imperial Russian rule of Georgia. Dimitri's grandfather, Ivane Amilakhvari (1829–1905), was an eminent general in the Russian army. His father, Colonel Giorgi Zedguinidze-Amilakhvari, also served in the Russian military and transferred his loyalty to the short-lived Democratic Republic of Georgia in 1918-21. After the Russian SFSR occupied Georgia early in 1921, the family fled to Istanbul, Turkey, where Dimitri attended a local British School, and later, in 1922, emigrated to France.
In 1924, Dimitri Amilakhvari entered the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr and was commissioned as a second lieutenant after his graduation in 1926. At the same time, he was posted to the French Foreign Legion and promoted to lieutenant in 1926. He later served in French North Africa and took part in all important operations in the south of Morocco from 1932 to 1933. From 1934 to 1939, he was Head of the French military school in Agadir, being promoted to captain in 1937. Following his naturalisation as a French citizen, he married another member of the exiled Georgian nobility, Princess Irina, née Dadiani (1904–1944) in August 1927. Note that during his French service, the spelling of his surname was modified, dropping the 'h'.
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