Princess Vera Struve Mestchersky

Daughter of the diplomat Karl von Struve (1835-1907) and his wife Maria Annenkova (1844-1889), granddaughter of General Nicolas Annenkov, Vera Kirilovna von Struve, who became, after her marriage, Princess Vera Mestchersky, headed the “Russian house” of Sainte Geneviève des Bois.

Vera Mestchersky spent her childhood in Japan and the United States, where her father was ambassador to the Russian Empire. In 1900, she married Prince Peter Nikolaevich Mestchersky (1869-1944), with whom she had five children: Marie, died at the age of 2, Nicolas (1905-1966), Cyril (1927-1923), Nikita ( 1909-1942) and Marina (1912-1994). After the October Revolution, she left Russia with her family and found refuge in France. At the beginning of the 1920s, Princess Mestchersky opened a maintenance school at the Villa de la Réunion in Auteuil, which welcomed, among others, Princess Marina of Greece and Lady Dorothy Paget. Vera Mestchersky's idea was to provide financial assistance to elderly Russian emigrants who had taken refuge in Paris and who had no means of supporting their daily lives. The French government's social policy did not grant, at the time, any financial aid to immigrants. However, Vera Mestchersky, by giving lessons to young wealthy girls from good English society, donated the proceeds of the registration fees to destitute refugees, who came to ask her for help. Dorothy Paget, touched by the princess's efforts, offered to buy her a house so she could rest. But Vera Mestchersky was keen to be able to shelter her destitute compatriots. Thus, she had Dorothy Paget buy the residence of the Cossonnerie de Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, which under her leadership became a retirement home whose occupants were Russian, which is why it took the name “Russian House” . This was inaugurated in April 1927. Over the years, a cemetery and an Orthodox church were built close to the residence in order to bury the deceased residents as well as other personalities of the emigration.