Fédor Fédorovitch Tereshtchenko

Fédor Fédorovitch Tereshtchenko

1888 – 1950

Theodore (Fedor) Fedorovitch Tereshchenko was the son of a wealthy Kiev sugar producer. His father was the legendary sugar magnate Theodore Arteimovitch Tereshchenko.

As a young man, he was fascinated with powered flight. He joined the Kiev Air-Sailing Society and became one of its most active members. In 1909 he built an aircraft similar to the Bleriot-XI and published a set of technical drawings. The aircraft was demonstrated at the XII Congress of researchers and doctorates in December 1909.

At his Chervone property, he built an aircraft workshop which was expanded during the First World War years, producing more than seven designs. Aircraft were built and repaired there, and the products of his factory carried his name.

He was somewhat of a playboy in his teens and caught the eye of Princess von Keyserling. They had a child, Nathalie, in April 1910 and later married. They were divorced after a few years.

In 1914 Tereshchenko moved the aircraft production to Moscow to avoid the advancing German forces. There he organized a special repair train for front-line aircraft service and introduced other field-repair innovations. He later merged the business with a Moscow-based aircraft company and, after the revolution and civil-war period, left for Paris.

In Paris he played the piano in cabarets and wrote music. He was also involved in occult studies and wrote several books on the subject. Following the Second World War he moved to Brittany and relied economically on his sister Nadehzda, who lived in Switzerland. He died in 1950.