Board of Directors and Officers

Xenia Woyevodsky,  President

Ms. Woyevodsky has extensive professional experience in the areas of international education, health, humanitarian activities and culture.  She served as international consultant at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, and worked on the UN “Year of the Child.”  As Executive Director/CEO of the Tolstoy Foundation, Inc., founded in l939 in New York City by Alexandra Tolstoy, youngest daughter of Leo Tolstoy, she expanded the Foundation's activities in the Russian Federation through the establishment of viable working partnerships with federal and regional agencies, like-minded organizations, academic institutions and museum/estate centers to support educational activities and to raise cultural awareness.  Russian-American joint projects included semester abroad exchange programs for the empowerment of disadvantaged children and a ground-breaking exhibit in Moscow on the life and work of Alexandra Lvovna Tolstoy, sponsored by two major museums, the Ministry of Culture and the American Embassy.  As Director of the “Consortium of Russian-American Parishes and Organizations,” she established a pilot summer program at the L.N. Museum/Estate at Yasnaya Polyana in Tula with a grant from the Russian Ministry of Education.  

Ms. Jacobsen is Co-Founder of the Firebird Foundation. She currently works as a business consultant with several US-based and international companies. She has extensive professional experience in finance, including working at Deutsche Bank in New York and as Finance Director of a U.S.-based investment company conducting business in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Ms. Jacobsen is a Certified Public Accountant and recently received her MBA degree at the Harvard Business School, where she served as Co-Chair of the International Business Development Club and Women’s Business Conference. She has been an organizer and fundraiser for various charitable events in Russia and the U.S., as well as a member of the international women’s organization “Vital Voices”. Ms. Jacobsen is also a graduate of the Practice School at Moscow State Conservatory where she was trained as a classical pianist.

Serge Lopoukhine, Secretary

Vice President of Purchasing for major pharmaceutical corporation (retired).  Former Vice President and Treasurer of The Tolstoy Foundation, Inc. in Valley Cottage, N.Y. (1995-2002).  Actively involved in the Russian-American community through church and other charitable projects.

Gregory G. Gagarin

President of Knorr Brake Corporation (retired).  International consultant in marketing, management and engineering.  Member of the Governing Board of the Russian Cultural Center in Washington, D.C.

Honorary Directors

H.E. Sergey I. Kislyak

Ambassador of the Russian Federation in the United States

The Honorable Esther Coopersmith,

In 2009, designated UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for intercultural dialogue by the Director-general in acknowledgement of the major role she played in the return of the U.S. to UNESCO. Experienced in governmental, political, charitable and cultural affairs, including high-level Russian-American initiatives, Mrs. Coopersmith has served in a myriad of capacities including U.S. representative to the United Nations and special advisor to the State Department. In 1982 she became the first woman since Eleanor Roosevelt to receive the United Nations Peace Prize.

Advisory Board

Natalia Antonova

Television journalist, author and host of programs on Russian Federal Television “Petersburg Channel 5.”

Anastasia Lopoukhine

Member of the Executive Committee of “Consortium of Russian- American Parishes and Organizations,” assisting disadvantaged children in Russia.

Suzanne Massie

Suzanne Massie has been involved in many aspects of study and work in the Soviet Union/Russia for 38 years and continues to be an active participant in the cultural and social concerns of the city of St. Petersburg. Author: Land of the Firebird, Pavlovsk, The Living Mirror, Journey and Nicholas and Alexandra, on which she worked with her former husband Robert K. Massie. She has worked in the development of art exhibitions with many of the foremost art museums of both the United States and Russia. She has lectured widely in the United States. From 1984-88 she advised President Ronald Reagan, meeting with him 21 times during the critical years of the ending of the Cold War.

The Honorable Jack Matlock

U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union from l987 to 1991, Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for European and Soviet Affairs on the National Security Council Staff from 1983 until 1986, and Ambassador to Czechoslovakia from 1981 to 1983. Professor and Author of numerous articles and books on Russian literature, history and U.S.-Russian relations, including Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended and Autopsy on an Empire: The American Ambassador's Account of the Collapse of the Soviet Union.

Selene Obolensky

President of the Obolensky-Saltykoff Foundation benefiting the boarding school for special-needs children at the Obolensky family former estate “Berezichi” in Kaluga, Russia.

Ludmilla Obolensky-Flam

President of “Books for Russia” Committee, author and formerly with Voice of America.

Nicholas von Rintelin

Attorney in Munich, Germany. As direct descendant of Alexander Pushkin, he is involved in major international projects honoring Russia’s great poet and writer.

Olga Sergeyevna Ryan

Instructor/Adjunct Professor of Russian studies. Taught at various universities, including Boston University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The American University. For over 19 years served as guide/docent at Hillwood Museum, specializing in Russian decorative arts and Faberge.

Raisa Scriabine

Founder and President of the Scriabine Foundation supporting the A.N. Scriabine Museum in Moscow and programs to assist vulnerable marginalized groups in Russia. Also serves on the board of a number of non profit organizations including: the Faberge Arts Foundation, the Russian Childrens’ Welfare Society and Synetic Theatre. Grand-niece of the Russian composer Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin (l872-1915).

Marilyn Pfeifer Swezey

Independent art historian specializing in Russian Decorative Arts and Cultural History. As lecturer, writer and curator, she has been associated with Hillwood Museum in Washington, D.C., the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Faberge Arts Foundation and the American-Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation and has been Guest Curator of special exhibitions from Russian musueums, including “Nicholas and Alexandra, At Home with the Last Tsar and his family (2004-5) and The Tsar and the President, Alexander II and Lincoln (2006-2008). She is also an editor and contributing author of books on Faberge and the Romanovs.

The Honorable James W. Symington

Chairman of the Russian-American Cultural Cooperation Foundation. Former member of Congress and former U.S. diplomat, Symington served as director of the Library of Congress Russian Leadership Program, and is a long-time student of Russian culture. Symington is also a published poet and author of “A Muse N’ Washington,” as well as an enthusiastic singer of Russian songs.

Alexey Steele

American painter of the Russian Representational School and a Soviet Art scholar based in Los Angeles. Son of prominent Social Realism painter Leonid Steele. Alexey furthered his professional education as a painter at the Surikov Art Institute of the Soviet Academy of Arts in Moscow, studying under Ilya Glazunov. Steele had his first one-man exhibition in the United States at the Carnegie Museum of Art in California in 2004. He has gained recognition for his unusual multi-figure compositions of an exceptionally large scale.

Stephen Strickland

President, Strickland Associates. Former President “National Peace Foundation” and member of the U.N. Foundation.

Alex Terentiev

Member of Executive Committee, “Friends of Vladimir Andreyev”

Vladimir Illich Tolstoy

Director of the State Museum/Estate of L.N. Tolstoy in Yasnaya Polyana (Tula Region). Count Tolstoy is the writer’s great-great-grandson .

Tatiana Trubetzkoy

Russian-born free-lance artist

The Honorable Yuri V. Ushakov

Deputy chief of staff responsible for foreign-policy and international economic issues in the office of the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation. Former Ambassador of the Russian Federation in the United States (1999-2008).