Dmitri de Woronin

(May 23, 1908 – ????)

Dmitri de Woronin was a fan in Bulawayo or Trelawney, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe, then of course British Empire) active in the 1930s and 1940s. He was a member of the Science Fiction Association (SFA), joining before July 1937 (see Science Fiction Gazette #4). Both the name and country show his origin in St. Petersburg, Russia – Rhodesia, welcoming immigrants, became a home to many exiles from the Bolshevik revolution who could not get a foothold elsewhere. Per Geni, he had a brother and four sisters, later a wife but no children. He became a citizen (or rather His Majesty's subject as it was then) there, swearing the oath of allegiance in September 1930. Several de Woronins appear throughout Zimbabwean history; phone directories from 1980s don't include any "de Woronin, D." but the 1981 Cape Town one does; reportedly he died there though the date is not known.

In a letter published in Futurian War Digest #24 (November 1942), replying to a letter from J. Michael Rosenblum "of April 6, 1940" (!) apparently in May/June 1942, Dmitri explained he'd been away on military service for two years, getting a month's furlough only then: He started in 1940 in Palestina and spent the autumn fighting Italians in the Western Desert. After "a dose of pneumonia" he was transferred to East Africa and became a Staff Sergeant in the headquarters of the 25 Brigade, employing his photography skills; he also duplicated a manual to "improv[e] the photo mindedness, etc. of the Bde."

So now I've done Cape to Cairo by road with the exception of the Asmara - Cairo stretch. […] Haven't done any reading for years. There are Astoundings and Unknowns for 1940 waiting to be read. The Weird Tales are still coming...

He also wrote he had 'three "war-poems" published in the Salisbury Paper' (i. e. a newspaper in the country's capital, now called Harare; despite the capitalisation apparently there has never been a publication of this exact name).

FWD #31 (Oct 1943) reported (with barely a half year's delay) de Woronin serving in Ceylon (this warranted him a namecheck in The Limits of British Colonial Control in South Asia: Spaces of Disorder in the Indian Ocean Region), again using his fannish (or at least applicable) skills "Helping put out … our divisional 16 page mag in Swahili".

The final FWD #39 (March 1945) reported his discharge from the army after suffering malaria in Burma. Sadly, there seem to be no traces of his fanac afterward; he was a good letter-writer.

• https://www.geni.com/people/Dmitri-De-Woronin/6000000054545203866

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Person

1908—

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