Alexander Bogdanovich Sasha Hmelnicki

April 13, 2010, marks the passing of Alexander Bogdanovich Hmelnicki, age 87. He was born July 15, 1922, in Sombor, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the son of Bogdan Bogdanovich and Alla Semyonovna Hmelnicki, who had emigrated to Yugoslavia from Russia after the Russian Revolution of 1917. He was a descendant of two illustrious families--of Bogdan Mihailovich Hmelnicki, the famous hetman of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, who is regarded as an important and revered figure in Russian history, and of the Saburov aristocratic line of St. Petersburg. Having become stateless as a result of the communist takeover of Yugoslavia after WWII, Alexander, known as Sasha to his family and friends, emigrated to the United States in 1948 with his wife, Valentina, who died in 1968, and daughter Xenia. He became a tool and die maker and worked at many different manufacturing corporations in the US. In 1970 he married Helen Lapinaite Srebrianski, the widow of Simon Sergeevich Srebrianski. In 1987 he and Helen retired to Johnson City to be close to her daughter and grandchildren. He lived quietly among us for 23 years, and bore with good humor the fact that no one here could pronounce his name correctly. He is survived by his wife, his daughter Xenia of Portland, Oregon, and his two step-daughters, Xenia Semyonovna Srebriansk Harwell of Highland Falls, NY and Johnson City, and husband Rolly Marks Harwell; and Tatyana Semyonovna Srebrianski Radziewicz and husband John Radziewicz of Boston, MA. He is also survived by three step-grandsons, Andrei Simon Srebrianski Harwell and his wife Valerie Baker McKee of New Haven, CT, and their two sons Carson Atticus and Raleigh Thomas; James Marcus Radziewicz and his wife Margaux of San Diego, CA; and Thomas Radziewicz of Boston. His step-granddaughter, Sofia Elena Srebrianski Harwell, lives in Seattle, WA. His body will be interred at the cemetery of the Russian Orthodox Convent Novo Diveevo in Nanuet, New York.