Esper Beloselsky


Esper Konstantinovich Beloselsky-Belozersky was a prince and sailor from Russia, who represented his native country at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Nynäshamn, Sweden. Beloselsky took the bronze in the 10 Metre.
His brother Sergei was member of the International Olympic Committee.

Biography

Prince Esper Konstantinovich was an officer of the Baltic Fleet in the elite "Guarde-Marine" corps and had served as an officer on the imperial yachts ' and '. During the violent first mutinies by the Baltic Fleet's sailors, based in Kronstadt island naval base outside of Petrograd, Esper Konstantinovich barely avoided capture – and likely murder – by the sailors. Together with his two young sons, Georges and Paul Esperovich, their mother Madeleine Jakovlena, and nannies and household servants, he fled to Finland at first, during the summer of 1917. Together with the rest of the extended family at that time in Finland, they awaited developments until it was clear that there was little hope to return to Russia. They made their way to Paris and France in late 1919. Meanwhile, Esper Konstantinovich's oldest son Konstantin Esperovich, a freshly promoted 18-year-old ensign of the Horse Guards, was with his detachment in Kiev. He was murdered there on 28 January 1918 by a Red Guardist sailor who shot him in the back of the head, in connection with the first revolutionary and nationalistic waves of fighting in Kiev, where Russian imperial officers were targeted by all.