Oleg Valerianovich Basilashvili was born on September 26, 1934, in Moscow, USSR. His father, named Valerian Basilashvili, was a director of the Moscow Polytechnical College. His mother, named Irina Ilyinskaya, was a teacher of linguistics. His father made up a story that his grandfather was a Colonel in the Imperial Army of the Tsar Nicholas II, ...