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Nadejda Stancioff

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Nadejda Stancioff
Надежда Димитрова Станчова
Stancioff in 1922
Born
Nadejda Constanza Ivanka Gavrila Euphrosyna Stancioff

17 January 1894
Sofiagrad, Principality of Bulgaria
Died15 April 1957 (aged 63)
London, England
Burial placeBlair Drummond Cemetery, Doune, Stirling, Scotland
Occupation(s)diplomat, translator and noblewoman
EmployerBulgarian Diplomatic Service
Known forbeing the first woman to officially represent Bulgaria in the diplomatic field
SpouseAlexander Kay Muir (m. 1924)
Parent(s)Dimitar Stanchov and Anna de Grenaud de Saint-Christophe
RelativesIvan Stancioff (brother)

Nadejda Constanza Ivanka Gavrila Euphrosyna Stancioff Muir (Bulgarian: Надежда Димитрова Станчова, 17 January 1894 – 15 April 1957), also known as Nadezhda Stanchova Muir, was a Bulgarian diplomat and translator. She was the first woman to officially represent Bulgaria in the diplomatic field and participated in international peace conferences after World War I. She became the wife of a Scottish baronet.

Early life and family

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Stancioff was born on 17 January 1894 in Sofiagrad in the Ottoman vassal state of the Principality of Bulgaria.[1]

Stancioff was the eldest daughter of Dimitar Stanchov, former Bulgarian Prime Minister and diplomatic agent of Bulgaria to the Court of Tsar Nicholas II, and the French Countess Anna de Grenaud de Saint-Christophe, Mistress of the Robes to Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma at the Bulgarian royal court.[1][2][3] She had three siblings, Feodora (1895–1969), Ivan (1897–1972), and Helene.[2]

The first few years of Stanicoff's life were spent living in Bucharest in Romania and Vienna in Austria, during her father's diplomatic postings. She then lived for a decade in Saint Petersburg in the Russian Empire, whilst her father was the diplomatic agent of Bulgaria to the Court of Tsar Nicholas II.[1]

Stancioff was raised as a Catholic.[2]

Career

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Photograph of Stancioff held at the Library of Congress[4]

As a young woman Stancioff worked as an aide to her father.[2] Stancioff was fluent eight languages, including Bulgarian, English, French, German, Italian and Russian.[5][6] Her linguistic skills, political acumen and patriotism were noted by Bulgarian Prime Minister Alexander Stamboliiski, of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, who recruited her to become his private secretary and interpreter.[1][7][8] During this period she also promoted her brother Ivan's career, supporting his candidacy for a position in the newly established League of Nations.[2]

Stancioff served as the translator and first secretary of the Bulgarian delegation at the signing of the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine in November 1919,[3] then was a member of the Bulgarian delegation at the Lausanne Conference of 1922–1923 in Lausanne, Switzerland. According to her diary, she hoped to secure Bulgaria an outlet on the Aegean Sea during treaty negotiations and served as an intermediary between Turkish politician İsmet İnönü and British Foreign Secretary George Curzon.[6][9] She became friends with İnönü, who had a Bulgarian mother-in-law.[10] International media reported widely on Stancioff's presence at the conferences, calling her the "wonder woman of diplomacy."[6] Ramananda Chatterjee referred to her in his magazine as "one of the most wonderful of living linguists."[11]

In July 1922, Stamboliiski endorsed Stancioff's appointment as first secretary of the Bulgarian Embassy in Washington, D.C, United States,[12] becoming Bulgaria's first women diplomat in the Bulgarian Diplomatic Service.[6] She agreed to remain unmarried during her posting due to gender prejudices, but would urge her sisters to marry well.[2] Her appointment and spinsterhood was again reported by the press, with the Minneapolis Sunday Tribune printing an article titled: “The Girl Who Must Not Marry to Be a Diplomat: She Promises to Be a Spinster, but Washington Wonders?”[2] Her brother Ivan married Marion Mitchell, an American heiress.[13]

After Stamboliiski's assassination in June 1923, Stancioff resigned from diplomatic service.[1]

Marriage and later life

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Stancioff married Scottish tea merchant Sir Alexander Kay Muir, 2nd Baronet Muir, on 17 March 1924 at Brompton Oratory, Knightsbridge, London, as his second wife.[14] After her marriage she was styled as Lady Muir. Her husband was twenty-five years her senior and the couple did not have any children.[1][2] At their home at Blair Drummond, in Doune, Stirling, Scotland,[15] Stancioff and her husband hosted her childhood friend King Boris III of Bulgaria in 1927, and again with his wife Giovanna of Savoy in 1932.[1]

While living in the United Kingdom, Stancioff lectured in England and Scotland, was well regarded by Prime Minister David Lloyd George (despite criticizing the British Foreign Office for not admitting women to diplomatic roles) and was a regular contributor to a BBC radio programme about the Balkans.[1]

In 1931, Stancioff translated her mother's memoir "Дворцови и дипломатически спомени 1887-1915" ("Palace and Diplomatic Memories, 1887-1915") from Bulgarian into English. She also wrote a biography of her father, Dimitri Stancioff, Patriot and Cosmopolitan, 1861-1940,[10] whilst suffering from leukaemia.[1]

During World War II, Blair Drummond was converted into a military hospital for nursing wounded Allied soldiers.[1]

Stancioff's husband died on 4 June 1951.[14][16] His nephew John Harling Muir, the son of his late brother James Finlay Muir, suceeded to the Muir baronetcy and Blair Drummond estate.[15][14] Stancioff died on 15 April 1957 in London, England,[14][16] and was buried at Blair Drummond Cemetery in Doune, Stirling, Scotland.[citation needed]

Legacy

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The First Bulgarian School "Nadezhda Stanchova - Lady Muir" in Edinburgh, Scotland, was named in Stancioff's honour.[17][18]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Muir, Lady Alexander Kay, née Nadejda Stancioff; wife of 6th Baronet". The de Laszlo Archive Trust. Retrieved 17 July 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Firkatian, Mari A. (1 April 2006). "Struggling for Each Other: The Stancioff Family at Work". Journal of Family History. 31 (2): 163–189. doi:10.1177/0363199005284958. ISSN 0363-1990.
  3. ^ a b Sharp, Ingrid; Stibbe, Matthew (4 May 2017). Women Activists between War and Peace: Europe, 1918-1923. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 118–119. ISBN 978-1-4725-7879-2.
  4. ^ Photograph of Nadejda Stancioff Muir Archived 27 April 2025 at the Wayback Machine. Patriot & Cosmopolitan 1864-1940. London: J. Murray. - via Library of Congress.
  5. ^ The Woman Citizen. Vol. 7. Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission. 1922. p. 22.
  6. ^ a b c d Ozavci, Ozan (26 August 2022). "The 'Wonder Woman' of Diplomacy". The Lausanne Project. Archived from the original on 15 January 2025. Retrieved 17 July 2025.
  7. ^ Firkatian, Mari A. (16 June 2008). Diplomats and Dreamers: The Stancioff Family in Bulgarian History. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. ISBN 978-0-7618-4069-5.
  8. ^ Bell, John D. (12 March 2019). Peasants in Power: Alexander Stamboliski and the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, 1899-1923. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-65686-1.
  9. ^ "The Treaty of Lausanne at 100". The Lausanne Project. 24 July 2023. Archived from the original on 15 January 2025. Retrieved 17 July 2025.
  10. ^ a b Muir, Lady Nadejda; Mi︠u︡ŭr, Nadezhda (1957). Dimitri Stancioff, Patriot and Cosmopolitan, 1864-1940. John Murray. p. 255.
  11. ^ Chatterjee, Ramananda (1923). The Modern Review. Prabasi Press Limited. p. 619.
  12. ^ McCarthy, Helen (22 May 2014). Women of the World: The Rise of the Female Diplomat. A&C Black. ISBN 978-1-4088-4004-7.
  13. ^ Dinshaw, Minoo (29 September 2016). Outlandish Knight: The Byzantine Life of Steven Runciman. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 978-0-14-197948-9.
  14. ^ a b c d Clough, Monica (4 October 2007) [23 September 2004]. "Sir (Alexander) Kay Muir second baronet (1868–1951)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/52088. Retrieved 17 July 2025.
  15. ^ a b "Sir John Muir of Deanston 1828-1903". Glasgow Museums Art Donors Group. 12 August 2018. Archived from the original on 23 January 2025. Retrieved 17 July 2025.
  16. ^ a b Mosley, Charles ed. (2003) Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, volumes 2. Burke's Peerage Genealogical Books Ltd. p. 2824.
  17. ^ "10-year anniversary of the First Bulgarian School "Nadezhda Stanchova - Lady Muir"". Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 17 July 2025.
  18. ^ "First Bulgarian school in Edinburgh brings together friends of Bulgaria on its tenth anniversary". bnr.bg. Archived from the original on 8 April 2025. Retrieved 17 July 2025.
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