Draft:Dimitrije Maksimovich Knjazevich

Dimitrije Maksimović Knjažević (1778-after 1849) was an Imperial Court Adviser and a Russian diplomat in Vienna.

Biography
Dimitrije Knjazevich was born in 1778 in Saint Petersburg. He came from a Serbian Military Frontier family from Lika, then part of the Habsburg monarchy. His father Maksim moved from Gospić in 1773 to Saint Petersburg, where he raised four sons, of whom Dimitrije was the eldest.

Dimitrije Knjažević completed his law studies at the University of Kazan on the Volga. He became a court adviser, and spent four years (1820-1824) in the diplomatic service in Vienna. Upon his return, he became the vice-governor of St. Petersburg. He is the recipient of high imperial decorations. He became a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1838. In the same year, he was appointed as the trustee of the Odesa Scientific District. The authority of this institution extended to several gubernias: Kherson, Tavricheska and Yekaterinoslavska, with Taganrog and Bessarabia. Among the educational institutions in this area were: Lyceum, six gymnasiums and about forty secondary schools and colleges.

Founded in 1839 the Odessa Society of History and Antiquity, of which Knjažević became the first president, was a scientific centre for the study of the Ukrainian Black Sea region. In 1844, Knjažević started a magazine called "Zapisi", which was the organ of the Society. Contributions from history, archaeology, ethnography, numismatics, geography and statistics were published in it. The society operated until 1919, when its mission was taken over by the Historical Institute of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.