Teffi & A Shanghai/Harbin Search for Fyodor Blagov

I greatly enjoyed the new translation of White Russian writer Teffi’s Memories, from the excellent Pushkin Press. Though Teffi (below) eventually settled in Paris and never visited China she does mention some fellow writers, artists and journalists who escaped communism by settling in China. Some of these we know well – the singer and cabaret artist Alexander Vertinsky who ran a Shanghai nightclub and the artist Alexandre Jacovleff for instance.

Additionally, (and here’s where China Rhyming readers may be able to help) Teffi also mentions Fyodor Blagov, who was an editor with the Russian Word newspaper in Moscow before the Bolshevik Revolution. A footnote to Teffi’s mention of Blagov (not written by Teffi herself but by the published indicates that Blagov (1886-1934) worked for White Russian newspapers in Harbin and Shanghai up until his death.

However, I know of no references to Blagov’s time in China, either Harbin or Shanghai. I’ve consulted a few specialists on the Russian community in China who don’t know of him either. At least not in relation to Shanghai. Anybody out there know anything?