 His father and mother (Varvara Meder, who originally was of noble birth from an established Moscow family) were both ethnic Germans.When Russia declared war on the German Empire in 1914, his father – a fervent Russian monarchist – decided to russify the family name.Shnaider choose the Russian equivalent of his surname = Shevelov, and also changed the patronymic “Karlovich” to “Yuryevich”.