 Princess Catherine Radziwill was born in St. Petersburg as Countess Ekaterina Adamovna Rzewuska, a member of the House of Rzewuski, a Polish family of warriors, statesmen, adventurers and eccentrics.She was the only child of the Russian General Adam Adamowicz Rzewuski (1845—1911), who took part in the Crimean war, and his second wife Anna Dmitrievna Dashkova, a daughter of the writer Dmitry Vasilyevich Dashkov, Tsar Nicholas I's minister of justice.Catherine's mother, who belonged to some of Russia's most notable families