Alexander Voloshin (1884-1960) was born in Ananiv, Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire. His father was a prominent figure in the Ukrainian national movement, and he was equally comfortable in Ukrainian and Russian, adopting the latter language in order to advance his career as a theatrical performer. This career was disrupted by his service in the Russian Imperial Army during WWI and the Civil War. His flight from Crimea--first to Turkey, then, via Berlin and Latin America, to New York, and finally to Los Angeles--is chronicled in his mock epic poem Sidetracked, which he composed in the late 1930s and early 1940s, while working as an extra in Hollywood. Under the name "Alex Voloshin," he appeared in dozens of films between 1927 and 1939, but he ended his days as a taxi driver.