Talk:Maria Olenina-d'Alheim

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. Track your hook after promotion. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: rejected, closed by Zzz plant (talk) 23:46, 7 June 2026 (UTC)

(

• Comment or view
• Article history

)

Portrait of Maria Olenina-d'Alheim c. 1900

• ... that Russian noblewoman Maria Olenina-d'Alheim joined the French Communist Party in 1946?

• Source: Tumanov, Alexander (March 2000). The Life and Artistry of Maria Olenina-d'Alheim. University of Alberta. p. 248. ISBN 978-0-88864-328-5. Retrieved May 6, 2026.

• • ALT1: ... that singer Maria Olenina-d'Alheim hid Jews in her Paris apartment during World War II? Source: Tumanov, Alexander (March 2000). The Life and Artistry of Maria Olenina-d'Alheim. University of Alberta. p. 248. ISBN 978-0-88864-328-5. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
  • ALT2: ... that Louis Welden Hawkins painted a portrait of singer Maria Olenina-d'Alheim (pictured) in 1900? Source: Doridou-Heim, Anne (May 21, 2025). "A portrait with sweet music". La Gazette Druout. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
  • ALT3: ... that dozens of famous composers attended private concerts by Maria Olenina-d'Alheim in 1908? Source: Mesheryakova, N. A. (2020). ""The Song House" by Maria Olenina-d'Alheim: a dialogue with descendants". South-Russian Musical Anthology. 1: 86–90. doi:10.24411/2076-4766-2020-11011. Retrieved May 6, 2026.
  • Reviewed:

Created by RabidTuberculosis (talk). Number of QPQs required: 0. Nominator has fewer than 5 past nominations.

RabidTuberculosis (talk) 00:26, 7 May 2026 (UTC).

• for ALT1 hook, which is well source in article. ALT0 would be ok as well if the date 1945 was added in article (just says after war). No close paraphrase found. Date and length ok. Image free on Commons. No QPQ needed as nominator has one prior DYK. --Soman (talk) 19:46, 10 May 2026 (UTC)
  • @RabidTuberculosis and Soman: As I review for promotion, I see multiple paragraphs and sentences at the end of paragraphs, as well as the block quote, that are unsourced. Please add citations and this can be restored to the approved list. Dclemens1971 (talk) 13:13, 29 May 2026 (UTC)

Dclemens1971 Resolved! (Hadn't known how to put a reference into a blockquote) RabidTuberculosis (talk) 17:44, 29 May 2026 (UTC)

RabidTuberculosis still seeing missing citations at end of 3rd graf under "Early life", 2st grad under "Emigration to France", and 1st graf under "Return to Russia". Dclemens1971 (talk) 17:47, 29 May 2026 (UTC)z

Dclemens1971 Appreciate the specificity! Added citations for each. RabidTuberculosis (talk) 17:56, 29 May 2026 (UTC)

Putting the tick back on procedurally since the citation issue has been dealt with. Dclemens1971 (talk) 18:10, 29 May 2026 (UTC)

• Pulling approval following a source spot-check and concerns raised at WT:DYK. See extensive discussion at WT:DYK of numerous source-text integrity failures and evidence of close paraphrasing. I am close to failing the nomination instead of simply pulling approval because there are also source/text integrity issues with the primary source for the article, where the nominator has listed a single page number for every reference. Given the problems surfaced in a small sample size and the verifiability problems of the main reference, plus the close paraphrasing (and the need to check for more given that what was found was not able to be found using Copyvio Detector), I suspect it will prove an insurmountable task for the nominator to fix all these challenges. The article needs a complete rewrite and a rebuilding of sources from the bottom up. Dclemens1971 (talk) 21:07, 1 June 2026 (UTC)
• @RabidTuberculosis: The nomination will be marked for closure if the concerns are not addressed. Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 13:36, 5 June 2026 (UTC)
• The nominator has not responded here despite the pulling, the above ping, and being active elsewhere on-wiki since that ping. Marking for closure. Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 07:15, 6 June 2026 (UTC)

GA review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

This review is transcluded from Talk:Maria Olenina-d'Alheim/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: RabidTuberculosis (talk · contribs) 17:22, 6 May 2026 (UTC)

Reviewer: Dclemens1971 (talk · contribs) 01:11, 2 June 2026 (UTC)

Upon its review on June 2, 2026, this good article nomination was quick-failed because:

it contains copyright violations,

thus making it ineligible for good article consideration. Several instances of close paraphrasing are present from this source by Seaman. For example:

• Source: Born in Russia on 19 September (1 October, New Style) 1869 on the family estate of Istomino in the province of Ryazan, Maria Alexeyevna Olenina came from a cultivated, highly intelligent family.... From birth Olenina had poor eyesight, but this heightened her hearing and musical memory. Brought up in the country, she heard firsthand byliny (epic ballads) about characters like Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich, the idiosyncratic singing of the peasant performers making a strong impression upon her. In 1887 her family moved to St. Petersburg, where she was introduced to the activities and music of the members of the Mighty Handful and subsequently had personal meetings with Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev and Vladimir Stasov. In the capital, she took lessons with Yulia Platonova, a keen supporter of the music of the "new Russian school," and particularly that of Mussorgsky. Impressed by her pupil's exceptional musical gifts, Platonova spoke warmly of her talents to Balakirev and Stasov, and as a result of these recommendations, Olenina was invited to perform in the winter of 1887 at a musical gathering at Balakirev's house in honor of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Nearly all the great Russian composers attended--including Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Alexander Glazunov, and other members of the nationalist school--and Olenina's performance was received with the greatest enthusiasm. Article: Maria Alexeyevna Olenina was born in 1869 at her family's Istomino estate near the town of Kasimov in the Ryazan Governorate of the Russian Empire.... As a girl, she suffered from poor eyesight, heightening her hearing and musical memory. Brought up in the countryside of central Russia, she was strongly influenced by Russian folk music. She was exposed to byliny (epic ballads) sung by peasant farmers about legendary figures like Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich. Olenina-d'Alheim descended from multiple notable Russian artists and officials. Her grandfather, Pyotr Olenin (1794–1868), was a painter and major general, and her great grandfather Alexey Olenin was an archaeologist who presided over the Imperial Academy of Arts from 1817 to 1843. She was also related to Anna Olenina, a writer who courted Alexander Pushkin. In 1887, her family moved to Saint Petersburg. She began to study music under Yuliya Platonova, a proponent of the new Russian school of music. Impressed by Olenina's gifts, Platonova recommended her to Mily Balakirev and Vladimir Stasov. That winter, they invited her to perform at Balakirev's house. There, she met the "Mighty Handful" of composers, including Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, César Cui, Anatoly Lyadov, Alexander Glazunov, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, who reacted with enormous enthusiasm to her singing.
• Source: The following decades of her life were marred by ever-increasing material problems, largely brought about by her pride and her uncompromising support for the Soviet regime, which earned her little sympathy from fellow Russian émigrés. Article: Although she had inherited a sizable estate from her husband's noble estate, she began to experience financial difficulties, due in part to pride and her uncompromising support for the Soviet government, which earned her a measure of scorn from fellow Russian émigrés.
• Source: In the 1940s she was persuaded to write her memoirs, and in 1948 she started work on her autobiography, Dream and Recollections, one of the main sources of Tumanov's book. Article: She was persuaded to write a memoir of her life in the 1940s. She began working on her autobiography, titled Dreams and Recollections, in 1948, which later served as a prominent source for Tumanov's authoritative book on her life and work.
• Source: in 1959, nearly ninety years old, she was finally able to obtain long-sought permission to return to Moscow. Article: In 1959, at nearly the age of 90, she was granted long-sought permission to return to her homeland by the government of the Soviet Union.

In addition to the close paraphrasing, several source/text integrity issues have been noted at WT:DYK; I encourage the nominator to ensure these are fully addressed before renominating.

This article did not receive a thorough review, and may not meet other parts of the good article criteria. I encourage you to remedy this problem (and any others) and resubmit it for consideration. If you feel that this review is in error, feel free to take it to a Good article reassessment. Thank you for your work so far. --Dclemens1971 (talk) 01:11, 2 June 2026 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.