Palm Beach came to Washington to celebrate the swearing-in of NancyBrinker as United States Ambassador to Hungary. Dallas-born, she alsospends time in her Palm Beach home, and several couples flew up in their own planesfrom the two areas for the ceremony.

Through the Susan G. Komen Foundation she established in 1982 (named forher sister, who succumbed to breast cancer) life-saving research and treatment hasbeen funded, and many women have been able to survive the scourge of this illness.Over $300 million has been raised, and the “Komen Race for the Cure” is now anevent in 115 countries.

Secretary of State Colin Powell swore Nancy Brinker in with a touching speech,before an audience that included Bob Dole, Billie Holladay, Max Fisher, BobMosbacher, Robert Strauss, William Blair, Sam Donaldson, and NancyHolmes, who for the last decade has been an at-large editor for Worth magazine.

Diamonds and dachas: To make a land-and-sea adventure in Russia trulymemorable, there is nothing like having a prince leading the trip.

A dozen Washingtonians including me hold that belief after voyaging under theaegis of Prince Alexis Obolensky and his wife Selene.

In the post-Communist Russian climate, newly enamored of days gone by, itdidn’t hurt that Alexis is a descendant of the Rurik dynasty (dating back to theeleventh century, before those upstart Romanovs were even heard of ). On thetrip, doors that were usually closed sprang magically open.

First came the splendors of St. Petersburg. Built on 101 islands andplanned by Peter the Great, it has long been the heart of Russia’s literary and artisticworld, with its grand esplanades, fountains, and palace rooms so laden with goldleaf you could scrape the walls and ship the stuff to Fort Knox.

As a sumptuous change, a room in one palace went off the gold standard withwalls paneled entirely in amber.

The kaleidoscope of pleasures and palaces included dinner in a private roomat the Literary Café where Pushkin often dined (and where Selene sang, accompaniedby Alexis on the piano); the baroque Catherine Palace; the Yusupov Palace,which was the site of Rasputin’s murder. An extra treat was a champagne receptionin the ballroom of the Saltykoff Palace, owned by the state now, but formerly thehome of Alexis’ grandmother, Princess Saltykoff, and the house where his fatherwas born.

After a plethora of palaces to see, there were the icons at the Russian Museum andfinally the marvels of the Hermitage, housing the greatest art collection in the world,enhanced by a private visit to the remarkable treasure of the Scythian gold collectionthere.

We boarded the steamer Sergey Yessenin for a weeklong cruise, sailing through theNeva River to Lake Ladoga, Europe’s largest lake, down the Svir River tocrystal-clear Lake Onega, and then down the Volga to carry us to Moscow. The SergeyYessenin was named for one of Russia’s most popular poets, who married flamboyantIsadora Duncan.

There were 18 locks to pass through en route to reach the capital, and we made ahalf a dozen fascinating stops on the way, including Kiril-Belozersky Monastery atGoritsy. This was the hiding place where Obolensky’s uncle and his fellow officersfrom the Imperial regiment had planned to bring Tsar Nicholas II and his familyfrom Ekaterinburg then spirit them to safety in England. The attempt was toolate, and the revolutionaries executed the Romanovs before they could be saved.

As we approached a tiny island named Kizhi, we saw a shimmering silver mass of21 onion domes. It was the Church of the Transfiguration, its aspen roof weatheredto a silvery sheen, constructed without a single nail being used. There were similarbuildings assembled there from all over Russia, with interiors that gave a glimpseof farm life.

We disembarked in Moscow for still more palaces and historic sites, and suddenly,looming up before us was the Kremlin, breathtaking for anyone expectinga fortress-like stronghold.

The Kremlin Armory Museum houses the riches of Imperial Russia, with a specialentry into the Diamond Collection, where we viewed at leisure the most amazingassortment of jewels and crowns imaginable, and an unbelievable diamond-studdedthrone (with more than 5000 diamonds in it), they told us. We didn’t count.

Svetlana Ushakova, the wife of the Russian Ambassador to the United States,joined us for some outings. We drove through the birch forests to Kozelsk, nowa hamlet, but once a town of such power it defended Moscow by turning backMongolia’s “Golden Horde.”

On the banks of the Zhizdra River, we visited “Berezichi,” the former Obolenskyfamily estate, now a state-run “Boarding School for Special Children.” It is partlysupported by funds raised by these Obolensky trips, which are organized andshepherded by Vicki Doyle, and Washington’s annual “Russian Ball” alsocontributes funding.

After touring the house of Anton Chekhov, there was a touching trip toYasnaya Polyana, the country estate of Leo Tolstoy, with his furnishings and libraryintact. “Look,” said Mrs. Ushakov, who had been scanning the books on his shelves,“here are some early works on feminism!”

It was the season for the famed “white nights,” with bright daylight stretchinginto midnight, giving an odd touch to all our banquets and bashes—well lubricatedwith vodka and champagne, and underscored by balalaikas and Gypsy violinists.The trip ended with an excursion in horse-drawn carriages to the site of CatherineII’s half-completed country palace (which she became bored with, and never finished),culminating with a magnificent dinner.