Countess Bobrinskaya, in her second marriage the illustrious Princess Volkonskaya, was born on December 12, 1887, and died on December 12, 1949. She served as a lady-in-waiting from January 1, 1907.

Even today, there are few professional female racers, and in the past, there were even fewer. Nevertheless, among female racers, there were stars like Rimskaya-Korsakova, Suvorina, and Samsonova. One of the most famous was Princess Sofia Dolgorukova. She became fascinated with cars in her youth and by the age of 20 was already skillfully driving them. The "Petersburg Newspaper" wrote: "Often a huge car sped through the streets, driven by an elegant woman wrapped in a coquettish rubber cloak. The fiery high-society princess skillfully handled the powerful machine." Therefore, when the Petersburg-Kiev-Petersburg race was announced in 1910, Dolgorukova immediately applied to participate.

The race featured 48 crews, and Sofia Alexeyevna was the only woman among them. Participants had to cover almost 3200 kilometers. Throughout this journey, 23-year-old Sofia was behind the wheel, although she had a mechanic-driver who could take over, but she considered that unfair. Unfortunately, she did not make it into the top three due to an unfortunate incident. At a stop near Vyshny Volochek, another participant crashed into her Delahaye-Belville, damaging the radiator. While the mechanic was fixing the car, several vehicles passed them, and Sofia Alexeyevna did not make it onto the scoring list.

However, in Russia, the princess became famous not only for this. She was one of the first female motorsport athletes in the country and the first woman aviator, or aviatrix, as it was called then. During World War I, she submitted a request to transfer to military aviation but was denied. Nevertheless, she ended up at the front as a nurse. After the revolution, Dolgorukova emigrated to France, where she worked as a taxi driver and later became a translator for a commercial firm. She passed away in December 1949.