Maximov was born in Tsarskoye Selo, an upper class suburb of St. Petersburg, the son of a Russian naval officer and a Swedish aristocrat.

[3] The suicide attempt and the dishonorable discharge created a black mark on Maximov's career, which he spent the rest of his life trying to erase.

[10] Maximov described himself as fascinated with "civilised warfare which attracts men of certain description, and to them a well fought battle is the highest form of exciting amusement".

[11] In 1899, Maximov went to South Africa as the correspondent of the newspapers Novoie Vremia, Sankt-Peterburgskiie Vedomosti and Rossiia to cover the Boer War.

[12] Maximov was able to board a ship in Port Said that took him to Djibouti, Zanzibar, Madagascar and finally to Lourenço Marques (modern Maputo, Mozambique).

[12] Upon arriving, Maximov immediately joined the Transvaal forces, and only filed one newspaper dispatch for the Novoie Vremia about the Boer War, which was published in 1902, two years after he left South Africa.

[12] A conservative nationalist and monarchist, Maximov disliked those Russian volunteers on the left such as Prince Mikhail Yengalychev (later exiled to Siberia for his role in the Revolution of 1905) and Alexander Essen (who later became deputy chairman of the Soviet State Planning Commission in the 1920s).

[14] A Belgian woman who served as a nurse with the Transvaal volunteers, Alice Bron, described Maximov: "The colonel, in fact, is a man of action, and his manners savour somewhat of the camp.

[17] The Russian journalist Yevgeny Augustus who was covering the war wrote about Maximov: "By ways known only to him he earned the confidence of the Transvaal authorities, began to visit President Kruger without ceremony, became quite at home with old Reitz, entered into relations with Steyn...To us ordinary mortals who never even dreamed of the honour to have tea with Kruger or Reitz, his activities seemed highly mysterious.

"[12] Maximov admired President Steyn, saying he was "the noblest, finest and most disinterested figure" in the entire war and the "incarnation of bravery, self-sacrifice, and stainless honesty...he is a savant, his heart is in the right place, and he is as brave as a lion"[18] An excellent marksman and horseman, Maximov's skills with guns and horses always impressed the Boers who saw good horsemanship and marksmanship as admirable talents in a man.

[11] The Boers generally disliked the foreign volunteers who came to fight with them against the British, and only accepted as equals those who showed exceptional skills and bravery together with an willingness to embrace aspects of Afrikaner culture.

[17] As several other burghers (Afrikaans for citizens) had also tried during the same train ride to shoot springboks out on the veld and missed, Maximov's marksmanship won him the respect of the Boers.

[21] Boer culture was very democratic and almost all burghers were unwilling to give up their right to elect their officers, making the Volunteer Corps ideal as a prototype for a professional army for the South African Republic.

[21] The foreign volunteers numbered about 2,700 men with the largest contingent being the Dutch (about 650), followed by the Germans (about 550), the French (about 400), the Americans (about 300), the Russians (about 250), the Italians (about 200), the Irish (also about 200) with the rest coming from various parts of the world.

[28] Maximov's diary is full of scathing comments about these men whom he viewed as scum, calling them lazy, insubordinate, useless, greedy and cowardly.

[33] One of the Transvaal leaders, State Secretary Francis William Reitz told the Russian nurse Sophia Izedinova:"You know, sister...that I am not greatly impressed by all these foreigners who come offering us their services, but concerning your countryman, I am happy to say that we were both mistaken in our caution.

Then he got up, descended from his elevated seat and approaching General Maximov, publicly thanked him on his own behalf and that of all his comrades, for his services to their country and for the blood he had shed in its defence.

On 13 February 1902, President Kruger from his exile in the Netherlands sent Maximov a telegram reading: "Your services to my Fatherland were extraordinarily important and deserve great respect.

[37]Upon his return to Russia, Maximov happened to be riding in the same railroad car as the mistress of the German nobleman Prince Alexander von Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, who was serving as one of the bodyguards of the Emperor Nicholas II.

[38] Maximov knew that as an expert marksman, he could easily kill the prince, and decided to let his opponent fire the first shot and he would then shoot Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg in the leg.

[43] Maximov wrote: "My heart sank when I read in Constantinople where I was the permanent correspondent of the Novoie Vremia of the treacherous attack of the Japanese on the Port Arthur fleet.