"How the poet Ershov became related to General Chalikov" By G.Artamonova, interview with Alla Ranska

Meeting at the library club of the Russian Center

On Saturday, October 12, another meeting of the CLIO club took place in the Golden Hall of the Russian Center in San Francisco. This club, which operates at the library of the Russian Center, was opened just a year ago but has already gained its admirers and like-minded individuals.

The club organizers – library director Irina Dragomeretskaya and her assistant Valeriya Kustova – do everything to ensure that each meeting is interesting and memorable. The club has already had five meetings where various literary topics were passionately discussed, and, following a good tradition, the meetings always ended with a small musical continuation. This time, the theme of the meeting was somewhat intriguingly titled: "How the poet Ershov became related to General Chalikov".

When I entered the crowded hall (it turns out we have many lovers of Russian history), the first thing that caught my eye was two beautiful portraits in gilded frames. I immediately recognized the first, the portrait of the poet P.P. Ershov, but the second was unknown to me. It depicted a handsome, gallant general. The hostess of the meeting, Alla Ranskaya, explained to me: "This is Major General Chalikov – a hero of the 1812 war, his portrait by artist D. Dow is exhibited in the Military Gallery of 1812 in the Winter Palace. He is my four-times great-grandfather".

And then, during the course of the meeting, Alla Ranskaya told us about interesting research and discoveries that accompanied her while studying her family tree. Alla's story was embellished with beautiful slides, so we were completely immersed in the atmosphere of the 19th century. The experience was further enhanced by the participants of the children's Cossack choir "Sivka-Burka" (led by Zhanna Wilson) Alexander and Andrey Vorobyovy-Wilson, who recited Lermontov's poem "Borodino" to the audience, as well as sang an old Cossack song a cappella.

After the presentation, we had a conversation with Alla Ranskaya. She shared many interesting stories about the history of her ancestors, about her intriguing searches and findings.

"Alla, your presentation was a great success. In addition to the hall being full, it was evident that many were looking forward to your story. The audience was satisfied with the meeting; they presented you with flowers, souvenirs. We know you well as a representative of a famous noble family, as the great-great-granddaughter of Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov. But today you have unveiled a new page in your family tree for us, as you are also the four-times great-granddaughter of the hero of the 1812 war, Major General A.S. Chalikov.

-Apart from giving interesting lectures at the Russian Center, a few years ago you organized a beautiful quilt exhibition themed around the fairy tale of your great-great-grandfather at the city's Central Library. I know that the exhibits you received from Tyumen were created by craftswomen from all over the world. The exhibition was timed to coincide with Ershov's anniversary and was a huge success.

"The quilt exhibition, which took place at the end of 2016 – beginning of 2017 in San Francisco, was an international project. The idea to organize an exhibition of quilted canvases on the theme of the fairy tale 'The Little Humpbacked Horse' – a gift for the 200th anniversary of the author P.P. Ershov – was born in Tyumen. Craftswomen from all over the world sent their unique works, and for the poet's anniversary in his hometown of Ishim, about 400 magnificent pieces were presented. When I saw them at Ershov’s anniversary in Ishim, I was inspired to show this magnificent collection to Californians as well. Of course, we had to limit ourselves to a significantly smaller number, as the space of the San Francisco Central Library did not allow for the full exhibition, so we chose the best of the best.

The theme was not new; back in 2015, the first exhibition of Russian and foreign editions of the fairy tale was organized in San Francisco for Ershov’s 200th anniversary."

"Editions from the 19th and 20th centuries with illustrations by both Russian and foreign artists in English, French, German, Spanish, Polish, and many other languages were presented. It is known that almost two centuries have passed since the fairy tale was translated into more than 50 languages. Both exhibitions were organized by the P.P. Ershov Foundation in collaboration with the St. Petersburg Club (President M.N. Tolstoy) and the San Francisco Central Library, represented by Mikhail Pashkov, head of the library's international department.

-Alla, how long have you been interested in the history of your family? I remember my childhood, and my grandmother used to talk to me about her parents and grandfather in whispers so that no one could hear. And even then – mainly in riddles, which I am still trying to solve. During the Soviet times, all this was forbidden.

-My interest in the history of our family started from childhood. My mother worked a lot, and my grandmother Elena Alexandrovna Ershova (Ranskaya), my mother's mother, took care of my upbringing. I knew from childhood that she was the granddaughter of the author of 'The Little Humpbacked Horse'. My grandmother often talked about her family, about her grandfather, but she never mentioned the name of her grandmother, Ershov’s third wife. Probably, having lived through the revolution and the terrible years of the Red Terror, she was afraid to talk about her relation to the officers of the tsarist army. She died early, I was only 9 years old, and many facts of family history remained a mystery.

-Alla, you are originally from Irkutsk, so a Siberian, you lived in the regions where your ancestors were. Were you interested in your history then, or did you start exploring it only in emigration?"

-Siberia is vast! I was born and raised in Irkutsk, which is more than 3000 km from Tobolsk, where Ershov lived, where he is buried, and where the first Ershov museum was created. I remember learning about the existence of this museum from the 'Pioneer' magazine and persuading my grandmother to go there, but even at that time, a long trip was an expensive luxury. We never went... However, I soon decided to write a letter to the museum, but the reply was very dry: they only requested that personal belongings of Ershov, if any, be sent to the museum. This explains the reluctance to contact the museum again without extreme necessity. The necessity arose in 2007, when my further research hit a dead end. My interest in the history of our family was passed on to me by my grandmother. My mother worked a lot, and it was my grandmother who was with me for the first 9 years of my life. Together we reviewed family photos, documents, and thanks to her I knew all the members of my grandmother's family by face, the stories of their fates. When moving to California, among the few possessions taken with us were these photos and documents. During our first trip back to Ershov's homeland with my mother, we brought the entire family archive to the poet's homeland in Ishim, where at that time a group of enthusiasts was working on creating a museum. We planned to hand over the documents just for scanning, but after meeting with these wonderful people, who were at the origin of what is now called the Ishim Museum Complex—Nadezhda Leonidovna Proskuryakova, Ershov specialist Tatyana Pavlovna Savchenkova, and local historian Gennady Andreevich Kramor—we heard from them that original documents were needed to obtain museum status. Wanting to help in some way, I decided to entrust my personal archive to the museum for safekeeping. Honestly, it was not easy to part with the family relics, but I convinced myself that Ershov would be pleased to know that these photographs are in safe hands in his homeland. Currently, these people have managed to do an incredible amount for preserving the memory of Ershov in his homeland: a museum has been created in his name, a magnificent monument to the poet has been erected, and the church that was destroyed during the Soviet times has been restored—a church to whose construction Ershov himself actively and financially contributed. It is known that before his death, he donated the most valuable thing he had for the completion of the church's construction: a gold watch chain, a gift from the heir to the throne."

-"Do you have the opportunity here, in emigration, to continue researching the history of your lineage?"

"Moving to California did not diminish my interest in genealogy. The opportunity to continue researching my lineage came with the internet. My eight-year-old son helped me master it! It was through the internet that I learned about the existence of a book written by Petr Ershov's classmate A.K. Yaroslavtsev in 1872, which presented 'biographical memories' of Ershov. In this book, I hoped to find information about his third wife—my great-great-grandmother. There was little information known about her, only that she was the daughter of Major General Ch. and a graduate of the Catherine Institute. Only then, realizing that I could not do without the help of the museum workers, did I turn to the Ershov Museum in Tobolsk. The museum's researcher, Natalia Viktorovna Zhuravlyova, hearing my grandmother's name, exclaimed: 'We've been looking for you for 50 years!' That was when I first heard the name of Ershov's third wife: Elena Nikolaevna Cherkasova. We received a copy of the record of her marriage to Petr Ershov and a copy of a letter from my grandmother's cousin, Nadezhda Vladimirovna Ershova, from her correspondence with a researcher of Ershov's life and work. The letter became the thread from which this nearly detective investigation began in 2007."

-"I suppose you were pleasantly surprised. Did you manage to meet with the museum staff? To visit Ershov's birthplace?"

-"Yes, in 2008 my mother and I visited Ershov's birthplace in Ishim for the first time, where we met personally with the initiators of the museum's creation in the town where Petr Ershov was baptized, and in the suburb of which, in the village of Bezrukovo (now Ershovo), he was born. My mother, at the age of 76, underwent the baptismal rite in the same church and same font where her great-grandfather Petr Ershov was baptized. Her godmother became Ershov scholar Tatyana Pavlovna Savchenkova.

-"Alla, today you've told us about your search for your great-great-grandmother, Ershov's third wife. Did you read about her, search for her in the archives?"

-"I didn't even know her name! Only thanks to the book by A.K. Yaroslavtsev, found in one of the universities in the USA, which I was fortunate to obtain through an interlibrary loan, did I learn that Ershov's third wife was named Elena and that she was the daughter of Major General Ch. I really hoped that Ershov's homeland would know more, but they didn't have enough information either, only the marriage certificate of Ershov and the daughter of the deceased Major General N.L. Cherkasov. I learned that he served from 1826 to 1838 as the director of the First Cossack Linear School in Omsk, and in 1812, as a cornet, he served in the Life Guards Ulan Regiment. And that was all. It wasn't known to which particular Cherkasov family he belonged. In my search for this information, I got in touch with the descendants of the Cherkasov baronial family, joined the Cherkasov group on the 'Odnoklassniki' website. On this site, I met a descendant of another Cherkasov family – Olga Cherkasova from Nizhny Novgorod. She had been seriously researching her family line for a long time. It was she who informed me of the existence of the Siberian Cherkasov family and gave me advice on where to start, for which I am very grateful! It turned out that this was 'our' family!"

-"Did you act solely on intuition?"

"Exactly! Apparently, my childhood fascination with reading books about Sherlock Holmes had an effect. I applied his famous method of deduction, which helped me get to the truth.

The researcher of Ershov's work, Viktor Utkov, corresponded with the daughter of the poet's eldest son, Nadezhda Vladimirovna Ershova.

Lines from her letter, where she shares memories of her grandmother, became the starting point in my search: the features of a Georgian woman and the apparent kinship with the poet-sentimentalist of the Pushkin era, Prince Petr Shalikov. That’s where logical thinking helped. But logical conclusions required documentary confirmation. It took years… Perhaps my profession played a role as well? As a doctor, I would make a 'preliminary diagnosis' and tried to confirm it. As you can see, it worked out!

-"Alla, you have been researching your genealogy for so long and with such interesting findings and discoveries. Do you plan to write a book about your ancestors and your almost detective investigation of their history?"

-"Yes, I am currently working on a book. The book, conceived as the history of my ancestors, officers of the Ulan regiment, is expanding well beyond this theme with the emergence of new archival materials and publications. It turned out that our family has many well-known names associated with literature and music. This has prompted me to decide to publish materials about individual personalities of our family at scientific conferences and in literary-historical journals, materials that will later be included in my book."

As for the hero of 1812, Major General A.S. Chalikov, a detailed account of this investigation and his biography will soon appear in one of the Russian publications. Upon its release, it will be passed on to the library of the Russian Center in San Francisco and the city's Central Library. Meanwhile, those who wish to learn more about the life and work of Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov can order books by Ershov expert T.P. Savchenkova in the same libraries, which dispel the myth of Ershov as a one-work author.

-"I am familiar with his poems and ballads; they are very interesting, but the worldwide fame belongs to his first creation - 'The Little Humpbacked Horse.'"

-"Yes, it was 'The Little Humpbacked Horse' that in 1834 made the young student of the Philosophy and Law Faculty of Saint Petersburg University instantly famous. It is this work that has outlived the author for centuries and in 2019 celebrates its 185th anniversary."

-"How will his anniversary be celebrated in his homeland, in Ishim? Are you preparing anything for this event?"

-"The anniversary is already being celebrated - in Ishim, Tobolsk, and Tyumen! There are numerous exhibitions, concerts, a photo contest, and a drawing competition. One of the initiatives of the Ishim Museum Complex management was a worldwide flash mob: children and adults from all over the world read their favorite fairy tale in different languages. My mother Zeya Ivanovna Kuzmenko, the great-granddaughter of the poet, took part in the flash mob, my son - in English, other family members - in German. Vanechka Kovalenko-Narochntisky, the son of one of the consuls from the last assembly of the Russian consulate in San Francisco, joined in too: he read an excerpt from the fairy tale in perfect French.

An exhibition in San Francisco was planned for the fairy tale's anniversary, but due to a delay in receiving a number of exhibits, it had to be postponed indefinitely."

The preparation for the exhibition is underway, and soon the residents and guests of San Francisco will see the familiar characters of the fairy tale, created by Russian craftsmen, embodied in bone, porcelain, and even... straw!

-"Alla, now a rather unusual question. You have been studying the life and work of P.P. Ershov for so long. What question would you like to ask him if a meeting were possible?"

-"Just one question? That's so little! I want to learn as much as possible about him, his wife Elena Cherkasova, his children, his family. And the Universe responds to my desires! New books—memories of his contemporaries—are constantly appearing, in which I see Ershov and his environment ever more vividly. These are numerous letters, diaries, memories of the Decembrists with whom he was close. Recently, in the series 'Library of the Almanac "Tobolsk and all Siberia"', published by the 'Revival of Siberia' Foundation, 'Memoirs and Diaries' by M.S. Znamensky—a Tobolsk artist and close friend of Ershov—were released. The memoirs were published before, but the diaries were illuminated for the first time. They contain much that is new about Ershov and his family! So Ershov becomes closer and more understandable to me every day. Reading Znamensky's 'Diaries', I again see confirmation of the accuracy of the characteristics of Ershov, given to him in the petition to the sovereign about the 'noteworthy' residents of Tobolsk. Opposite Ershov's name are just three words: 'Intelligent, kind, honest.'

-"Today at the meeting, I saw a wonderful portrait of General Chalikov. And your son German was sitting nearby. I couldn't help but notice the remarkable resemblance. Doesn't it strike you?"

-"My friend, the Armenian playwright Rafael Akopdjanian, who was present at our meeting today and, like you and many others, noticed this, put it well: 'Blood is a great matter!' And I will add that I notice not only the physical resemblance, but also, seeing Chalikov through the eyes of his contemporaries as an honest, decent, and kind person, I recognize the same traits in my son. Thank genetics!"

-"Alla, I want to thank you for the interesting story and for this interview. We all wish you further success in your very interesting research and look forward to the release of the book."

-"Thank you, Galina, for your support of all my endeavors, and not only mine but also most of the cultural events that take place in the Russian community of San Francisco! Together we continue the work started by the first-wave immigrants, thanks to whom the Russian Center in San Francisco was created, where today another meeting of our club took place.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the people who provided me with invaluable assistance in these studies. These are Mikhail Nikitich Tolstoy (San Francisco), Maria Malakhovskaya (Moscow), and Tatyana Pavlovna Savchenkova (Ishim). Thanks to those who significantly helped in the design of the video presentation - Valeriya Kustova (San Francisco), Natalya Viktorovna Zhuravlyova (Tobolsk), and Olga Viktorovna Ustinova (Moscow).

Special thanks to our wonderful Cossacks - the ensemble 'Sivka-Burka', who so enlivened this evening with their bright performance!

And also thank you to my son German Gladkov for the technical assistance.

Text by Galina Artamonova"