— Akim Vassilievich Borodinoff

It was remarkable serendipity! ???

A couple of years ago, I was contacted via my FB page “White Russian Émigrés from China” by Evgeny Permyakov who told me that Akim had been exiled to Ashgabat with his family. To be honest, I really don’t recall what he said then and I must have been fairly distracted by other things as I didn’t pay much attention to the story.

This is what Evegny had to say about Akim …

Hi Nona! I am here to talk to you about Akim Borodinov. I am from Russia, Primorsky Krai, I live near Vladivostok. I was at http://pio-ulski.com and found out that you are also interested in Akim.
I suppose that Akim was the husband of my relative Izmestieva. I have the following information (site http://www.stoletie.ru): “Dmitry Izborsky.
According to family legends, my ancestors were among the first settlers in Vladivostok, and were tigers (so grandmother (Izmesteva) said she graduated from high school there before World War I. My grandfather Akim Borodinov was a contracting architect, built in the early 20th century profitable houses in Vladivostok.
At that time, a population explosion continued in Russia, and there was a desire for expansion.
In 1933, his grandfather’s family was deprived of their rights (they were deprived of property even earlier), they were put in a warm house (cattle carriage), and sent to Ashgabat for re-education as bourgeois elements. Another part of the family (grandmother’s sisters) married officers of the Czech corps and in 1922 went around India to the Czech Republic.

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On November 30, 2020, I woke up to a comment by a Dmitri Borodinoff telling me that he was told about my website by Mr Permyakov (he mistakenly called Evgeny Mr Sherbakov initially) and that his grandfather, Akim Borodinoff, had lived in Baku but that he and his grandmother, Vera Konstantinova Borodinova (née Izmestieva), lived in Vladivostok at the beginning of the 20th Century.

Neither he nor I were sure that his Akim was the same as my Akim, as I assumed that my great-grandfather had probably been executed by the Bolsheviks as he had been a weathy construction engineer and, like his daughters and wife, was an Honorary Citizen of Imperial Russia.

Again, not having spoken to Balia about her past, I had assumed that Akim had sent his whole family to China but stayed behind because he was optimistic that the Bolsheviks would be beaten and he’d be able to call his family back while he prepared to continue life as it was pre-Civil War!

Sadly he was wrong and so his family stayed in China and Akim decided to make sure that his lineage didn’t die out by marrying Vera Konstantinova. This was his 3rd marriage – the first one was to Balia’s mother, who died either during or just after childbirth. Then he married Maria and they had Lida, Balia’s step-sister. Now there was Vera and a new line of Borodinoff people – which I will need to add to the Nozadze Family Tree! ?

Dmitri told me Akim died in 1926 but that would have been only 3 years after his other family left Russia, so I guess I need to find out when he and his family were exiled to Ashgabat. ?‍♀️

It really is rather confusing to work out the dates but hopefully it will all pan out in time ?

Philip asked Mervyn, his buddy from the Men’s Shed, who is pretty cluey about genealogical terms and he said that Dmitri and I are half 2nd cousin once removed! How ’bout dem apples!!! ?

This is the information which Dmitri shared with me about our mutual ancestor …

My own knowledge about my grandfather Akim Borodinov is scarce, for unfortunately he left this world circa 1926, my grandmother Vera survived him by more than 50 years (she was 16 when they married). I have recently put together what she had told me about him – this is in Russian, but I promise to share it with you in English. According to her, they lived in Vladivostok in a cottage built by Akim (designed by him) in Abreksky pereulok near Svetlanskaya str., #8. I have also a lot of questions. I am also looking forward to contacts with Mr.Permyakov, for I am very interested in learning more about the Izmestiev branch of our family tree as well.

Dmitri sent me a photo of a very young Akim with his wife and I would put money down that that lady was Balia’s mother! Something about her face is similar to Balia’s! Unfortunately the photo had no date with it but as Balia was born in 1895, I would say it was taken in 1890, or maybe even earlier?? ?‍♀️

As we have been emailing each other, I have learned more about my great grandfather and one thing is that he arrived in Vladivostok in 1917 with his family from Baku, but in 1918 Dmitri’s grandmother, Vera, gave birth to his aunt, Olga, and in 1919 to his father, Vassili. Akim’s Baku family didn’t leave Russia until 1923 so what did that mean ?‍♀️

I had a few thoughts about it …

Akim was a bigamist (although I don’t know when he married Vera);
he was a philanderer;
Maria didn’t want to have any more children so gave him the green light to find other women who would be willing to have his children; or
his Baku family didn’t want to stay in Russia if the Bolsheviks were in power and he didn’t want to leave. He knew that when they arrived in Vladivostok so decided to start a new family as soon as possible!

All supposition and I will never know why he did what he did ?

Dmitri sent a photo of Akim and Vera with their two children. Olga looks like she’s around two years old, while Vassili – in the high chair – looks around one year old …

That would mean the photo was taken ± 1920 and his Baku family didn’t leave for China until 1923. It really is such a mystery to me if this was all done with the blessing of Maria or not, but what does it matter now. Absolutely no matter!

I remember when I was going through genealogy instructions when I first started, I read something saying that one had to be prepared for the unexpected when digging into the past! Well my grandfather certainly shocked me with his very unceremonious behaviour when in Vladivostok, gatecrashing events and going AWOL before his ship sailed! Certainly not how gentlemen who were from noble families should behave!

Now back to Akim. My mother remembers him as being a tall, strong man and that he was very generous and did everything to look out for his (Baku) family. I think he would have behaved the exact same way for his Vladivostok family.

Here are more memories from Dmitri about his grandparents ….

I thought it had gone away for ever for me with the wind of the past, but now thanks to you I am finding out more and more about where my Grandfather Akim Vassilievich (yes, this patronym is on the stamp of his marriage registration with Vera Konstantinovna, my Grandmother, which is dated 1929) lived and fared (I never new he lived in Nikolaev, and the only proof of his stay in Baku available to me was his photograph taken there. By the way there is an abbreviation “Е.В.Б.” on the copy of envelope addressed to Akim by your Grandfather Joseph. Just in case you don’t know – it is “Его Высокоблагородию” i.e. kind of “attn. His Honour (or His Nobless) c/o Anna”. This was the way to address people ranked from captain to colonel or equal ranked civilians in accordance with the Table of Ranks of the Russian Empire. I also have one more photograph of Akim Vassilievich (it is not identified by it can be only him. It was taken in Vladivostok and he looks much older than on the Bakiu photo, maybe it was made around the same time as his photo with the unhappy Maria and Lydia was taken. I will be happy to share it with you, I have made it scanned in good quality yesterday.. I have also souvenirs which I have from my Grandmother Vera Konstantinovna, and they may bring some light on the Akim Vassilievich’s destiny in the Soviet Vladivostok. I will put them in black and white a bit later on. My stepsister Olga who lives in Pskov recently sent an inquiry to the Vladivostok State Archive concerning our Grandfather Akim, and we expect an answer within a month or so.

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My own knowledge about my grandfather Akim Borodinov is scarce, for unfortunately he left this world circa 1926, my grandmother Vera survived him by more than 50 years (she was 16 when they married). I have recently put together what she had told me about him – this is in Russian, but I promise to share it with you in English. According to her, they lived in Vladivostok in a cottage built by Akim (designed by him) in Abreksky pereulok near Svetlanskaya str., #8. I have also a lot of questions. I am also looking forward to contacts with Mr.Permyakov, for I am very interested in learning more about the Izmestiev branch of our family tree as well.

Yes, this story of some committee coming to Akim’s door was told to me by Vera Konstantinovna several times at different occasions. There is one detail that I have omitted in my previous version. This is that Vera Konstantinovna always preceded it by saying “I never loved really my husband, But there was one one occasion, when I felt really a great love for him – and then the story started. What I can say, is that in my opinion, all such revolutions regardless of country or century always raise scum to the surface, such as Shvonder and hid his committee, the gang which tried to invade the Capitol recently or those who made the coup in Kiev in 2014 (to continue with those who killed the aristocrats in their prison cells during a riot in the times of The Great French Revolution). But those who make them arise are not seen.

Now back to Akim, his “Shvonder”** could become quite influential and make Akim’s life a hell, taking also into consideration that Akim was at an advanced age. So far, I don’t know the dates of Akim’s life, but my cousine Vera told me recently that he was 30 years older than Vera Konstantinovna b.1898. Maybe I will be able to learn from Vera more about it.

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There is now a pause in my correspondence with Evgeny Permyakov about my grandmother’s side of the family, I intend to write to him soon and relate some details that my cousine Vera told me in our recent chats. She (Vera) left Pskov in 1967 for Tashkent to live with her aunt Zinaida Konstantinovna, who in turn had moved there from Vladivostok around 1930. They were three sisters (Vera b.1898, Antonina b.1900 and Zina b.1905 all in Vladivostok). Anyway, this is a great Providence or Lord deed for Evgeny to fish me out in some web site and to further put me through to yours.

What you are saying about your Facebook group “White Russian Emigres from China” and that “there was an influx of new members all from Kuldja” is also interesting for I was told that the “three sisters”‘ father Konstantin Izmestiev has left them and his family to go to “Manchjouria” (or Kuldja) with a younger girl in 1910. (then in 1913 the sisters; mother died, and they lived with their aunt Evgenia (or Enya = is’t it the likeness of Balya? ?, Al sisters were taken good care of and studied in a “gymnasium”, and my grandmother gave piano lessons in Pskov fifty years after that, and she spoke some French, remembered Heine’s verses in German

The subject of White Russian emigration has been always sensitive to me, in my life I met for example Michael Yermakov, it was circa 2000 in Germany in the Cargolifter airship project. He is a retired usa officer, I am a soviet retired officer, we got along well.

This was generally admitted in our family that Akim was a contracting architect, and that he had the highest qualification in the trade, i.e. licensed to desing/build five-story houses.No pipelines have been ever mentioned.

Now I an resending to you the copies (photographed recently by cousine Vera from the albom ones). On your screenshot of the ones Andrei sent you the top two are of young Akim and very probably your great grandmother. The two underneath are of Akim with family and the one on the right is of Lida Borodinova. Anyway, I am sending them again in an Attachment.

It’s very king of Philip to have spoken to a friend of his about what our relationship would be. First cousins twice removed – pas pour les esprit simples! I wonder how it may be put in Russian! I have no idea if this is true or is he wrong. Sounds great, anyway!

I don’t have a problem with you adding all my comments, etc, about my grandparents on my site I will even be grateful for that. It will also be okay for you to share the photos I send you on your site, I don’t insist on putting the (c) sign. Yes, you can also embed the video and the story, of course, thank you for that.

Surely, I saw the page of your grandmother Balia, and all her students. It reminded me of my grandmother teaching piano in Pskov, and over the same years! They had only three years of difference in age, and they passed – in 1979 and 1982 – about the same time. Царство Небесное! (In Russian that means “Kingdom of Heaven”!)

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Hello, Nona,
I was planning to write to you much earlier, but making the letter proved to be a bit challenging, for the central piece of it is one story told to me by my grandmother Vera Konstantinovna, the third wife of Akim Vassilievich. She told it to me several times. It happened after the Japanese left Vladivostok and bolsheviks seized power (i.e. after 1922).

The Borodinovs family lived in a private house in downtown Vladivostok. One day Vera saw a group of men coming up to the porch of their house, which had several steps. They went up these steps and knocked on the door. Akim opened and came out to them not letting them in. Vera saw them from a nearby window. The leader of the group said something to Akim which Vera could not hear. Some words were exchanged. Then Akim hit hard the man into the face, the blood started to flow. The men turned around and went away.

As a comment, Vera Konstantinovna mentioned that Akim was a very strong man, and he wore a ring with a stone on his finger. Having heard that in my youth, in Pskov where I lived from by birth to beginning of my studies in Moscow in 1967, I saw in 1989 a new film “Dog’s Heart” 1988, and the destiny of Professor Preobraghensky and that of my grandfather Akim looked very similar to me, and very demonstrative (only Professor was protected by his influential patients, and Akim got a bitter enemy in person he hit) . So now after I saw your site an idea came to my mind to share with you that impression of mine, I have found the scene I would like to share in YouTube (in Russian), and made subtitled for it, It took me some time and effort to learn how to do it, and then to do. I just finished and downloaded it on my channel.

The link follows: https://youtu.be/poOydCpB4fI
I hope it works.

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Dmitri very kindly added English subtitles to this old Soviet film about a “committee” of Bolsheviks/Soviets who come to a well known surgeon’s apartment and tell him they want him to have less rooms in his apartment!

He (Dmitri) saw it as a similar occasion with Akim when a “committee” came to Akim’s house, probably to tell him either to leave the house or to make rooms available for other people. His reaction was different to the surgeon’s – Akim hit the guy firmly in the face with his hand which had a ring with a stone in it! The Bolsheviks left with their ‘commissare probably holding a handkerchief to his bleeding nose!

It would have made him hate Akim with all his senses and certainly made him an enemy for life!! ?‍♀️

** Dmitri mentioned the name “Shvonder” and that was the name of the jumped-up official who came to the surgeon’s apartment with his committee! No doubt the jumped-up official Akim punched in the face was equally unpleasant!