— 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.
On November 30, 2020, I woke up to a comment by a Dmitri Borodinov telling me that he was told about my website by Mr Permyakov (he mistakenly called Evgeny Mr Sherbakov initially) and that his grandfather, Akim Borodinov, 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 ?
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?? ?♀️
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 that can only mean that (a) Akim was a bigamist (although I don’t know when he married Vera); (b) he was a philanderer; (c) 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 perhaps (d) 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!