“We All Live above the Missing Country.” The Family Chronicle.

Abstract

This publication is a part of the author’s family chronicle, based on the archival materials, family documents and memoirs basis. The cronicle examines the Anosov merchant family history from the 17th century to the first post-revolutionary years as inscribed in the history of the country and in reflections on the Russia’s destiny. The first part of the story describes the Anosov merchants establishment, their belonging not only to the financial, but also to the spiritual town’s elite. The son of a Tambov fish farmer, transporting sterlet from 900 miles along the highway, purchased P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky’s works in 14 volumes and made his offspring to read it, “that they may learn how we, the Anosovs, used to live.” The merchant family made donations to the charity within the town, and later one of them became the Mayor of Tambov. In 1871 family members participated actively in Tambov fight against the cholera epidemic. When, according to a family legend, the Governor of Tambov had offered the manufacturer Anosov to obtain noble status, Vasily Mikhailovich refused saying “They know us well already.” The next episode in the family history is the First World War, when another family member, Vladimir Anosov, a gifted surgeon, was working as a military doctor. At that moment the Anosovs are returning their deposits from European banks to Russia. The third episode of the article describes Tambov in 1918: the punitive operations, the execution chambers. The Anosov family, miraculously escaped, leaves the town in the same carriage as Prince Sergei Mikhailovich Volkonsky, their estate neighbor. The last episode is devoted to Tambov of the 1920s: reflections on the family destiny during these years intermingles with reflections on the subsequent destiny of their descendants.

Keywords

• anosovs
• tambov merchants
• charity
• tambov in 1918–1920s
• historical memory