Table Of ContentRUSSIAN AT HEART
Sonechka’s Story
Olga & John Hawkes
CONTENTS
Title Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Preface
People in Sonechka’s Life
Event’s relevant to Russian at Heart
Glossary
Map
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
CHAPTER FORTY
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
CHAPTER FIFTY
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
CHAPTER SIXTY
Epilogue
Endnotes
Bibliography
Copyright
To my mother,
Sonechka.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I
cannot thank my mother and Aunt Dora enough for writing their
priceless memoirs all those years ago. I am also indebted to them
for sharing their reminiscences in conversations with me. Their
exceptional lives form the basis of this book.
I am most grateful for my sister Margarita’s recollections of her
childhood and adolescence in Shanghai and for giving us many of the
photographs in this book. Only now do I fully appreciate why it
continues to be painful for her to recall how our family suffered in
Shanghai.1
I am also grateful for the photographs given me by my ninety-four-
year-old cousin Katherine, in Paris, and the family stories she has
shared with me.
Without my husband John’s encouragement and his love of
history, especially Russian, this book would never have been written.
We owe a special debt of gratitude to the writer and historian
Jenny Haworth, our publisher and editor. Without her this book would
probably not have seen the light of day.
We would like to thank all the many friends and acquaintances
worldwide who have contributed to this joint writing venture.
In Christchurch: the journalist and linguist Robin Munro, Jenny’s
assistant editor, and Quentin Wilson for the skilfull layout of the work.
Other people in New Zealand who have helped include: Tatiana
Blagova, Archpriest Vladimir Boikov, John Goodliffe, Helen Lamont,
Mary Newton, Elizabeth Robertson, Anna Rogers, Professor Richard
Rowe, Joe Studholme, Dr Barrie Tait, Father Arkadi Trashkov,
Lorraine Willis.
In Australia: Dai Baker, Tatiana Fedukowicz, Natasha and Frank
Fuller, Mila and Val Kraft, Metropolitan Hilarion and Alex Saranin,
Katya and Peter Tatarinoff, Wolfgang Troeger.
In North America: Elaine and Tony Avdienko, Marvin Lyons, Boris
and Nikolai Massenkoff, Dr Alexander Studeimeister.
In England: Peter and Sue Adams, John Bayfield, Kay Bellinger,
Katya Burova, Professor Robin Carrell and Susan Carrell, Rebecca
and Greg Stock, Jason Tilney, Richard Wildman.
In Paris: Michel and Margit Farrugia’s hospitality, over many years,
deserves a special mention. They have given us books and
introductions to people relevant to our work. Our other life-long
French friends, Nina Soldatenkoff (née Guilsher), my bridesmaid, and
her husband Father Nikolai, who live in the Bourgogne, and
Madeleine and Maurice Knoertzer in Bordeaux, have been equally
generous with their hospitality and input.
In 2002 we had the good fortune to meet Susan Hine, who lives
and works in Shanghai. On our second visit, in 2006, Susan
introduced us to Tess Johnson, a long-time resident. Until her
retirement she worked at Shanghai’s American consulate. Tess is
renowned for her knowledge of history and architecture in Shanghai’s
former French Concession. She gave us a wonderful insight into my
birthplace and where I lived as a child, enhanced by the purchase of
her impressive illustrated books.
In deference to the express wishes of several members of my
family who are featured in this book, I have changed their names.
PREFACE
I
have wanted to write Russian at Heart, my mother’s story, for many
years. Shortly after Sonechka, my mother, died in 1974, Margarita,
my sister, sent me our mother’s notebook memoirs, written in Russia
and Shanghai. At the time we were living in England, where John was
the consultant rheumatologist at Bedford Hospital. With our three
young children and John’s evening private specialist practice, I had
little time for anything else. Furthermore, I found it painful to read
what my thirteen-year-old mother had endured as a destitute orphan
in revolutionary Russia and subsequently during the Civil War and
under the Bolshevik regime. From time to time I would glance at
these memoirs, hold them to my breast, and then replace them in the
drawer.
Knowing what my mother had suffered, from what she told me and
her memoirs, it upsets me that articles, books and films continue to
portray the White Russian Diaspora, especially in Shanghai, in such a
poor light. The White Russian women in Shanghai are mostly
depicted as prostitutes and the White Russian men as drunken good-
for-nothings. Russian at Heart highlights the harsh realities of the
plight of my parents’ generation: stateless and stranded exiles,
shunned by the world. Yet these ignored or abhorred White Russians,
against almost insurmountable odds, created a dynamic self-help
community in Shanghai. Only a minority were prostitutes and good-
for-nothings.
Having read many books about the White Russian Diaspora, I was
disheartened that I had no formal writing training. How could I
possibly write about Sonechka’s life or convey that her dream of
fleeing Bolshevik Russia was considered a foolish fantasy?
It was not until 1999, after my husband John had retired from his
job in England, that I read my mother’s memoirs in their entirety and
