Pushkin

[Evgeny Steiner]

Lewis,

Yes, of course, - the sources you mentioned are indispensable for any
genealogical search. But posting my query/musing on Seelangs I hoped to
elicit some new info on Pushkin, not on my half-mythic
great-great-great-grandpa.
However, something tells me that the interest to real life prototypes of
Pushkin personages have possibly died with the generation of Tsyavlovsky
and Tomashevsky. Shifted agendas, new paradigms...

Evgeny

On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 10:17 PM, Lewis B. Sckolnick
<info at rectorpress.com>wrote:

>  Evgeny
>
> He may be in a city history.
> What about church records.
> Land records.
> Wills.
> Court records.
> I have found some interesting notes in land records and related materials.
> I do not see him mentioned in any out of print book for sale that used the
> Latin alphabet.
> Check Worldcat.
>
> Lewis
> The Ledge House
> 21 September 2012
>
>
>  Dear Inessa, Alexandra, Lewis, and all,
>
>  Thank you for your interest and clarifications.
> Yes, Pushkin definitely mixed Romantic ideas (Gypsies, Bairon, Greek
> rebellion) and his own projected image in Aleko. My suggestion is that the
> real Greek refugee, Aleko Grekulov, who most probably took part in the
> insurrection of Alexander Ypsilanti and was a Phanariote Greek who settled
> in Kishinev in (or shortly before) 1821 COULD BE Pushkin's immediate
> trigger and source of material, if not inspiration. Not only he was Greek
> and a freedom fighter to ignite the interest, but, according to family
> legends, Aleko was a dashing young fellow with propensity towards risky
>  escapades. (Oh, I forgot to mention in my first post that he was a
> great-grandfather of my own grandfather, i.e. my direct ancestor.) Possibly
> it was not by chance that the house of kupets Naumov where Pushkin lived
> was bought later (in the end of the 1830s by this Aleko or his son.
>
>  Yes, it would be most interesting to scan the records of the local
> government or the gentry assembly. The Grekulovs were quite prominent in
> Kishinev: his descendant Alexander Grekulov was a chairman of the Russian
> party in 1917 and a historian of Bessarabia, Alexander's brother Efim was a
> historian (and rather notorious at that) of the Russian Orthodox church,
> etc....
>
>  Last year on my way from London to Moscow I made a stop in Kishinev and
> visited Pushkin Memorial museum. The administration was visibly impressed.
> They called me "the descendant" ("потомок") and asked to sign some petition
> to the city authorities. LOL.
>
>  All further insights are gratefully awaited.
>
>  Evgeny
>
> On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 3:47 PM, Lewis B. Sckolnick <info at rectorpress.com>wrote:
>
>> Is Pushkin calling himself Aleko before going south?
>> What records are there of Aleko in the local government.
>> Have any Bessarabian writers adopted him and or his name.
>> Is that name elsewhere in Russian literature.
>>
>> Lewis
>>
>>>
>>> Dear All,
>>>
>>> I have a question about Pushkin and his possible sources. Some months
>>> ago I asked one American professor about this matter, and she recommended
>>> to inquire with three prominent Russian pushkinists. (All of them work in
>>> the West, and none of them cared to reply. Nomina sunt odiosa.) I hope the
>>> question might sparkle some interest here.
>>>
>>> A few years ago I found that a certain Aleko lived in Kishinev in the
>>> 1820s. His surname was Grekulov, and he was included in the book of Gentry
>>> families (Книга дворянских родов) of Bessarabia province under the year
>>> 1827. (As I learned from the local historians, it took about 5-6 years
>>> between the application and registration - which makes his presence in town
>>> exactly concurrent with Pushkin. And one more thing: Pushkin stayed in the
>>> house that later (from the early 1840s) belonged to the Grekulov family.
>>> The first registered owner of this family, "the widow Ekaterina Grekulova"
>>> was a daughter-in-law of this Aleko; as a girl she met Pushkin many times
>>> (her oral stories have been recorded). Close to that place (as you possibly
>>> know, there is a museum now in that house) there was Grekulovsky Lane.
>>>
>>> I thought: what if the young Pushkin met this Aleko, who was most
>>> probably slightly senior, and had a romantic air about him - as a Greek and
>>> a fresh exile from his motherland. (The fact that he was the first
>>> generation in Russia is additionally proved by the absence of his
>>> patronymic in the Gentry Book). So - maybe Pushkin's Aleko was somehow
>>> evoked by this Aleko Grekulov? (I myself take this hypothesis cum grano
>>> salis - but why not?)
>>>
>>> With thanks for all comments and information,
>>>
>>> Evgeny
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Evgeny Steiner
>>> Professorial Research Associate
>>> Japan Research Centre
>>> SOAS, University of London
>>> Russell Square
>>> London WC1H 0XG
>>>  United Kingdom
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>>
>>
>>
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