Wooden plate in celebration of the Wedding between Paul and Margaret Anderson presented to them by their Russian friends from the YMCA Press.

Black and White photograph of the plate resting on a fireplace mantle

Message written on the back of the photograph

Wide view of the engravings on the back of the plate. Barbara Glenn was told that the ancient script around the edges meant bread and salt… “The large writing around the side: Large writing around sides. I understand it to say "bread and salt" as a blessing for their marriage.” It’s hard to read these but may be Pravi G’zhsh And around the top, Xleb’ Sol’ and it loos like Eush. I’ll have Milena take a look to see if she just knows or can decipher the old Russian script… Xleb da Sol is a symbol of Russian hospitality. It’s actually a bread.

Russians, Russian soul is always famous for it’s hospitality. And there is a symbol of Russian hospitality- “Bread and salt”, “Hleb da Sol”. It is a big round black or white bread on the embroidered towel with a little saltshaker on the top. It is a traditional ceremony of welcome. Historians say that when tsar visited Russian towns, in the old times merchants and gentry expected him near the opened gates of the town with a bread and salt.

The tradition still is practiced, but mostly for tourist, on the special feasts, and – first of all- on the wedding ceremony.

Zoomed view of the full engraving on the back of the plate

Detailed zooms into each set of engravings on the back of the plate. Transliteration from Cyrillic to Latin script (for pronounciation) along with a rough translation

Na Dobriou Pamiat (Our best thoughts or Best Wishes)

Molodoi Cheti (To the young couple)

P. (Paul) i (and) M (Margaret) Anderson

In the center list:

N. Berdiaev (Berdyaev is how I usually transliterate it). That’s our famous philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev, Editor in Chief of the YMCA Press and close friend of your father/grandfather. You’ll read a lot about him in Revolution from Within and can find even more, here. http://www.catherinebairdbooks.com/the-catalysts/nikolai-berdyaev/

B. Vysheslavtsev. That’s Boris Vysheslavtsev – protégé of Peter Struve originally who became Berdyaev’s student and colleague. At the YMCA Press and Russian Religious-Philosophical Academy in Berlin and then Paris, he acted as secretary and general operations support for Berdyaev who, rumor has it, was *not* very organized. He’s quite a noteworthy religious philosopher in his own right and art critic. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Visheclavtsev_Boris_Petrovich.jpg

G. Glinka – I’m not familiar with this name but he’s an Eastern (Russian) senator who was expelled in 1921 and by the looks of it emigrated to Harbin (in Mongolia). There he was part of the Harbin YMCA and taught at the college there. He contributed to Berdyaev’s journal Put’. The new book I just got by Mat’ Maria’s grandnephew might have more details and whether related or not to the famous composer of same name.

M. Goloviznin – Writer published by YMCA Press who wrote about Electrical science, telephone, signal technology, etc. Mikhail Alekseyevich Goloviznin. He wrote engineer books for the YMCA technical school from 1922 onwards (https://vufind.techlib.cz/Record/000278453/Details). Here’s the book the YMCA Press published:

https://books.google.com/books/about/%C4%96lektri%C4%8Deskie_zvonki.html?id=UkYncgAACAAJ&hl=en Ėlektričeskie zvonki: praktičeskoe rukovodstvo po provodke zvonkov, s priloženiem opisanija ėlektričeskich priborov dlja otkryvanija i zakryvanija dverej i vključenija telefonov v domašnjuju signalizaciju

M. Goloviznin The YMCA PRESS Ltd, 1924 - 77 pages

S. Karasev – Sergei(?) Karasev – I found him in relation to Bunin’s archive at Leeds University – a Karasev, S. P. who seems to be associated to YMCA Press publications. Not familiar with him. Interesting today there’s a hugely popular basketball player in Russia of same name. There’s also a M.F. Karasev of some note ~ 1948 – perhaps a child.

L. Konstantinov . He’s analyzed in an article explaining how Stalin and Lenin ripped off Christian icons and the mystique of Jesus Christ to create the “Cult of Personality” for Soviet peoples to worship. https://www.academia.edu/4835688/_Liturgy_and_Life_The_Appropriation_of_the_Personalization_of_Cult_in_East-Slavic_Orthodox_Liturgiology_1869-1996_Studia_Liturgica_28_1998_210-31 This article follows the advice I picked up from Berdyaev which was to consider Communism not as simple materialist atheism, but to look deeper and reveal it for the religious and messianic impulse it was. Now it’s interesting that this academic article (above) gives the initial K, not L as is clearly written on the plate. Possibly there were two brothers. Or, just as possibly, the historian mistyped the initial or mis-cited. That happens a lot in history. I’m pretty sure given timing and circumstances we’re dealing with the same family at least, if not the same person. Konstantinov was one of the theologians at St. Sergius who wrote articles for Put’ and is cited in the article above for his “The Orthodox Divine Service in the Life of a Christian.” There are some nice quotes here. He was clearly involved with Bishop Kassian or Casian (nee Bezobrazov) so I’d assume part of the Bratstvo.

In the Left list

B. Krutikov –Boris Mikhailovich. The last name may also be transliterated as Kruikoff or Kroutikoff. I was able to find reference to a Krutikov, B.M. at that time and place in the Bunin archive in Leeds, UK. And there are letters between him and your grandfather, although I didn’t study those in detail, in the University of Illinois archive.

MS.1066/3388-3390

Krutikov B M

(1943-49) (3 letters, with letter-heads: Les

Editeurs réunis and YMCA-Press)

3ff; TS, with MS amendments; Russian Interesting, there was a Solomon Krutikov who stayed in the Soviet Union and was a prominent member of the Communist Party. Solomon became chairman of the board of the Gosbank (USSR’s version of the Federal Reserve) in 1936.

And there’s a Mikhail Krutikov who’s professor at the U of Michigan as of 2008 and is prominent in Soviet and Russian history…. Most likely a descendent.

A. Levinovich – no record of this name in my archival sources. I did find reference to an Aron Levinovich bornin Lithuania in 1898 and an Alfred Levinovich… but nothing to indicate whether or not they might be related to our stories. I almost wonder if his official surname wasn’t used for some reason and he just used first name and patronymic (son of Levi). Antisemitism was awful in France at that time so it is possible.

S. Liubimtsev – I always love this surname because it means, literally, “Love”. May also be transliterated Lubimtsev or Loobimstev. I couldn’t find anything on him directly, but this is most likely a descendent: 11Mikhail

Guerman, introduction to Soviet Art 1920s-1930s, by L. Vostretsova, N. Kozyreva, S. Liubimtsev, and O. Shikhireva, ed. Vladimir Leniashin (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1988),13-14. http://theaestheticoftriumph.weebly.com/the-birth-of-socialist-realism.html Fedor Stepun, close friend and philosophical colleague of Berdyaev’s, also had correspondence with an M. Liubimtsev from 1947-61 that’s contained in his archives in Yale. That person seems to be one of the members of the Christian Action movement of Russian Students (i.e. the RSCM who ended up taking over the YMCA press).

P. Nikitin – Ah-ha! I bet this the son of the famous Aleksandr Ivanovich Nikitin: (from my book: “The conference even provided a link between this new gathering and the old Russian YMCA by enticing A.I. Nikitin, a former member of the Mayak and one of the prominent founders of Solovyov’s original Russian Philosophical Society, to attend”.

S. Pavlov– Sergei Ivanovich Pavlov by the reference I found in the Bunin collection in Leeds. Correspondence from 1921. Boris Zaitsev (who was almost included among The 160), mentions him ~ 1922 in conjunction with Paul B. Anderson. There is an archival collection for him at Columbia University: Sergei Ivanovich Dometiev-Pavlov, 1903-1935. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/archival/collections/ldpd_4077472/ Included are many photographs on the life of the Russian emigration in interwar Greece; a printed copy of the Portmouth treaty decribing the Russo-Japanese War; a printed

announcement of the death of Grand Duke Vladimir Aleksandrovich in 1909; and three photographs of military personnel from 1903-1904. Also included is a manuscript "Moi a Rossiia," on Russian literature, by Dometiev-Pavlov using the pseudonym Sergei Gubinskii.

K. Pereshneva – Found her mention the U of Illinois archive, but it’s not someone I studied. Here’s the reference: Box 30: (continued) Stepanov, Iurii, 1926. Letter to K. M. Pereshneva, 25 page typescript of poems by Stepanov, Brno (1926). Function/relationship is unclear although her letter is arranged near the materials of Sophie Zernov so she may been another administrator and editor.

In the Right List:

S. Popich – S.G. Popich. Teacher of Russian secondary school in Paris France which operated from 1920-1961, and graduated more than 1,200 students during that time. A major educational centre for children of Russian émigrés, the school was originally opened with the support of the Russian Consulate in 1920, and through the initiative of M. A. Maklakova and V. B. Nedachin

Teachers of the Russian secondary school in Paris included B. A. Durov, G. A. Lozinskii, S. G. Popich, E. A. Sham'e, P. P. Sakharov, K. D. Starynkevich, and P. P. Troitskii. As a major educational centre, the Russkaia sredniaia shkola v Parizhe received applications from children of Russian émigrés of different social backgrounds, including Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich, Konstantin Bagration-Mukhranskii, Tikhon Nikolaevich Kulikovskii, Nicholas Zernov, and others.

F. Sollogub – Fedor Sologub is how most people spell it. Quite famous poet and writer closely related to Zinaidia Gippius (Gippius and Merezhekovsky) , and considered equivalent of Blok, Belyi, Bal’mont, Bryusov and other famous Russian Silver Age writers. Actually got his start writing for the Shield (Russian Society on Study of Jewish Life) which Maxim Gorky edited and Ekaterina Kuskova contributed to. Here’s the Wikipedia link on him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fyodor_Sologub

A. Terentyev or Terentiev. The famous futurist writer, artist and and philosopher Igor Terentyev was present at that time and place and connected with the YMCA, but it is not clear if maybe A. was another initial of his or this was a relative?

S. Tulikov – might be the famous musician who wrote the Lenin Tribute? “Lenin is always with you”… https://youtu.be/8PYBdRTvtvw https://youtu.be/v5AOnbTIXLQ Sorry I couldn’t resist! Really there’s no good clues to pin down who this person was. In case you’re interested the thumbnail on Serafim (who it could be but I really, really doubt it!)

Serafim Sergeyevich Tulikov, () (July 7, 1914 – January 29, 2004), was a Russian and Soviet composer, who was born in the Imperial Russia, and died in Russia. He was often credited as S. Tulikov in his musical works and his cameo appearance in Russian television series. Serafim Tulikov is remembered for his composition of Lenin is Always With You, a Soviet revolutionary tune, depicting the continuity of the Soviet Union, and saying that "Lenin will always live in the hearts of the people."

S. Frank – Semen or Seymon Frank – very important existentialist philosopher and close colleague of Berdyaev, Bulgakov and Struve. He’s the one who stayed behind in Germany until he and wife had to flee due to Nazi persecution… he was Russian Orthodox but began life in the Jewish faith… Lots about him in Revolution from Within. I haven’t finished his bio page on my website yet, but you can read more about him here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semyon_Frank

A. Shidlovskaia - initials were actually A. A. She was the English assistant and translator for A Yashenko in Berlin (the agent who first contracted Berdyaev et. al. to write books for the YMCA Press). There’s a wonderful story about her family’s school and Shostakovich (the famous composer) here: http://www.siue.edu/~aho/musov/deb/cfd1.html Before her emigration, she was part of the family like the Bezobrazov’s who ran schools in Russia – in this case music schools rather than “women’s schools”.

Lossky described the Shidlovskaya pupils as "chiefly drawn from the ranks of the 'out-lived' liberal intelligentsia who were unsympathetic to the 'official' [Soviet] bureaucracy of the day". One of these pupils, though, was none other than Trotsky's son Lev with whom, Lossky insisted, Dmitri "particularly" failed to get on. "During the spring of 1918, during Trotsky's rise to power," wrote Lossky, "Mitya never so much as hinted at any kind of sympathy with the 'existing regime', and I can vouch that this was the case until 1922 [when Shostakovich entered the Petrograd Conservatory as a full student]." Laurel Fay mentions that Trotsky's son attended the Shidlovskaya school, but omits Lossky's recollection that Shostakovich "particularly" failed to get on with him. She directly quotes none of the material excerpted above. (Zoya's testimony goes unmentioned except for her story of her father crying "Children, Freedom!" upon the fall of Tsarist rule in February 1917.) Notwithstanding her reluctance to quote verbatim from witness testimony, Fay acknowledges the apoliticism of Shostakovich's immediate family background, dismisses the tale that he saw Lenin arrive at the Finland Station, and concludes that "the young Shostakovich's grasp of the import, and his conscious embrace, of the revolutionary milestones of 1917 were almost certainly exaggerated by both his Soviet biographers and, when expedient, by himself". It should be said that her suggestion that Shostakovich later exaggerated aspects of his life out of "expedience" is, in the absence of contextual exegesis, prejudicial. For example, in the era of the Cultural Revolution it became a matter of survival to establish, falsely if necessary, one's political

credentials. Further, in view of the strking consistency of the available evidence, Fay's verdict that the young Shostakovich's political awareness was "almost certainly exaggerated" is a classic example of over-cautious (pseudo-centric) academicism. Note: this schools: The answer to their prayers was provided by a pupil of Froebel, Maria

Shidlovskaya, who registered her private school as a "commercial school,"

Scrolling on bottom – Avgust 1925g. St. Maur. – Looks like August of the year 1925 and St. Maur or St. Mauv. (abbreviation for somewhere in Paris or France…?)