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The godparents named in the baptism record of Vladimir, eldest son of Konstantin Mikhailovich and Pelageya Pavlovna are particularly interesting in explaining the genealogy of the Karsavin family. They probably refer directly to the parents of Tamara Karsavina's father and mother. They are staff-captain Filimon Sergeyevich Zheleznikov and princess Maria Mikhailovna Angalycheva, a landowner from the Orlov province. So far it's just a guess that M.M.Angalycheva is possibly the sister of Konstantin Mikhailovich, and that Zheleznikov is the surname of Pelageya Pavlovna's father or mother.
*** The archives also contain some interesting facts about Tamara Karsavina's father, Platon Konstantinovich Karsavin, who, in contrast with his elder brother and his nephew, was an outstanding ballet artist. On his release from school in 1875, at the age of 20, he was already a dancer of the 1st rank, a soloist. Karsavin's service began from the age of 16, when he was still at the Theatre School. In 1881, after 11 years of service, he requested an increase in salary for the first time. On his application to the director of the Imperial Theatres is added comment of the chief stage manager (regisseur): "Fulfills his responsibilities with complete diligence and with competence" and the endorsement of the director: "Present for full payment". As a result from the beginning of 1882 his salary of 700 roubles per year was increased by 443 roubles. At the end of the same year his pay was increased to 2000 roubles. Karsavina notes in her memoirs about the very end of the 1880''s: "Even at that time of comparatively easy existence, Mother often talked about the difficulty of making both ends meet". Platon Karsavin remained on a salary of 2000 roubles until his retirement in 1891 and then on a pension of 1140 roubles a year [12]. From 1882 until 1896 he taught dancing at the Theatre School, giving the family an additional 500 roubles. With his release from teaching living became more difficult. "Theatre Street" specifically includes a description in the spring of 1897 of the mysterious operation of taking the winter clothes to the pawnshop, carried out by "uncle Volodya". As Tamara Platonovna expressively describes, "... we always lived from hand to mouth..." The family's straitened circumstances are demonstrated by Platon Konstantinovich's applications for financial aid in connection with the burial of mother (1890) and the illness of his wife (1896). The reference in the memoirs to her father's teaching in Prince Oldenburg's Charity School ("the pay there was meagre, but continuous") pertains to the years 1900-1901. After leaving on a pension in 1891 Platon Konstantinovich had to determine his social status. Until 1870, when he entered into the numbers of official pupils of the Theatre School (from this year also began the calculation of the period of his service), Platon Karsavin was in the tailor craftspeople guild. In 1875, on his release from the school, he was discharged from the guild society and was freed from the guild tax After serving more than 15 years as an artist of the Imperial theatres, Karsavin had the right to be accepted to the social estate of hereditary honourable citizens. He made use of this right in 1891, and obtained the appropriate document [13]. Finally, in the archive are preserved original documents connected with training and service of the outstanding ballerina [14]. The earliest, not counting the documents about the birth and baptism, is "evidence about the smallpox inoculation of the 7-year old daughter of hereditary honourable citizen Tamara Karsavina", performed on April 22, 1892. The last - the report of the chief stage manager (regisseur) of the ballet company to the Petrograd office of the Imperial (amended to State) Theatres dated March 16, 1917 about the ballerina Karsavina's return from leave. Between these two documents can be found: A.I.Karsavina's application for her daughter Tamara to be accepted into the number of incoming students of Theatre School (dated August 17, 1894) with the endorsement on the back - "is enrolled as a free student" (according to the protocol of Conference from May 23, 1895) and "certificate of training from 1894 until 1902 and the completion of the whole course of study at the Imperial St Petersburg Theatre school", Tamara Karsavina's application for acceptance to service (dated May 28, 1902, with photograph) and the directions of the board concerning Karsavina's promotion, "information about the wedding" in the school church to the son of active state councillor, province secretary Vasiliy Vasilevich Mukhin (on July 1, 1907) and the artist contracts with the board of the Imperial Theatres (for 1908-1911, 1911-1914, 1914-1915 and 1915-1917). Tamara Karsavina's career steps (according to the archive documents) appear as follows: on June 20, 1903 she was a dancer in the corps de ballet with pay of 800 roubles per year, and from May 1, 1904 promotion from coryphee to 2nd soloist, from September 1, 1907 she is promoted to 1st soloist (her pay is 1300 roubles), from March 25, 1912 Tamara Karsavina is promoted to the rank of ballerina [15]. There are documents about the award of a gold medal to be worn around the neck on the ribbon of Alexander (on April 14, 1913) and the award by His Majesty the Emir of Bukhara of a small gold medal for wearing on the chest (on September 22, 1916). *** Examining documents concerning the people sheds more light on the reasons behind the formation of the ballet dynasties, so characteristic of the Russian stage. Regarding the Karsavin dynasty it's easy to see that getting her sons into the Theatre school was not a bad solution for Pelageya Pavlovna Karsavina, a master tailor's widow, given her straitened circumstances. Their enrolment as official pupils (after a preliminary period as day students) in a private boarding school with subsequent civil service and guaranteed pension undoubtedly seemed a more reliable and more attractive proposition than remaining in the taxable estate. Probably the same considerations guided Ekaterina Konstantinovna Balasheva when she arranged for her son Nikolai to enter the Theatre school. The question of inheriting the profession arose further. Here the idea of forming a circle of friends within the profession already had great significance. We know from Tamara Karsavina's book about her parents' opinion on decision to enter the school. Platon Konstantinovich's negative opinions were probably connected with the unpleasant atmosphere of intrigue and routine, which he himself had become a victim of at this time, forcing him to leave on a pension at the height of his powers. But his artistic nature and love of the theatre soon overcame his first thoughts. Tamara Platonovna mentions also the role of "aunt Vera" in preparation for entering the school. Vera was the ballet artiste V.V.Zhukova, one of her father's partners and a family friend. As for Nikolai Nikolayevich Balashev, his desire to send his own children also to the school was probably determined by more pragmatic considerations [16]. At the same time, Lev Platonovich Karsavin was categorically against the idea of his oldest daughter Irina following the family tradition and entering the Theatre School. *** Having left Russia, which had just gone through the October revolution, for good Tamara Karsavina, like her brother, knew nothing about the fate of "aunt Katya's" descendants. Many years later there arrived in England via the International Red Cross, an inquiry, made by my mother, N.N.Zablotskaya, Karsavina's niece. At the end of 1973 Tamara Platonovna sent a reply to Nina Nikolayevna Zablotskaya (Balasheva), in Leningrad. On November 6, 1973 Nina Nikolayevna received from the search administration of the executive committee of the Union of the Societies of the Red Cross and Red Crescent the following message: "It has been established that Tamara Platonovna is alive and happy. The letter from the British Red Cross included the following: 'Since her eyesight is failing with the years and she suffers severe arthritis it is difficult for her to read and write. Her son Nikita is alive and well, and he has children Caroline, 16, and Nikolai, 12. She asks to pass on to her niece her best regards and good wishes and, if it should interest her niece to know, that she greatly loves and honours the country in which she lives, for its wonderful and warm respect and assistance to ballet'. Unfortunately Tamara Platonovna did not give her address, but, given her age, she found it difficult to write and answer letters." What memories did this message stir in the legendary ballerina, this iconic figure of the "Silver Age"? Perhaps she recalled the warm, trusting hand of her little goddaughter Ninochka, orphaned so young - the daughter of her cousin Nikolai... perhaps she recalled the distant years of the beginning of the 20th century, the years of her ascending glory... This I cannot know. But I do know the memories that connected my mother, Nina Nikolayevna with "aunt Tamara", whom she had not seen since her distant and sad childhood. Nina Nikolayevna told me and my sister Tatiana about our grandfather Nikolai Nikolayevich, whom we barely remembered - about her good and kind father, forever worried about money, who couldn't do anything with his evil step-mother. And this was by no means "fiction". And in these stories always appeared the image of "aunt Tamara", the good fairy, who gave magical gifts and who drove with the children to see her friend, Matilda Kshesinskaya, at her palace on the Petrograd side. This would happen at Christmas and Easter. "Aunt Tamara" was godmother at the baptism of Nikolai Nikolayevich Balashev's children - Lev [17], Nina and Luba, and also the daughters of her brother, Lev Platonovich Karsavin - Irina and Marianna [18]. Nina Balasheva barely remembered her mother. Antonina Pavlovna Moskaleva, the third wife of Nikolai Nikolayevich, died when her daughter was only five years. And through the years, as I understand it, the bright image of "aunt Tamara", her godmother, became clearer and stronger, as is usually the way with elderly people's memory. This warm and simple image in my mother's recollections seemed to bear no relation to that atmosphere of the "Silver Age", so often talked about. That was another world, another life. And yet the celebrated Tamara Karsavina was, and remained, in my mother's memory as - "aunt Tamara". |
