AR Life in Marienskaya

Life in Marienskaya

Marienskaya was my first home, an idyllic place to live one’s childhood. Not only were there gardens, orchards and wood lots to play in, but also the sand hollow where the grape vines grew. There, we children spent many hours playing and building sand castles and elaborate croquet ball runs from the top of the slope to the bottom. There were, of course, trees to climb, especially mulberry trees laden with fruit during the summer. And in the winter, there was skating for my older brothers and sisters. Rudi and I especially enjoyed my father's invitations to accompany him on his various inspection tours throughout the lands of the estate. A whistle from the front porch would soon bring the coachman with his coach, drawn by two beautiful horses. And off we would be to the grain fields, and to the harvesting or threshing operations, or to the hayfields and sheep pastures, or to the river and the adjoining marshlands. There was at least one high, pyramid-like grave mound perhaps of the Scythians, who once inhabited the area. And sometimes, father would direct the coachman to speed up the horses and drive up to the top of this mound in order to survey the surrounding terrain. Adventures like that, or making a speedy dash through the water across the river to intercept fish-poachers were exciting. And at one point along the river was Laysa Gora, or Bald Mountain, and its associated scrub woodland that we referred to as the primeval forest. The great steam engines that, by means of a long belt, drove the threshing machines and the long lines of ox-drawn grain-binding mowing machines attacking a wheat field at one time. The whole field would often be harvested in one day. And as the machines cut away one swath of grain after another, and the area of standing grain got smaller and smaller, the partridges and hares, and sometimes foxes and cranes, continued to move into the standing grain in the center until the last rounds were made and the birds and beasts would make their hasty departure. Sometimes the oxen drivers would stop everything and take a hare, young fox or crane, and at times would actually catch one, which would be presented to the family of the manager. And so at times we had a pet hare or a pet fox and at other times even a pet crane, which delighted us all.

We had a number of dogs, fed primarily on water-moistened bran at the time the estate bell would signal lunch or other work-related activities. The bell ringing would bring the arrival of the dogs to get their meal and also induced them to join in a veritable chorus of howls.

A teacher, my father was also a self-taught naturalist who appreciated the natural world and especially delighted in birds and other animals. I believe that this led me to an especially close bond between him and me. The threatening dangers of the revolutionary unrest during our later years in Marienskaya required our temporary move into a neighboring village. There, a man who was perhaps the owner of the house in which we were living, good-naturedly teased me. He called me “Professor Brotesser”, that is professor bread eater, perhaps at the time revealing the condescending or patronizing attitude in which the common man held the “unproductive or useless” activities of the educated.

Schooling in Marienskaya was served by a school room and a live-in teacher, who resides in the adjacent teacherage. Although I do not retain vivid memories of formal schooling in Marienskaya, I do remember teacher Wall, who shared his meals with our family and of whom I was particularly fond. But, well before we left the estate, it was impossible to hold on to a teacher. During the first two years of the revolutionary turmoil my schooling must have been rather haphazard.

Memories of Special Events

My eldest sister Agnethe was married to David Davidov Klassen from the estate of Prigorye on April 26, 1913 in Marienskaya. This special event probably marks my earliest childhood memory of any particular happening. David was the scion of another wealthy Klassen family. Although Marienskaya was far removed from the Molochnaya where most of our relatives and David’s family lived, many guests arrived, some for a rather extended stay. The closest railway station at Grishino was about fifteen miles away to the south and from that point, the  guests had to be brought to the estate by horse-drawn covered coach. 

The wedding was performed in the large, empty and now decorated granary building. My special role on that festive occasion was to perform as a flower boy. I was then almost 3-½ years old.

Another vivid memory remains of the evening on which, so far as I can recall, all the windows facing the front of the house were fitted with narrow shelves holding a great array of lit candles. My brother Herman has told me that this event was the celebration of the 600 year anniversary of the House of Romanov, that is of the Romanov dynasty. This occurred during the month of February in 1914 when I was just a little over four years old.

Still another special event in Marienskay was the visit of the proprietor Klassen family, including my uncle Heinrich and aunt Margarethe and my cousins, some older, but some also nearly my own age. I do not recall whether the arrival of an automobile, of touring convertible design, was part of that visit or another occasion.

Probably when I was about four years old, my parents took me along on a railway trip to the Crimea and ,on the way out or on our return, we also stopped in the city of Berdyansk to visit my sister Evangelinne who was attending school in this city upon the shore of the Sea of Azov. I even have visual flashbacks of the fleeting passage of the bridge girders as the train crossed the marshy lands near the isthmus of the Crimean peninsula.

Christmas in Marienskaya

Although I am unable to associate the following memories with any particular year, since Christmas was after all an annual affair, some of my most vivid childhood memories of life in Marienskaya relate to the celebration of Christmas.

As small children, we were firm believers in Santa Claus, who to us was Weihnachtsmann, and to the Russians Dyed Maroz or Daddy Frost. But to us the Weihnachtsmann was a really mysterious character whose existence we deduced from a whole array of bits and pieces of very convincing evidence, but whom we also feared a little. Try as we would, we never succeeded in getting a glimpse of him, although we were sure we had found his footprints in the snow. And for about a month before Christmas, our father’s office or study was “verboten”, that prohibited territory. Because it was there that the Weihnachtsmann was making things ready for Christmas!

On rare occasions, a shopping trip was made into town to purchase various staples that could not be produced on the estate. Things like rice, sugar, tea, coffee, spices and various candies and at times even a few oranges. Most of these supplies were storable and leftovers from Christmas might be held over for months for special occasions like birthdays during the rest of the year.

But long before the arrival of Christmas, our house grew fragrant with the aroma of spices and the baking of cookies, the most numerous and most storable of which were certainly Pfeffernuesse (peppernuts)'.

While the grownups were occupied with the chores of everyday life and the baking and other special preparations for Christmas, we children were also required to prepare for the great celebration. Specifically, we were required, or we at least thought that we were required, each to learn a Christmas poem by heart. I believe we even prepared decorative Christmas cards in which we neatly printed these poems. With this task we younger children were often helped by some of our older siblings. Since we did not have electricity in the house, nor piped running water for that matter, dusk was the time to light the kerosene lamps, whose wicks often had to be trimmed to keep them from smoking. But with the early dusk of the December evenings, the lamp lighting was sometimes delayed as we gathered together and sang Christmas carols.

Long before Christmas actually arrived we children, who could hardly stand waiting for the great day, prepared our own Christmas calendars as much as a month before Christmas. Cutting available paper into two by three inch rectangles, we drew a large numeral on each piece of paper, starting with the number of days still remaining before Christmas, and ending with the numeral one. These carefully cut and numbered slips of paper would then be gathered into a neat stack and attached to a decorated cardboard back with an appropriate Christmas scene. The slip bearing the number “1” would be placed at the bottom, and increasingly ever larger numbers toward the top of the stack. And as each day passed, or as a new day arrived, we would tear off one numbered sheet, leaving the newly exposed number on top to indicate the number of days still remaining before Christmas, and showing how many days we would still be required to wait.

Special events sometimes occurred during the suspense advent season. We children sometimes referred to Santa Claus as “Weihnachtsmann-Bruellemann” because he roared. Sometimes we would hear such a roar as the door would burst open and candies would be flung into the room. Or a fir bough might be tossed into the room, which as we ran to pick it up was found to have a string tied to it. As we followed the string far beyond the flung-open door we found candies tied on at intervals and at the end of the string on one occasion was wrapped a box that we then found to contain a mechanical wind-up seal, a pre-Christmas present for me! Even then I was already especially interested in wild animals.

Sometimes we concluded that Santa Claus might be angry with us, when a package flung into the room consisted of endless layers of wrapping paper, the laborious removal of which revealed only chunks of coal and ice at the center.

Finally the 24th of December arrived! That afternoon every child had to have a bath, no matter what day of the week it was! Then we put on our most festive clothes. And as the afternoon turned to dusk, and dusk turned to darkness, we sang Christmas carols and made sure we were able to recite our poems.

Then, at the sound of a bugle or trumpet, the doors of my father’s study, across the entry corridor from our family room, burst open, and the radiant glow of countless candles on the Christmas tree lit the room in brilliant light.

As we children ran toward the open door, Rudi the youngest first, then I, and then the other older children in order of age, we all soon gathered in the room of celebration. Our first response was to admire the great tree and look for special, perhaps new ornaments, like a gilded animal. Then we had a chance for a brief look at the great array of presents before it was time for more serious matters. With our parents seated in rocking chairs, our father now read the Christmas story from the gospel of Luke. We then sang Christmas carols, which we had already been singing all through the advent season. And then we recited our Christmas poems to our attentive parents, again starting with the youngest of the children.

Only after this service had been completed were we children permitted to take possession of our presents. They were never wrapped, but were openly displayed all around each child’s large soup bowl heaped with candies and cookies, dried fruits, and maybe an apple, or in earlier years perhaps even an orange. Around each child’s bowl of edible goodies on the large display table and sometimes below the table as well, were arranged the many presents being bestowed upon him. By this time the evening was wearing on, and until Christmas Day there would be little time to play with all the new delights. Supper had been delayed and we were all getting hungry.

In order to make cooking a meal for a large family on Christmas Eve a little less time consuming, the festivities of the evening were followed by a cold supper consisting primarily of cold-served fruit soup or mousse, made of dried prunes and other dried fruits, and thickened slightly with starch. With this as the main course, there were also cold meals, especially sliced ham, with bread and butter and tea. By the end of the meal it was already past nine o’clock and high time for the children to go to bed. And with the first early light of Christmas morning one child or another would surely sneak out of bed to tip-toe to our father’s study to feel the sharp needles of the ceiling-high Christmas tree and to get another reassuring look at the presents that would occupy his time through the day.

But the members of our immediate family were not the only residents of Marienskaya. There were also the year-round employees  and their families, Russian or Ukrainian folk who lived on the estate. And there were also the folk of Krivorozhye, many of whom came to work on the estate during the summer harvest. Groups of young people from the village, carrying a large, colorful paper star with an interior candle for illumination, would come to serenade on Christmas Eve. And on Christmas morning, we would have many baskets of Christmas cookies to give out to serenaders and well-wishers who came to our door.

The major activity for the grown-ups on Christmas Day was the preparation for the Christmas celebration for the older resident families on the estate. All furniture was removed from the entrance corridor and from father’s study, leaving only the decorated Christmas tree. Then a thick layer of clean straw was strewn over the floors of these two rooms and a cord was strung as a boundary around the Christmas tree. And when all the candles on the great Christmas tree were lit again, the  guests arrived wearing great quilted coats and warm, knee-high felt boots, often with plenty of adhering mud. With the children, especially the smaller ones, taking their place next to the cord surrounding the Christmas tree and the taller men occupying the back of the room and standing against the wall, the celebration began. Russian Christmas carols were now sung and I believe that the Christmas story was then read from the Bible. Then the sliding doors joining father’s study with the parlor were opened revealing boxes of toys that were distributed to the children of the employee’s families.

When all these guests had departed, it was of course necessary to remove the muddied straw and to clean the floors and to replace and rearrange the furniture that had been removed. In addition to storable decorations our Christmas tree was also hung with edible goodies like apples and chocolate bars. I remember our amusement at finding a bite taken out of a conveniently available chocolate bar that a child standing close to the tree was able to take delicious advantage of.

Village folk visited our home not only at Christmas time. They also came on New Year’s Day and, carrying a large beautifully decorated and illuminated paper cross, they came again to serenade at Easter time.

The special ceremony celebrating the New Year continues to linger in my memory. On this special day, the villagers came prepared with special crowns, fashioned from mature ears of wheat. These were then placed upon the heads of both my father and mother, as the delegation wished them a bountiful harvest for the year to come. This time, I believe there was again a hand-out of cookies as well as coins to the visiting well-wishers.

During the last year of our residence at Marienskaya, when revolutionary unrest had overtaken our area, soldiers entered our house on at least one occasion. So far as I recall, a motorcycle that my parents had bought as a Christmas present for my brothers Frank, Herman and Dietrich, was appropriated and removed from our house. On that same, or upon another occasion, the house was searched, for what I do not know. This required the removal or emptying of dresser drawers and the searching through garment wardrobes, beds, and any other imaginable hiding places.

As alluded to earlier, our family at one time, took temporary shelter in a neighboring village, perhaps Sheedlovo some distance from Marienskaya but well within reach by wagon.