Kolchak and Anna Vasilievna Timireva. Love that is on You: Alexander Kolchak and Anna Timireva
Their romantic love story has excited the minds of people for decades and formed the basis of the film “Admiral”. Woman’s Day found out the details of this dizzying romance.
For five years, from the moment they met until the day the general was executed, the romance between Anna Timireva and Alexander Kolchak lasted. They met in 1915 in Helsingfors. Anna's husband, naval officer, captain 1st rank Sergei Timirev, was transferred there to serve. By the time they met, both were burdened with families, children and obligations. She had been married for four years and was raising her son Volodya; he had been married to Sofia Omirova for eleven years, who, as expected, was with him in both sorrow and joy: she was waiting for her husband from the polar expeditions and from the Russo-Japanese War, and mourned prematurely two daughters died, she rejoiced at the birth of her third child - the son of Rostislav.
A photograph of Anna Vasilievna in Russian attire hung in Kolchak’s cabin in the most prominent place. Timireva gave this photo to Alexander Vasilyevich after one costume ball. By the way, Alexander Vasilyevich constantly carried with him a glove that Anna Timireva accidentally dropped.
Anna was the first to confess her love to Alexander Vasilyevich. She, twenty years old, was so fascinated by Kolchak’s charisma and charm that she fell in love with him almost immediately. Neither the big age difference (almost twenty years) nor the opinion of society stopped her (marital infidelity at that time was a terrible sin and was condemned in every possible way). “I told him I loved him,” the woman recalled. - And he, who had been hopelessly in love for a long time and, as it seemed to him, answered: “I didn’t tell you that I love you.” - “No, I’m saying this: I always want to see you, I always think about you, it’s such a joy for me to see you.” And he, embarrassed to the point of a spasm in his throat, said: “I love you more than anything.”
Photo Museum of Detention Center No. 1, Irkutsk
They met extremely rarely, sometimes in front of everyone, sometimes furtively in private. The letters they constantly wrote to each other helped them survive the separation. Kolchak wrote his first letter to Anna Vasilievna for four days: he began at the General Staff, and finished at sea, in the cabin of a warship pursuing a German cruiser. He wrote to her a lot and often, her messages were rare and terse. “I’m mortally afraid of boring him,” explained Anna Timireva. Their romance in letters lasted 4 years.
Timireva is on the far left, Kolchak is sitting next to her
The lovers did not immediately decide on intimacy - at that time people took the moral obligations that marriage bonds imposed very seriously. During the revolutionary turmoil, the Timirevs left for Chinese Harbin and there, in 1918, Anna Vasilievna received a divorce. Only after this did she, by right of her beloved, come to Omsk, where Kolchak was proclaimed the Supreme Ruler of Russia.
Kolchak’s residence was located in this house in Omsk
Photo Center for the Study of the History of the Civil War in Omsk
Kolchak and Timireva lived in Omsk for almost a year. Moreover, for some time they, observing decency, lived separately. Anna Vasilyevna rented a house from D.V. Chashnikova on Nadezhdinskaya Street (now the regional library named after A.S. Pushkin stands on this site), and later, when the owner of the house died of cholera, she moved to the house on Beregovaya, 9, where Kolchak’s personal residence was located. “I’m taking advantage of your departure to the front and staying with you,” she wrote in one of her letters to her lover. In total, during the year of his life in Omsk, Kolchak traveled to different fronts 9 times, so the lovers did not spend as much time together as they wanted. Despite his very strong feelings for Anna Vasilyevna, Alexander Kolchak was in no hurry to divorce. His wife Sofya Feodorovna and her son fled from the Bolsheviks to Europe and settled in Paris. She, of course, had heard rumors that her husband was experiencing a whirlwind affair with Timireva, and, apparently, in her letters she asked him if this was so. In response, Alexander Vasilyevich wrote to his wife: “How could you believe, how could you doubt me!”
Timireva in the uniform of a nurse on the steps of a hospital in Omsk. Kolchak - on the right
Photo Center for the Study of the History of the Civil War in Omsk
While in Omsk in 1918–1919, Anna Vasilyevna worked as a translator for the Press Department under the Administration of the Council of Ministers and the Supreme Ruler. Timireva received an excellent education at home and knew French and German perfectly. In addition, she worked in a sewing workshop and in a hospital distributing food to the sick and wounded.
The interior of Kolchak’s office was recreated at the Center for the Study of the History of the Civil War in Omsk
In Omsk, Anna Vasilievna led a rather stormy social life. Since Kolchak proclaimed Omsk the capital of Russia, the Russian intelligentsia poured here, fleeing the terror of the Bolsheviks. Omsk writer Anton Sorokin held literary evenings, where local and visiting elite gathered. Anna Vasilyevna had been there more than once and once came with Kolchak. A small talk between the owner of the house and the distinguished guest began about literature, they talked about Gorky. “Gorky is a good writer,” said the Supreme Ruler of Russia. “But when we defeat the Bolsheviks, we will shoot him.”
Kolchak and Timireva with the Allied command
Photo Center for the Study of the History of the Civil War in Omsk
Anna Vasilievna grew up in the family of musician Vasily Ilyich Safonov. She played music beautifully, painted, wrote poetry and prose. But at the Omsk literary competition evenings in which she participated, the poet Yuri Sopov received first place for the romantic poem “Cinderella.” Yuri served in Kolchak’s bodyguard and died along with other colleagues during one of the unsuccessful attempts on the life of the Supreme Ruler of Russia.
During his life, Kolchak came close to death several times. The first time he almost drowned in an ice hole during a polar expedition, but he was pulled out. The second time there was an explosion on the flagship Empress Maria, but it was on that night that Kolchak went ashore to spend the night. For the third time, at his Omsk residence, the attackers attempted to destroy the leader of the White movement, but they miscalculated - Kolchak was not at headquarters at the time of the explosion. But for the fourth time, death did not bypass Alexander Vasilyevich, and he was shot by the Bolsheviks in Irkutsk.
Photo Museum of Detention Center No. 1, Irkutsk
After Kolchak’s government left for Irkutsk in November 1919, out of 500 supporters, only ten people remained with him, including his beloved Anna Timireva. They traveled in the same second-class carriage, decorated with the flags of Great Britain, the USA, France, Japan and Czechoslovakia.
List of things seized during the arrest from A.V. Kolchak
Photo: Center for the Study of the History of the Civil War in Omsk
An inventory of the things that were confiscated from Kolchak during his arrest has been preserved. It is interesting that most of them, apparently, were female and belonged to Anna Vasilievna. Apparently, by this moment the lovers realized that they had nothing to lose, they finally stopped hiding their relationship and did not part. Among the items are a palette of paints, bone beads, a brooch, a comb, beaded stripes, sachets for scarves and other trinkets. By and large, there is not a single piece of jewelry in the inventory. The man who owned great wealth (historians call it “Kolchak’s gold”) did not take a single gram of gold for himself and his woman.
This craft is number 20 on the list of seized items.
Photo Larisa Loskutova
One extraordinary thing from those that were confiscated during Kolchak’s arrest has survived to this day. A craft in the form of a piece of bread made of pumice, on it lies a piece of cheese made of bone, and next to it are two mice, also made of bone. It is unknown who exactly, Kolchak or Timireva, owned this skillfully made item.
The cell-museum where Alexander Kolchak was kept. Located in the actual prison of pre-trial detention center No. 1 in Irkutsk (formerly the Irkutsk prison castle). In front of the camera is a guard holding a prison bell.
Anna Vasilyevna, being arrested of her own free will, at first spent time in the same prison with her lover. She was more worried about Kolchak than about herself, and wrote in a note to freedom: “Please pass my note to Admiral Kolchak’s carriage. Please send the admiral: 1) boots; 2) 2 changes of linen; 3) a mug for tea; 4) hand jug and basin; 5) cologne; 6) cigarettes; 7) tea and sugar; 8) some food; 9) second blanket; 10) pillow; 11) paper and envelopes; 12) pencil. For me: 1) tea and sugar; 2) food; 3) a couple of sheets; 4) gray dress; 5) cards; 6) papers and envelopes; 7) candles and matches. Hello to all of you, my dear friends. Maybe there will be a free person who will bring me all this, one of the brave women. Anna Timireva. P.S. We are sitting in prison separately.”
Anna Vasilyevna and Alexander Kolchak continued to exchange notes in prison (“the postmen” were the guards of the Irkutsk prison castle). “My dear dove,” the convicted Kolchak wrote to his beloved, “I received your note, thank you for your affection and care for me. Don't worry about me, I feel better, my colds are going away. I think about you and your fate - the only thing that worries me. I don’t worry about myself – because everyone knows in advance. Write to me. Your notes are the only joy I can have. I pray for you and bow to your sacrifice. My dear, my beloved, do not worry about me and take care of yourself. Goodbye, I kiss your hands."
The story of these two lovers is reminiscent of the main characters of Leo Tolstoy's novel - Karenina and Vronsky. And if you don’t know that the author’s work saw the light of day before this drama took place, then one would think that Alexander Kolchak and Anna Timireva became the prototypes of the book’s heroes. However, it seems so only at first glance.Their first meeting took place in 1915 on the station platform. He is a Russian military man going on a business trip to Helsingfors, she is the wife of his old friend, officer Sergei Timirev. Their collision did not yet foreshadow the turbulent events of the future. Moreover, nothing could happen between them; each had families. By that time, Alexander Kolchak had been married for eleven years, Anna for four years, but both already had children. And the code of officer honor did not allow the thought of secret affairs with the wives of friends. But fate worked out contrary to all expectations.
Timireva with her husband and son
Their second meeting turned out to be much more obvious. Timireva came to visit her husband in Helsingfors, and there she officially met Kolchak. They were visiting a mutual friend and randomly spent the entire evening close to each other. It was then that an unspoken common interest and attraction arose between them.
She was only 22, he was 41, but with each meeting they realized that they did not want to part at all. By the way, their meetings were very rare, because he was a flag officer for operations at the Essen headquarters and personally took part in naval operations, and then he became the commander of the Mine Division, which further reduced their chances of meeting. Meanwhile, when they managed to get to the same reception, they always found themselves next to each other and could not stop talking. From the outside, it was ordinary social communication, not going beyond what was permitted - meeting only in public and nothing extra in either looks or movements. However, each of them understood that everything that was happening between them was much more than it seemed.
Sofia Kolchak with her son and grandson
Anna Vasilievna was the first to decide on recognition. In her memoirs, she wrote: “I said I loved him.” And he, who had been in love for a long time and, as it seemed to him, was hopelessly in love, answered: “I didn’t tell you that I love you. I love you more than anything." Communication and rare meetings with Kolchak became everything for Timireva; she was ready to follow him anywhere, which is what she did, but more on that a little later. For him, she was the one for whose sake all difficulties were overcome and the whole world was conquered. Despite this, they did not allow themselves anything unnecessary and built their relationship with great respect and trepidation.
They found salvation from constant separation in letters addressed to each other. There are about fifty-three letters in total, spanning four years of correspondence. Alexander Kolchak wrote some letters and did not send them; they could reach up to forty pages. These notes were kept in his diaries. At times she answered more restrainedly, afraid of seeming intrusive and annoying.
Soon Anna Timireva realized that she could no longer endure the constant separation from her beloved and decided to leave her husband. It was a serious decision, followed by slander, dishonor and condemnation. Anna’s husband even tried to dissuade the young girl, but she didn’t want to hear anything. She wanted happiness, love, which she thought she could not get by leaving everything as it was. In 1918, Timireva received a divorce and immediately followed Alexander Vasilyevich.
Anna Timireva and to her left Kolchak
At that time, Kolchak was in Omsk; this period of time can be called the heyday of his activity - he was proclaimed the Supreme Ruler of Russia. Anna arrived exactly there. Of course, they did not fully advertise their relationship, and besides, Alexander Vasilyevich was in no hurry to divorce. However, those who were close to them clearly understood what was happening between them. Rumors also reached his wife, who was forced to flee with her son to Europe.
After Anna Vasilievna’s arrival, the couple lived separately for some time, but even after Timireva moved to Kolchak’s personal residence, they did not see each other as often as they dreamed. Alexander Vasilyevich was constantly on the road.
Fortunately, Timireva had a good education, so during her stay in Omsk she managed to work as a translator for the Press Department under the Administration of Council Affairs and the Supreme Ruler. Later she tried on another role - a sister of mercy.
Kolchak on the right and on the left Timirev
In 1919, Kolchak's situation changed for the worse. Let us only mention that he was asked several times to transfer all his rights and powers to another officer. In 1920, he issued his last decree, after which he became an ordinary civilian. For Alexander Vasilyevich this was a real shock. Then there was betrayal of the allies and arrest. Timireva unconditionally followed him. She didn't care if he was around, so she voluntarily went to prison to get him.
When, during interrogation, Kolchak was asked what Anna Vasilievna had to do with him, he replied that she was just an old acquaintance.
Full conversation episode:
“Member of the commission. Here Mrs. Timireva was voluntarily arrested. What does she have to do with you?
Kolchak. She is an old good friend of mine; she was in Omsk, where she worked in my workshop sewing linen and distributing it to military ranks - the sick and wounded. She remained in Omsk until the last days, and then, when I had to leave due to military circumstances, she went with me on the train. She arrived here on this train until the time when I was detained by the Czechs. When I came here, she wanted to share the fate with me.
Cheka. Tell me, Admiral, is she not your common-law wife? Do we have the right to record this?
TO. No.»
They always addressed each other as “You” and by their first and patronymic names.
They continued to write to each other until the last day. The letters were transmitted through prison workers. It is interesting that all this time they were addressed only as “You” and by their first name and patronymic.
Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was shot by the Bolsheviks in Irkutsk in 1920. She was then convicted for her love, and spent 37 years in prison and exile. She was rehabilitated in 1960, and after another 15 years she left this world.
At the end of her life she wrote:
“But if I’m still alive, despite fate,
It's just like your love
Anna Vasilievna Timireva (nee Safonova) is a Russian poetess and artist, the last wife of the admiral, who, after his capture by the Red forces in early 1920, voluntarily decided to go under arrest with him.
Anna Vasilievna Safonova was born on July 18, 1893 in Kislovodsk. She was the sixth child in the large family of Vasily Safonov, a music teacher, pianist and conductor, who for some time was the director of the Moscow Conservatory.
Anna Timireva in her youth | Musiclist
When Anna was 13 years old (1906), her family went to St. Petersburg. In the northern capital, Anna graduated from high school in 1911, after which naval officer Sergei Nikolaevich Timirev took her as his wife.
Anna gave birth to a son, Vladimir, in 1914, and a year later, while in Helsingfors, where her husband was stationed, she met Alexander Kolchak for the first time. This event completely changed their lives. They instantly fell in love, as in the books - at first sight, but they did not confess to each other right away.
Career
In 1918, Anna Timireva worked as a translator in the printing department under the Council of Ministers and the Supreme Ruler in the city of Omsk. In addition to this, the woman worked in a linen-making workshop and was responsible for distributing food to crippled and sick soldiers. Later, already under Soviet rule, she became known as a poetess and published her poems about Kolchak.
Personal life
He was married, and besides, he was nineteen years older than Anna. He sailed on the waters of four oceans, entered twenty seas and earned many domestic and foreign awards and orders. Alexander Kolchak was considered a talented naval commander and a very patriotic person. It is not clear what connected him with Anna, a young married artist, but feelings cannot be deceived.
Gossip
From their first meeting until the arrest of the admiral, for five long years, the soul lovers were always with each other, despite the fact that they might not see each other for months. Both Anna and Alexander had their own families. Many guessed about the feelings of the brilliant naval commander for Timireva, but no one dared to express their assumptions out loud. Anna's husband, like Kolchak's wife, pretended not to notice anything, perhaps hoping that over time their feelings would fade away.
By the oak
In 1938, Anna’s first and only son, Vladimir, was shot. During the search, they found a sword and a pistol on him, and in the indictment they called him a German spy, allegedly obtaining information for Germany about the fishing industry in the USSR. Years later (in 1958), Anna achieved the rehabilitation of the murdered child.
Divorce from husband
Timireva and Kolchak communicated by correspondence. They wrote to each other with amazing respect and nobility, seemingly incomprehensible to modern realities: they always addressed each other as “you” and by their first and patronymic names. “Dear, dear Anna Vasilievna...” - Kolchak usually began his letters with these lines. When she revealed her feelings to him, Alexander put his whole soul into the answer: “I love you more than…”.
Historian's Drafts
Anna divorced Sergei Nikolaevich and abandoned her family and son for the sake of her admiral. Since then, she became Kolchak’s de facto wife and tried to leave him as little as possible. She later called these times the happiest of her life. Through the horrors of the civil war and the mud of the revolution, which then tore Russia apart, they maintained mutual love until the very end.
Kolchak's arrest and years of exile
After the arrest of her beloved, Anna, without a moment’s doubt, followed him into custody. A very young girl, she was twenty-six years old, sought the release of various things and medicines from the director of the prison, because Alexander was very sick. All this time they did not stop writing letters to each other...
Historian's Drafts
In February 1920 he was shot. The girl immediately felt it. The gloomy jailers only turned away to her questions, and the commandant could not deceive her and only said that he had been taken away. A woman’s heart cannot be deceived - Anna immediately understood everything, but until the very end she tried to hear about it from another person just to make sure that her loved one was really gone. Then she will receive a paper with the treasured name and the line “cause of death: execution.”
Anna Timireva in recent years
The death of the admiral did not become the only source of suffering for Anna Vasilievna. She had to spend about thirty more years in camps, prisons and all kinds of exile. Happiness eventually left her life forever; her last photos show her dull eyes. She died at the age of eighty-two, leaving behind a mountain of notebooks with poems and some letters, read out to holes.
Biographical films
More than one film has been made about this beautiful and tragic story. In 1997, director Sergei Yurzhenko completed the documentary film “More than Love. Romance of Kolchak. In 2006, Channel One showed the movie “Admiral Kolchak. Two over the abyss."
Konstantin Khabensky and Liza Boyarskaya in the film "Admiral" | Livestory
In 2008, the big-budget feature film “Admiral” was released in cinemas, telling the story of the love story of Kolchak and Timireva. The key roles in the film were played by, and. The film was received positively by both adults and children, so Channel One later showed a series based on it.
During the period of perestroika, as well as at the very beginning of the 1990s, when the debunking of old heroes was put on stream, the domestic media told an amazingly beautiful love story Admiral Kolchak And Anna Timireva. He, a fighter for a free Russia, was brutally shot by the Bolsheviks, and she, having gone through decades of prison and exile, remained faithful to him until her last days.
The film “Admiral”, released in 2008, finally formed among ordinary people a picture of the great and tragic love of a noble Russian patriot and a lady devoted to him.
The truth is not able to fight a movie priced at 20 million dollars. Starting the story about the true history of the relationship between Alexander Kolchak and Anna Timireva, one can recall the phrase said by the heroine of the incredibly popular film “Noisy Day” in Soviet times: “Love often humiliates a person and destroys his life. I don’t even know whether more high or vile deeds have been committed in the name of love.”
“I brought all my best to your feet, as to my deity”
Daughter at the ball at the Naval Assembly Actual Privy Councilor Fedor Omirov Sophia met the brave officer Alexander Kolchak.
A hereditary noblewoman, Sophia received an excellent education at the Smolny Institute. At the same time, the girl had an iron character and did not shy away from hard work, which later became very useful to her in life.
Strong-willed and independent Sophia, like a woman, weakened before the charms of a handsome man in a naval uniform, and agreed to become his wife. It was agreed that the wedding would take place after the expedition on which Kolchak was going.
Eternal waiting will be the fate of Sofia Fedorovna. Not yet becoming a wife, she had every chance of becoming a widow when Kolchak walked the edge on his polar expeditions.
He wrote beautiful letters to her: “Two months have passed since I left you, my infinitely dear, and the whole picture of our meeting is so vivid in front of me, so painful and painful, as if it were yesterday. How many sleepless nights I spent in my cabin, walking from corner to corner, so many thoughts, bitter, joyless... without you, my life has neither the meaning, nor the purpose, nor the joy. I brought all my best to your feet, as to my deity, I gave all my strength to you...” The island and cape were named in honor of the bride.
One expedition led to another, and they got married only 4 years later. The wedding in the St. Harlampies Church in Irkutsk became a moment of joy before a new farewell - Kolchak was leaving for the Russian-Japanese War.
Frame youtube.com"Your loving Sonya"
Sofia Kolchak will always take on losses, pain and suffering. Their first daughter would never see her father - the girl died before she even lived a month while her father continued his mission in the Far East.
In 1910, Sophia will give birth to her husband son of Rostislav, in 1913 daughter Margarita. The strange marriage “by correspondence” was a difficult test for the wife, but she continued to write letters to her husband full of warmth: “Dear Sashenka! Slavushka starts talking a lot, counting and sings songs to herself when she wants to sleep... How are you doing? Where are you now? How were the maneuvers and is your destroyer intact? I'm glad you're happy with your business. I'm afraid if there weren't a war, they talked a lot about it here. I read a novel about General Garibaldi in Italian. I embroider and count the days. Write to yourself. Your loving Sonya."
The beginning of the First World War will turn into a new tragedy for Sophia Kolchak. The families of naval officers lived in Libau, which very quickly came under threat of being captured by the Germans.
There was no organized evacuation, and Sofya Kolchak, with two small children in her arms, was forced to flee, leaving all her property behind.
The noble naval officer did not lift a finger to help his wife and children. This is understandable; war requires self-denial.
The price for this was high - little Rita, having caught a cold on the road, died in her mother’s arms in Gatchina. There was no one next to Sophia Kolchak who could help her through the grief. There was only her son Rostislav, and Sophia, gathering her will into a fist, did not allow herself to go crazy.
Wife of a fighting friend
She believed that she was needed not only by her son, but also by her husband. Probably, somewhere in her soul she hoped that Alexander would help her cope with the loss of her second daughter. I was wrong.
In January 1915, Alexander Kolchak left Petrograd for his duty station in Helsingfors. Shared a train compartment with him Sergey Nikolaevich Timirev, classmate, colleague and friend. While studying in the Naval Corps, they were in the same company: Kolchak as a sergeant major, Timirev as a non-commissioned officer. Then they had the chance to take part together in the defense of Port Arthur. Sergei Timirev, who was a year younger than Kolchak, always treated him with great respect.
His wife Anna came to see Timirev off at the station.
Anya Safonova, daughter of a famous Russian conductor and pianist, married naval officer Sergei Timirev when she turned 18 years old. In October 1914, the couple had a son, who was named Vladimir.
It is unlikely that it could have occurred to Sergei Timirev what that meeting at the station would threaten him with.
A couple of months later, Anna Timireva will come to her husband in Helsingfors to, as she recalled, “look around and prepare for her move with the child.”
The officers invited their colleagues to their evenings, and at one of these meetings Kolchak talked for a long time with his friend’s wife.
Frame youtube.com"Their romance is beautiful for novelists"
By the spring of 1915, Anna Timireva moved to Helsingfors, and her meetings with Kolchak began to be systematic.
“Wherever we met, it always turned out that we were close, could not stop talking, and he always said: “You don’t need to separate, you know - who knows if it will ever be as good as today.” Everyone was already tired, but for us - both him and me - everything was not enough, we were carried along like on the crest of a wave,” she recalled.
And at this time, Sofia Kolchak was here in Helsingfors. Biographer of Alexander Kolchak Pavel Zyryanov writes: “Everyone saw this, noticed everything, and gossip, of course, was inevitable. Outwardly, the two women maintained friendly relations. Fortunately, we don’t know what happened in the families.”
Rostislav Kolchak, the admiral’s son, many years later refused to understand his father: “Their romance is beautiful for novelists. But when two people, married to others in church, who consider themselves Orthodox, indulge in their impulses in front of everyone, it looked strange!”
A sticky story of betrayal
And what is beautiful about this story? Alexander Kolchak not only betrays his wife, who endured incredible trials for his sake, he also does it publicly, in front of everyone.
Among Russian officers, having an affair with the wife of a colleague was considered base. And Kolchak did this not just to a colleague, but to a friend.
Anna Timireva not only cheated on her husband, but also betrayed her son, who was not even a year old at that moment.
We know that Anna Timireva accompanied Kolchak, who became her de facto common-law husband, until his execution. Her husband, meekly enduring humiliation, continued to serve under Kolchak during the Civil War, occupying the almost virtual post of commander of the Naval Forces of the White Movement in the Far East.
The tragedy of Vladimir Timirev
And what about their son, Volodya? While his mother followed her lover, Vova Timirev lived in Kislovodsk with his grandparents. The boy had to endure the death of both relatives, after which he was left in the care of practically strangers. Only in 1922, Anna Timireva, released from prison, took her son to Moscow.
Vladimir Timirev had a tragic biography. Although at first it seemed that his mother’s problems with the authorities would bypass him. He graduated from high school in Moscow's Khamovniki, then studied at the Construction and Design College, then at the Moscow Architectural and Design Institute.
Vladimir Sergeevich became a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR, and his personal exhibition took place in Moscow.
The 23-year-old talented guy was ruined by love. He had the imprudence to fall in love with Natasha Kravchenko, daughter of a prominent Soviet artist. The girl's parents were against their relationship. Ksenia Stepanovna Kravchenko, Natasha's mother, who, by the way, was herself of noble origin, warned Timirev: if you don’t leave your daughter behind, “I will take my own measures.”
The young and ardent Vladimir did not heed the warning, and obtained a promise from his beloved to marry him. And then an experienced lady wrote a denunciation to the NKVD, in which she reported that Timirev was communicating with the driver of the German Embassy.
It was the spring of 1938, the very height of the “Great Terror.” There was no one nearby who could take the trouble away from Vladimir. And then there are the adventures of the mother, and the status of “Kolchak’s stepson.”
On May 17, 1938, Vladimir Timirev was sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out on May 28, 1938.
The father, Sergei Timirev, did not know about the tragic fate of his son - he died of throat cancer in exile in Shanghai in June 1932.
Kolchak's wife Sophia with her son Rostislav and grandson Alexander. France, 1939. Photo: Frame youtube.com
"Last Warning"
Sofya Kolchak last saw her husband in May 1917, in Sevastopol, which at that moment was his place of service. She accompanied him on a business trip to Petrograd, from which he never returned.
She was waiting for him in Sevastopol, when he had already become one of the leaders of the White movement. Sophia risked being arrested almost every minute. Incoming news reported that the husband was alive, but the wife’s place was de facto now occupied by Anna Timireva.
It was to her, and not to his wife, that Kolchak now wrote tender letters: “How I would like to send you these flowers - they are not violets or lilies of the valley, but truly tender, divinely beautiful, capable of rivaling roses. They deserve to look at them and think about you..."
And in October 1919, Kolchak addressed the following letter to his wife: “It’s strange for me to read in your letters that you ask me about representation and some kind of position as the wife of the Supreme Ruler... You write to me all the time that I am not attentive enough and caring towards you. I think I did everything I had to do. All I can now wish for you and Slavushka is that you would be safe and could live peacefully outside Russia during the present period of bloody struggle until its revival... Please do not forget my position and do not allow yourself to write letters that I do not I can read to the end, because I destroy any letter after the first phrase that violates decency. If you allow me to hear gossip about me, then I do not allow you to tell me about it. This warning will hopefully be the last.
Bye see you. Yours, Alexander."
Punishment with life
The admiral, sharing a bed with his mistress, gave his wife a “final warning” for trying to figure out what was happening in their relationship.
Sofya Fedorovna Kolchak managed to leave Russia with her son. They settled in France. This persistent woman did not settle scores with her dead traitor husband, although she certainly had something to tell about Alexander Kolchak.
During World War II, Rostislav Kolchak, who fought in the ranks of the French army, was captured by the Germans. And again Sofya Feodorovna will wait and hope, and this time she will wait - her son will return from captivity alive.
Kolchak's widow will die in France in the spring of 1956. Nine years later, Rostislav Kolchak will pass away.
Anna Timireva, despite the many years spent in prisons and exile, will outlive absolutely all the participants in this drama. And he will leave memories of his love, over which impressionable citizens will shed tears.
But “Love often humiliates a person and destroys his life. I don’t even know whether more high or vile deeds have been committed in the name of love.”