Me About Myself - Instead of the Autobiography
At a certain point my life, I realized I wanted to try to understand and somehow generalize my life’s journey until today from a subjective point of you
I remember myself, probably, from the age of 5 or 6. Only child for my parents, I was growing up rather unhealthy and "sickly". My parents mainly took care of my health, and as I can see now, they were not purposefully engaged in my education. I had practically no children’s books read to me and had no “preachy” conversations with my parents. It can all be explained by their sheer occupation with work. Mother, a Literature teacher at school, was always busy checking students’ essays in the evenings and nights, and during the day she, apart from giving classes, had a theater club, where she staged performances based on Russian literature classics. My father, a highly gifted person, bewitched high school and later university students with vivid classes and lectures. He had encyclopedic knowledge and was an elocutionist. His lectures on pre-revolutionary Russian history were attended not only by students of the Historical Faculty, but also by Philology and even Math students (I, naturally, have heard his lecturers later, being a student and a tutor). To this day I am amazed by his ability to speed read. He literally read a book of 200-300 pages in 2-3 hours. And when my mother, always in awe from this, opened the book at a random page, he could precisely narrate the contents. In essence my education came to that I observed my parents’ life, constantly working, and I was involuntarily involved in their interests. Mother took me to students’ performances staged by her. Father, being a school teacher, organized an archeological club and 15-20 students taken by his erudition and enthusiasm went with him on expeditions on Sundays and in the summer. He always took me on Sunday expeditions, and when I was getting tired and started to whine, he took me on his shoulders and carried me for several kilometers. I don't remember that they had any fights or arguments. They both loved me very much. Mother was always the more constrained and strict one, but my father never hid his feelings. I was almost never punished: father never touched me with the purpose to punish, and mother throughout my childhood “pulled” at my ear 2-3 times. At the same time I was not a spoiled child. Financially, the family was not very well-to-do (teachers even in those pre-war years had small salaries). All spoiling reduced itself to my parents limiting themselves in nutrition and always trying to provide a balanced diet to a sickly boy. There were no secrets in the family from me. Father began to speak to me like to an adult and conscious person very early on. I vaguely remember both grandfathers and grandmother on my father's line, Nadezhda Andreevna, as they didn't live with us and I saw them very seldom. Maternal grandmother, Ekaterina Dmitrievna (grandma Katya) had a very special place in my life and in the life of the whole family. Having no higher and even not a complete secondary education, she was remarkable for native wit, inexhaustible thirst for knowledge, exceptional diligence. Grandmother lived a difficult life of persecutions during the Civil War, several starvations, including the Siege of Leningrad. She died at the age of 99 and a half and at the age of 90 - 95 was (once again!) re-reading "War and Piece" and "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy and actively discussing the vivid political life of the country. Her physical work capacity at that age was quite amazing: attempts to stop her from working at the dacha and requests to put down the hoe caused a thunderstorm of emotions. My children in many respects are obliged just to grandmother Katya for the care and regular well-balanced nutrition, as my wife and I were absolutely engrossed in work. Her delightful culinary abilities remained with me as well: after her death I never ate such tasty Easter cakes as they were cooked by grandmother.
I still cannot understand why I didn't inquire with my parents when they were alive and especially with grandmother Katya about our genealogical data and didn't write it down. Unfortunately my interest in this matter only appeared after they passed away.
Approximately since September 1999 I started a research that is still on-going, in a completely unknown for me area - archival researches. Having recollected scarce information told to me by parents in passing, and having talked to relatives (already of my generation, naturally), I began to search in archives. At that, I opened a fascinating research area, when you find a "thread" in one document, you look for active continuation in other archives. Unfortunately, I didn’t achieve equal success on all genealogical lines (the same level of generations). Almost all archives that were in the military zone during the Great Patriotic War lost a part of their funds. As of today I managed to collect and analyze 17 documentary certificates on my ancestors (Attachment 3). This allowed me to make a genealogical scheme. Using it, I tried to trace the origin of the grandfathers and grandmothers who I kept in mind.
The most in-depth discovery that I made was to the first level of the scheme (great-great-great-great-grandfathers level), genealogy of the grandmother on my father's line, Nadezhda Andreevna (5.6)*. Her maternal ancestors in four generations were ennobled subaltern officers of the Tersk Cossack Host. Her father, Miguzov Andrey Fedorovich (4.4)*, was also a subaltern officer of the Tersk Cossack Host. Genealogy of the grandfather on my father's line, Pokrovskiy Vladimir Mikhailovich (5.1)*, I could trace to the third level. He came from Russian Orthodox Church priests in Tula province. On my mother's line, I managed to trace the most "deeply" (to the second level) the genealogy of the grandfather. Stefanov Yakov Afrikanovich (5.9)*. He is a descendant of Voronezhskaya province priests. Ekaterina Dmitrievna (5.14)*, grandmother Katya, was also the daughter of a priest from Voronezhskaya province. Unfortunately official documents from archives don't allow to find out their individual peculiarities. Neither photos, nor portraits are to be found in the archives.
School didn’t leave any vivid memories in my mind; these years fell into the difficult conditions of war, ruin, undereating. Having finished school with a gold medal, I had a right to choose the university. In those years a gold medal allowed to enter universities without matriculation. Even whilst passing exams in high school, I thought I would follow in my father's footsteps and become a historian. However, one day before the application deadline, I submitted documents to the Kuban Medical Institute; from September 1946 to the present day my life has been connected to it. I am obliged to Valentin Kuz'mich Suprunov to have come to the Department of Hominal Physiology. In 1951, professor Suprunov V.K., Head of the ENT Department was chairman of the State Examination Board. With all his seeming external cruelty, this man was remarkable for his marvelous delicacy, ability to see and understand a person well and faithful love for his university (he graduated from our institute) and constant care for it (later he was President, Deputy of the Supreme Council of the USSR and made his generous contribution to the development of the institute). Suprunov V.K., knowing me in those years just from our "official relationship” that a professor and a student can have, recommended this graduate at a crossroads to the new Head of the Department for Hominal Physiology, professor Starkov Pavel Mikhailovich who had just arrived in Kuban. Much later he reminded me of that episode, coming up to me after I defended my doctoral thesis; he said "I am glad that I was not mistaken in you". So, in autumn of 1951, I came to the Department for Hominal Physiology as a senior laboratory assistant and to this day I work here. My teacher Starkov P.M. belonged to the first students pleiad of academician Parin Vasiliy Vasil'evich. He was an assistant at Parin's Department in Sverdlovsk together with (assistants at that time) academicians Chernigovskiy V.N., professors Ukolova M.A., Polosukhin A.P. Starkov was notable for his extraordinary insistence on high standards concerning the purity of the physiological experiment. Also not only of the scientific experiment, but tests at lectures and practical trainings as well. At that time this was the dominant method in educational training at the Department. The volume of experimental techniques varied from complex acute tests (for instance, heart-lung preparation) to long chronic observations on animals after special operations on them (small ventricular based on Pavlov’s technique, fistula of ureters, etc). Soon I had to start reading lectures on Biophysics, and then on Physiology. I think that the broad methodic and theoretic schooling I received at the Department as a teacher and especially work on the "Human Physiology"* textbook helped me in many aspects to become a researcher. In this relation, I think that training through the melting pot that is pedagogic activity along with a series of disadvantages (first of all, the work load related to preparation of lectures and classes) also has certain advantages. Reading the entire lecture course poses a problem to the teacher to follow the novelties in physiology and to think not only about issues related to your own scientific interests, but also to see organism as a whole and evaluate ways to seeing and singling out particulars as well – then there’s this constant need in integral scientific thinking. Work at the Department under Starkov was not easy. I wasn’t lucky to do either a postgraduate study or doctoral studies. Both dissertations were written by me in parallel with the great volume of teaching work. At initial stages after several researches my scientific activity was aimed towards the scientific direction of the Department - hypothermia. I was instructed to research changes of heart activity in animal organism cooled down to low temperatures. Studying the changes dynamics of functions of the cooled heart inevitably led me to penetration into heart activity mechanisms and specifically heart regulations under normal temperature. From here, in particular, my works on neural heart regulation arose (influence analysis of strengthening and vagus nerves). For deviations from the "general" course the boss was often on my back. He demanded I withdraw the first volume from my 2-volume doctoral thesis, the one on neural regulation of heart activity at normal temperature, and I defended only the second volume, the "hypothermic" one. In the same years I also made observations that later became the foundation for the scientific direction I created later.
Studying the increase of brain resistance to temporary stagnation of circulation by hypothermia, my colleagues and I paid attention to the fact that after cardiac and respiratory arrest, dogs developed agonal intakes of breath. They were characterized by a wide excitatory irradiation what was evidenced by contractions not only of respiratory muscles, but also of the whole body. At each intake of breath, a single heart contraction occurred. There can be two reasons why heart contractions were following the respiratory rhythm in this situation: 1) the animal’s movements at the air intake caused mechanical irritation of the heart; 2) inducing factor for the heart contraction was a signal coming to the heart via vagus nerves (it is possible to come to this conclusion by observing a wide excitatory irradiation in the central nervous system as evidenced by the dog’s head and body muscles being involved in the respiratory act). In two observations both vagus nerves were cut, after that several respiratory movements occurred, but none were followed by heart contractions. These observations allowed to make a conclusion that in given conditions the heart contracted under influence of signals coming to the heart from the central nervous system via vagus nerves. Much later, having become the Head of the Department, I used this phenomenon as a foundation for searches on mechanisms of the heart rhythm formation in an organism.
Summary of results and formulated ideas were published in the study "Heart rhythm formation in organism of humans and animals" Krasnodar, 2007, and also in a series of journals.
*Location in the genealogical scheme.
**"Human Physiology", under the editorship of Pokrovskiy V.M., Korot'ko G.F. Moscow, Medizina, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002 (first edition); 2003, 2007 (second revised edition); 2011, 2013 (third revised edition).
1.Great-great-great-great-grandfathers 2. Great-great-great-grandfathers 3. Great-great-grandfathers 4. Great-grandfathers 5. Grandfathers 6. Parents 7. My generation
Bold print stands for families and names of my direct ancestors. Standard font - collateral lines.
Index fragments to the genealogical scheme *
A. Father's line.
1. Great-great-great-great-grandfathers.
1.1. Schekin Stepan Prokop'evich. Born approximately in 1780, of Cossack noble origin. In 1817 he and his family were added to the Noble Genealogical Book of Astrakhan province by the Astrakhan Noble Assembly. In 1795 he started service as a Cavalry Cossack. In 1817 he became captain of the Hoper Cossack regiment.
1.2. Stepanida Semionovna - Stepan Schekin's wife, Cossack daughter.
2. Great-great-great-grandfathers.
2.1. Popov Semen was born approximately in 1796. Descendant of subaltern-officers. He started his military service as a Cossak on May 11, 1811, headed a military element of 50 Cossacks as of February 8, 1812.
2.2. Schekin Ivan Stepanovich. Born in 1805 in stanitsa Moskovskaya of Stavropol okrug. Of noble origin. Started military service as a Cossack sergeant on June 1, 1816. Died in 1842 in the rank of a cornet.
2.3. Anna Kazmina - Ivan Stepanovich Schekin's wife, subaltern officer's daughter.
3. Great-great-grandfathers.
3.1. Pokrovskiy Andrey Mikhailovich - priest of Georgievskaya church, village Igumenovo of Novosil'sky uyezd of Tula province. Born approximately in 1812, deacon's son. He finished Tula Theological Seminary and became a priest in Georgievskaya church on June 4, 1836. Became a confessor in 1844.
3.2. Andrey Mikhailovich Pokrovskiy's wife - Alexandra Semenovna (no maiden name) was born in 1816.
3.3. Popov Anikey Semenovich. Born on November 6, 1816 - died on December 13, 1870. Descendant of subaltern officers of the Tersk Cossack Host in Stavropol province. In the Host, he went from Cossack (began to serve in the forces on December 1, 1831) to lieutenant colonel (was confirmed on December 15, 1869). By the Senate Decree of September 25, 1872 he was authorized in nobility.
3.4. Anikey Popov's wife - Anastasia Ivanovna (Nastas'ya) (nee Schekina) was born in 1823.
4. Great-grandfathers.
4.1. Mikhail Andreevich Pokrovskiy, deacon. Born on November 1, 1842 in the village Igumenovo of Novosil’skiy uyezd in a priest's family. At the age of 22, on March 28, 1868 he was consecrated deacon in the village Petrovskoye of Novosil'skiy uyezd. On March 27, 1886 he was transferred as deacon to Nikolaevskaya church of Novosil.
Mikhail Andreevich from 1893 to 1899 also worked as a teacher in the reading and writing school founded by him in the Petrovka perish village. From 1903 he was appointed head of Novosil'skiy candle plant.
4.3. Mikhail Andreevich Pokrovskiy's wife - Paraskeva Ivanovna (no maiden name). Born on October 28, 1850, daughter of a priest from Klekotka village of Epifanskiy uyezd.
4.4. Andrey Fedorovich Miguzov, first sergeant of the Tresk Cossack Host, born on June 1, 1830 and brought up in the parent's family. He began his military service as a Cossack on March 1, 1847 and took part in a number of campaigns and battles, was not wounded, received many awards. He was commander of the second Volgsky privileged regiment from May 15, 1886. Died on September 30, 1887. Buried in Mikhailo-Arkhangel'skaya church of Mar'inskaya village of Nal'chinskiy okrug.
4.5. Andrey Migusov's wife - Maria Anikeevna (nee Popova). Born on March 7, 1844.
5. Grandfathers.
5.1. Pokrovskiy Vladimir Mikhailovich. Born on July 12, 1868. In 1883 - 1889 he studied at Tula Theological Seminary. He studied at Moscow Theological Academy in Sergiev Posad from 1890 to 1894. After finishing the Academy he did not enter the church and was sent as a teacher of Religious and Civil History to the Alexandrovskaya theological seminary in Ardon settlement (North Ossetia). After the revolution he moved to Krasnodar. Died on September 1, 1937 in Krasnodar.
5.6. Nadezhda Andreevna Pokrovskaya (nee Miguzova) was born on August 12, 1870. She lost her father at the age of 17 and was brought up by her uncle. Married grandfather at the age of 27. Died on August 2, 1936.
6. Parents.
6.1. Father - Mikhail Vladimirovich Pokrovskiy. Born on August 25, 1897. He graduated from Krasnodar Pedagogical Institute in 1923. Worked as a teacher of History in Krasnodar schools ¹ 2 and ¹ 8. In 1934 he began to work at Krasnodar Pedagogical Institute as an assistant, and from 1941 he worked as Head of the History Department. As a student and a school teacher, he began investigations in archeology which he continued actively in high school. Based on results of his expeditions, he created an Archeological Museum that had over 15 thousand exhibits. Museum collections were lost in the Institute building burned by retreating German soldiers. Only a small part of exhibits was passed on before the War to the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and was kept safe there. After the War father began to study the history of Northwestern Caucasus, late 18th century to early 19th century. His doctoral thesis, several studies, articles, essays were a result of these investigations. Vladimir Mikhailovich Pokrovskiy died on June 22, 1959. After father's death many articles, memoirs, essays about him were written in collective stories, newspapers, books.
B. Mother's line.
2. Great-great-great-grandfathers.
2.4. Stefanov Vasily - "non-staff vicar" of Bychka suburb of Bogucharsky uyezd (now Bychok village in Vorob'evsky region of Voronezhskaya oblast).
3. Great-great-grandfathers.
3.7. Stefanov Iosif Vasil'evich graduated from Voronezhskaya Theological Seminary in 1837. He was a priest in Rozhdestvenskaya-Bogorodetskaya church in Boguchary.
3.8. Anastasia - Iosif Vasil'evich's wife (nee Uliseeva)
4. Great-grandfathers.
4.10. Fedotov Dmitriy Vasil'evich - priest of Krestovozdvizhenskaya church - Alexeevka village of Voronezhskaya oblast, Biryuchensky uyezd (now Belgorodskaya oblast). 1836-1919. Dmitriy Vasil'evich was an early widower; he had 4 sons and 4 daughters.
4.11. Anna - Dmitriy Vasil'evich Fedotov's wife.
4.12. Stefanov Afrikan Iosifovich. 1842(45)-1912. Dropped out of Voronezhskaya Theological Seminary in October 1862. Was a deacon in Bogucharsky uyezd of Voronezskaya oblast'.
4.15. Maria - Afrikan Iosifovich's wife, daughter of a priest (born in 1863). Nee also Stefanova. Died in childbirth together with the last daughter. Studied at Mariinskaya Gymnasium of Voronezh (1876-1880).
5. Grandfathers.
5.9. Yakov Afrikhanovich Stefanov was born in 1873 in Komboleevka (or Ol'khovatka) village. Graduated from Theological Seminary in Voronezh in 1896. Was a deacon in Urazovo village of Valuiskiy uyezd (1897-1900). From 1901 till 1907, a priest in Matreno-Gezevo village, also was head of the reading and writing school. For reading Stolipin’s manifesto he was deported with the family to Tolshi monastery near Voronezh. Then (in 1907) the family moved to Kozenki village of Valuikovskiy uyezd of Voronezhskaya oblast, where he was head of a church school. Died on February 19, 1941.
5.14. Ekaterina Dmitrievna Stefanova (nee Fedotova) was born on November 24, 1877. Died on May 31, 1977. Was 6 months away to celebrate a centenary.
6. Parents.
6.9. Mother - Lyudmila Yakovlevna Pokrovskaya (nee Stefanova). Born on September 8, 1898 (Urazovo village of Voronezhskaya province). Graduated from Voronezhskaya Mariinskaya Gymnasia. In 1923 she graduated from Krasnodar Pedagogic Institute. She worked as a teacher of Literature at Krasnodar school ¹36. She always worked with enthusiasm and wholeheartedly; had a number of awards. Died on January 24, 1987.
* The short data listed in the index concerns only my direct relatives, marked bold in the scheme, and in the text (in brackets) the numbers have the same indication as in the scheme. Original names were used for job positions and locations.
Materials used in the genealogical scheme:
A. Verbalized memories, letters, manuscripts.
1. My memories (7.1)*.
2. Minasenko Sergey Nikolaevich’s memories (7.2)* based on the story of his mother Illaria Vladimirovna (6.5) *.
3. Valerya Illarionovna Kurbatova's memories (7.10) *.
4. Letters of May 3, 1997 by Lena Kucheras (7.3)* based on memories of her mother - Vera Ivanovna Fedotova (6.16).
5. Notes about Dmitriy Vasil'evich Fedotov (4.10) *, written by Illarion Denisovich Kurbatov (6.15) *.
6. Verbalized data reported to my son Misha by Kaznacheeva Lidya Andreevna, museum enthusiast from Novosil city.
7. Information from Lyudmila Alexandrovna Kopylova.
B. Documents.
1. Vladikavkaz Archive archival statement - personal history copy of Pokrovskiy Vladimir Mikhailovich, Religious and Civil history teacher of Alexandrovskaya Missionary Theological Seminary in Ardon village.
2. Moscow Central Historical Archive, archival statement about Pokrovskiy Vladimir Mikhailovich, student of Moscow Theological Academy.
3. Archival statement of Russian State Military Historical Archive (RSMHA) ¹82 of 22.01.99.
4. Tula State Archive archival statement ¹868 of 16.06.99.
5. Stavropol Archive archival statement ¹356 of 25.02.99.
6. Stavropol Archive archival statement ¹61 of 09.06.2000.
7. Stavropol Archive archival statement ¹68 of 23.06.2000.
8. Kryazhenkov A.N. ALEXEEVKA. Historical chronicles of the city and annals of the region villages. Belgorod 1997. P.33, 51.
9. Statement based on materials of Voronezh State Archive issued by Akin'shin Alexander Nikolaevich, Candidate of Historical Sciences, docent.
10. Photocopy made in Russian State Historical Archive (RSHA).
11. Archival statement from Russian State Military Historical Archive (RSMHA) ¹1786 of 20.12.2000.
12. Photocopy of a personal file of priest of Kazanskaya Church in Kazinka village of Valuisky uyezd of 1911. Voronezhskaya oblast State Archive, fond 84, volume 1, personal file 1952.
13. Archival statement of RSMHA ¹823 of 30.05.2001.
14. Akin'shin e-mail of 07.05.2001 about Voronezhskiy Archive materials.
15. Archival statement of Stavropol Archive of 18.09.2001 ¹160 about Schekin Stepan Prokop'evich.
16. Archival statement of Stavropol Archive of 18. 09. 2001 ¹161.
17. Copy of the personal history about service of "Cossack Ivan Schekin" Russian State Historical Archive fond ¹1343, list 34, unit of storage ¹105.
18. Archival statement of State Archives of Chernigov Region ¹380 of 16.12.99 (250006 Chernigov Frunze 2, tel: 7-32-96).
19. Archival statement from State Archives of Astrakhan Region ¹748/01-17 of 17.11. 2003 (414040 Astrakhan, Akademika Koroleva St., 9, tel-fax 25-14-12)
20. Archival statement of RSMHA of military and historical archives ¹ 2070 of 11.12.2003
21. E-mail of a Tersk Cossack, Vladikavkaz.