Fleeing from Saint Petersburg , livre ebook

Read Zone - Marian Hoefnagel

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

58 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

Fictional story with historical facts

Sujets

Refugee

Informations

Publié par	Read Zone
Date de parution	01 septembre 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781783228423
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0600€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Fleeing from Saint Petersburg
ReadZone Books Limited

© copyright in the text Marian Hoefnagel 2017
© copyright in this edition ReadZone Books 2017

Originally published in the Netherlands as Vlucht uit Sint-Petersburg
© 2017 Uitgeverij Eenvoudig Communiceren, Amsterdam

Translation by Isadora Goudsblom

The right of the Author to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted by the Author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Printed in Malta by Melita Press

Every attempt has been made by the Publisher to secure appropriate permissions for material reproduced in this book. If there has been any oversight we will be happy to rectify the situation in future editions or reprints. Written submissions should be made to the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data (CIP) is available for this title.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of ReadZone Books Limited.

ISBN 978-1-78322-843-0

Visit our website: www.readzonebooks.com
Marian Hoefnagel
Fleeing from Saint Petersburg

FOURTEEN
The Time of Your Life
Contents
Preface
A Russian Princess
Playing in the palace
Uniform
Away from the palace
A doctor and three sick children
On the run
Train
A different flag
Different times
Home?
The Coachman
To Moscow
A farmer and his dog
A difficult journey
Back together again
Home again
Plans
Saying goodbye to Count Sjerement
A year later
Water
Almost safe
The border
More problems
Irma and Clara
A new life
A kind invitation
A warm welcome
Old stories
A gift
A Russian treasure
Dedication
Glossary

Preface

This story begins and ends in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg. Saint Petersburg is an old city filled with palaces and theaters.
For centuries on end the tsars of Russia lived there. Lots of royals, such as princes and counts, lived there too.

At the beginning of World War I (1914–1918), Saint Petersburg was given a new name. The new name was Petrograd. Russia was at war with Germany, and Saint Petersburg sounded too German. Petrograd was a proper Russian name. So that sounded better.

Ten years later, in 1924, the city’s name changed again, this time to Leningrad.
The city was named after Lenin . He was the first real communist leader of Russia.
Lenin wanted the ‘ordinary’ people (such as workers and farmers) to be in control of Russia. He thought the tsar and all the royals should leave.

Lenin also thought he should be allowed to enjoy the great wealth of the royals. He moved into one of the tsar’s palaces.

Almost 70 years later, in 1991, the city was named Saint Petersburg again.
Lenin wasn’t so popular any more. And the people of Saint Petersburg wanted their city’s old name back.
Saint Petersburg, 2015

A Russian princess
An elderly lady stands in front of a beautiful palace in Saint Petersburg. She carefully lays her hand on the marble bannister of the staircase.
‘Mama,’ she mumbles in Russian.
Tears run down her cheeks.

A young man walks over to her.
‘Are you alright, madam?’ he asks.
The woman looks at him and laughs through her tears.
‘Oh, you speak Russian,’ she says. ‘I haven’t heard that language for a long time.’
‘Of course I speak Russian,’ the man says. ‘I am Russian. I live here in Saint Petersburg and I work in this museum. It used to be a palace.’

The old lady nods. ‘My mother used to live here,’ she says.
The young man looks surprised.
‘Your mother lived in this palace?’ he asks.
‘Yes,’ the woman says. ‘She lived here with my father and my brother and sisters. And with a lot of other family members. Until they had to flee. That was in 1917. Almost a hundred years ago.’
The young man looks even more shocked. ‘What was your mother’s name?’ he asks. ‘Olga,’ the lady replies. ‘Princess Olga Kalitsov.
I’m her youngest daughter: Irini.’

The man takes the older lady’s hand.
‘Miss Kalitsov,’ he says. ‘This is a very special moment for me. I’ve never met anyone from the Kalitsov family before.
I show people around this museum every day. I talk about the family that lived here. I talk about the expensive furniture, the valuable paintings and the beautiful clothes that belonged to the family. All the gold, all the jewellery they had. The Kalitsov family was rich, very rich.’
The elderly lady nods.
‘Yes,’ she says, ‘very rich and very big. But there’s nearly nothing left of that large family. Nor the wealth.’
‘I know,’ the man says. ‘It’s hard to believe. The
Kalitsovs were the oldest and most powerful family in Russia.’
The woman smiles. ‘No,’ she says. ‘Not the most powerful family. Not the richest either. That was the tsar’s family.’
‘Come,’ the man says to her. ‘I’ll show you around the museum. Your mother’s palace. The incredible wealth may be gone. But there’s still plenty of beauty left behind.’

Petrograd, 1916–1917
Almost 100 years earlier: Michail (age 12), Sonja (age 10) and Katja (age 6) Kalitsov
Playing in the palace
‘I’m going to marry Alex,’ Sonja says.
She takes a slurp of her soup and proudly looks at her brother and sister.
The three children eat with each other in the palace kitchen. Without their parents. So they can talk at the same time. If they eat with their parents they have to be quiet.

‘You’re marrying that weak boy?’ Michail asks. ‘The one who’s always sick?’
‘Alex is the tsar’s son, and he’ll be tsar when he’s older,’ Sonja says. ‘That will make me tsarina .’
Katja and Michail are quiet for a while. The tsar’s wife, that’s the most important woman in Russia. And the richest woman in Russia!

‘I see,’ Michail says. He walks over to Sonja and bows. ‘Oh, beautiful tsarina, do you perhaps have a diamond for me?’ he asks. ‘A very large one, if possible.’

Katja laughs so hard she chokes on her soup.
One of the maids hurries over to her immediately.
‘Careful, Miss Katja,’ she says. And she slaps Katja’s back.
‘Laugh if you like,’ Sonja says. ‘Ten years from now I’ll be the richest woman in Russia. Maybe even the whole world.’
She looks angry.
‘Did Alex ask you to marry him then?’ Katja asks curiously.
Sonja shakes her head and looks into the distance dreamily.
‘We were playing,’ she says. ‘Hide and seek. Alex and I hid in the tsar’s study, behind the curtains. We were there quite some time. No one could find us.’

Katja and Michail look at their sister with wide eyes. All three of them often play in the tsar’s palace. The tsar wanted his son Alex to make friends with other children. So he invites the children of important families to come and play.
‘The tsar’s study?’ Michail mumbles. ‘No one’s allowed in there!’
‘It was very exciting,’ Sonja says. ‘We heard the tsar come in. He called out: “Surely no one’s hiding in here? Because everyone knows I don’t want anyone in my room!”
And then Alex coughed. Of course the tsar heard it.’

‘What did you do then?’ Katja asks anxiously.
‘Weren’t you afraid?’ Michail asks.
‘I was a little afraid,’ Sonja nods. ‘But Alex grabbed my hand.’
‘And then?’ Katja asks.
‘We ran away screaming, hand in hand,’ Sonja says laughing. ‘The tsar followed us. He pretended to be angry. But we could tell from his voice that he was laughing.’
‘Did he catch you?,’ Michail asks.
Sonja nods and takes another slurp of soup.
‘Go on,’ Katja whines.
Sonja swallows her soup and says: ‘We had to go and sit down with him. And he said we were to never to do that again.
Then Alex said: “But I’m allowed to go into your room though, right? I’m your son!”
The tsar shook his head. “The tsar’s room belongs to the tsar only,” he said. “And not to the son of the tsar.”
And then Alex said: “So if I’m tsar, then I’ll be allowed?”
“Yes, and if you marry this beautiful Sonja, she’ll be allowed to go in there as well,” the tsar said. “But not before then.” It was a joke of course. But still.’
Sonja looks at her brother and sister.
‘I think the tsar wants Alex to marry me,’ she insists.

Michail and Katja don’t say anything else.
They don’t really believe it, but…
Imagine their sister becoming the real tsarina of Russia!

Uniform
Michail is in bed.
The curtains aren’t completely closed. A strip of light from the moon shines into his room.
Right onto his new uniform.
Michail got the uniform for his twelfth birthday.
It’s a real uniform, exactly like the one his father wears. But smaller.
Michail wants to wear the uniform every day.
But his mother won’t allow him to.
‘Your uniform is only for special days,’ she said.
Michail sighs and turns over.

‘Master Michail?