Blank family
Encyclopedia
The Blank family is a family of Jews
, some of whom converted to Orthodox Christianity
in the Russian Empire
, mostly notable as the immediate ancestry of the maternal grandfather of Vladimir Lenin
according to various published researchers who suggest that Lenin's maternal grandfather was a Jewish convert to Christianity
(Alexander Blank). Whether or not Lenin, whose matrilineal "Blank" surname also traces to non-Jewish German
roots, was actually partly descended from the Jewish Blank family remains contested.
-franchised tavern keeper from Shtetl
Starokonstantinovo
near Zhitomir (now Ukraine
). His tavern in Starokonastantinovo brought him around 10 silver roubles. He also rented a plot of land in Novohrad-Volynskyi
uyezd
there he grew chicory
. He sent his sons into a secular Russian school instead of a traditional religious Jewish cheder
which was unusual in those times.
Most of his life story is known through the documents related to his complicated feud with the local kahal
. In 1803, the kahal accused Moshe of stealing hay; in 1805, they accused him of selling cheaper ordinary vodka as a more expensive "fruit vodka" brand. The official courts cleared Moshe on both counts. In 1806, Moshe, in turn, accused the kahal of shielding local Jews from taxes and their children
from conscription into the Russian Army. In 1808, 22 local Jews accused Moshe Blank of arson
that destroyed or damaged many houses in Starokonastantinovo, including the Blanks' own house . Some researchers believe that the arson charges were true and that Blank indeed was a pyromaniac, while other consider the charges as a false report done as a revenge for his reports. In 1809, Novohrad-Volynian magistrate cleared Blank from the arson charges, but the family had to move to Zhitomir.
In August 1816, Blank wrote a letter to the Emperor Nicholas
complaining that he is persecuted by the kahal because of his fight for the true Judaism free from what he saw as superstitions and nationalistic excesses. The letter was intercepted by the local administration and was not delivered to the addressee. In November 1816, Moshe Blank sued his son, Abel Blank, alleging that his son had beaten and verbally abused him over a monetary dispute - Moshe promised to pay some dowry after Abel's marriage but changed his mind afterwards. Abel was arrested and threatened with an exile to Siberia
, but eventually after Blanks neighbors gave the best possible character assessment to the son and the worst possible to the father, Abel was cleared from the charges and Moshe fined for the false report.
On 10 July 1820, in Saint Petersburg
, two sons of Moshe: Abel and Srul were baptized in the Orthodox Christianity
. At the time in Russia, conversion of Jews was a rare and a high profile event. The godfathers of the sons were senator
Dmitry Baranov and the Actual Privy Counsellor Alexander Apraksin. Both of the sons were named after their godfathers and received patronymic
s after Dmitry Baranov. Thus Abel Moshevich became Dmitry Dmitrievich and Srul Moshevich became Alexander Dmitrievich. The same year, the brothers were admitted to the Saint Petersburg Academy of Medical Surgeons (Петербургская Медико-Хирургическая Академия).. According to the customs of the time, conversions to Christianity meant breaking of the family connections.
In 1825, Moshe Blank finally won his litigation with the Starokonstantinovo Jews; he received more than 15 thousand roubles distributed among the 22 plaintiffs as a compensation for his losses, while 11 of the plaintiffs were imprisoned for libel. The lucky turn of the litigation was probably influenced by the powerful godfathers of Moshe's sons
On 1 January 1845, at the age of 86, Moshe Blank also converted to Christianity. He was baptized Dmitry, probable matching the patronymics of his sons. He wrote letters to the Emperor Nicholas I (there are known letters of 7 June 1845 and 18 September 1846 acknowledging that he had broken with the Jews for 40 years but could only convert after the death of his "very religious wife". In his letters, he advocated to significantly tighten the limitation for the religious Jews: to forbid prayers for the coming of Moshiach, but instead require every Saturday to pray for the Tsar
and his family; to forbid Hasidic Judaism
and visits of Jewish houses by rabbis; to forbid non-Jews employed by the Jews to work on Saturdays and so on. According to Blank, the new requirements would greatly increase conversion of the Jews and would make Government payments of 30 roubles to each convert unnecessary.
There is no information on the last years of Moshe Blank.
n-Jewish medical doctor, son of Moshe (Dmitry) Blank.
After his conversion to Russian Orthodox Church
, in 1820, Dmitry was admitted to the Saint Petersburg Academy of Medical Surgeons which he graduated in 1824. Dmitry worked as a medical doctor and was murdered 26 June 1831 during the infamous Cholera Mutiny in Saint Petersburg
: the lynching
mob decided that the cholera
epidemic in the city was caused by the actions of the medical doctors and quarantine officials. Among the murdered, there was doctor Dmitry (Abel) Blank who was defenestrated
by the mob from his own office on the third floor of the Central Cholera Hospital.
Srul Moshevich Blank also spelled Israil Moiseevich Blank baptized Alexander Dmitrievich Blank (Александр Дмитриевич Бланк); (1804 - 17 July 1870) was a Russian medical doctor and a landowner, the younger son of Moshe Blank and a grandfather of Vladimir Lenin
.
According to the mainstream theory, Srul was born in Starokonstantinovo and converted to Orthodox Christianity together with his brother in Saint Petersburg in 1820. He was baptized Alexander, after his godfather Actual Privy Counsellor Alexander Ivanovich Apraksin, and got the patronymic Dmitrievich after his brother's godfather, Dmitry Baranov. 24 July 1824 Alexander enters the Saint Petersburg Academy of Medical Surgeons .
There also exists a less supported theory that there were two different and unrelated Alexander Dmitriyevich Blanks who studied at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Medical Surgeons at the same time. One was the converted Jew, the other an ethnic German. According to this theory, Lenin's grandfather was the second Alexander Blank, so Lenin did not have Jewish blood.
On 19 July 1824, Alexander Blank graduated from medical school with a diploma as surgeon-obstetrician. He worked in the town of Porechye Smolensk Governorate
. Soon, he returned to Saint Petersburg and worked as a police medical doctor, then in the Naval Department; in 1837, he started to work in Mariinsky Hospital. In 1842, he moved to Perm
, then Zlatoust
.
In 1847, he retired from the practice of medicine and bought the estate of Kokushkino or Yañasala (now Lenino-Kokushkino
) in Tatarstan
with 39 male serf
s, where he lived until his death in 1870. In 1887-1888, Vladimir Lenin was exiled to his grandfather's estate.
Alexander Blank was a doctor of the great Ukrainian
poet Taras Shevchenko
. In 1837, in Saint Petersburg, he reportedly saved Shevchenko (then a young pupil of artist Shiryayev) from a dangerous illness. Later, in 1850s, during his exile to Nizhny Novgorod
, Shevchenko was afflicted with an "indecent illness out of his romance with actress Pekunova" (most probably a sort of a sexually transmitted disease
). Shevchenko sent for the retired doctor Alexander Blank who was able to cure him.
Alexander Blank married twice. His first wife was Anna Groschopf (Анна Ивановна Гроссхопф). They had one son, Dmitry, who committed suicide at the age of 19 because of a gambling debt and five daughters: Anna, Lyubov, Yekaterina, Maria and Sofia. Each of the five daughters married a school teacher and left five to ten children. The fourth daughter, Maria married Ilya Ulyanov
and became mother of Vladimir Lenin
.
Anna Groschopf's ancestors came from Northern Germany and that branch of family produced many notable Germans that were discovered to be blood relatives of Vladimir Lenin. Among them are Nazi field marshal
Walter Model
, German archeologist Ernst Curtius
, President of Germany
Richard von Weizsäcker
and many others
In 1838, Anna Groschopf died and Alexander Blank married the widow of a government official of XII class, Yekaterina Ivanovna Essen (1842). The second marriage was childless.
All of those families had many children. Currently, there are known 130 descendants of Alexander Blank.
The most notable is the family of Maria Alexandrovna Blank who married Ilya Ulyanov
, parents of Vladimir Lenin
(born Vladimir Ulyanov), and other notable revolutionaries. Lenin's quarter-Jewish heritage tends to be spotlighted by authors who subscribe to the antisemitic Jewish Bolshevism
conspiracy theory
linking Zionism
and Communism
while many Soviet ideologists tried to omit or hide the likelihood of Jewish genealogical connections to Vladimir Lenin.
Victor Ardashev, a first cousin of Vladimir Lenin was a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party
from Verkhoturye
, Perm
Governorate
. After the dispersion of the Russian Constituent Assembly
, he published a critical proclamation and was murdered (under pretext of attempts to escape) by Yakov Yurovsky
in February 1918. Incidentally, the same Yurovsky was the chief executioner of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II
.
Alexander Ardashev, brother of Victor and another first cousin of Vladimir Lenin was also arrested by Cheka
but released after the request by Lenin.
Georgy Ardashev, a son of Alexander Ardashev and a first cousin once removed of Vladimir Lenin, was a Praporshchik
and a commander of a cavalry
squadron in Yekaterinburg
garrison
. In 1918, he refused to disperse an anti-Bolshevik soldier assembly and was executed by Cheka
the same night.
Nicholas Pervukhin, a grandson of Zalezhsky and another Lenin's first cousin once removed, was arrested by Cheka and allowed to emigrate to Canada after a letter from Dmitri Ulyanov
, a younger brother of Vladimir Lenin, who at that time stopped all the revolutionary activities and worked as a medical doctor. It appeared that Cheka mixed up Dmitri with Vladimir Lenin. He later worked for the United Nations
as a Russian interpreter and incidentally provided the synchronized translation during the famed Nikita Khrushchev
's shoe-banging incident
..
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
, some of whom converted to Orthodox Christianity
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
in the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, mostly notable as the immediate ancestry of the maternal grandfather of Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
according to various published researchers who suggest that Lenin's maternal grandfather was a Jewish convert to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
(Alexander Blank). Whether or not Lenin, whose matrilineal "Blank" surname also traces to non-Jewish German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
roots, was actually partly descended from the Jewish Blank family remains contested.
Moshe (Dmitry) Blank
Moshe Itzkovich Blank baptized as Dmitry Blank (c.a. 1758- after 1844) was a Jewish vodkaVodka
Vodka , is a distilled beverage. It is composed primarily of water and ethanol with traces of impurities and flavorings. Vodka is made by the distillation of fermented substances such as grains, potatoes, or sometimes fruits....
-franchised tavern keeper from Shtetl
Shtetl
A shtetl was typically a small town with a large Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe until The Holocaust. Shtetls were mainly found in the areas which constituted the 19th century Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire, the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Galicia and Romania...
Starokonstantinovo
Starokostiantyniv
Starokostiantyniv is a city in the Khmelnytskyi Oblast of western Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Starokostiantynivsky Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast...
near Zhitomir (now Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
). His tavern in Starokonastantinovo brought him around 10 silver roubles. He also rented a plot of land in Novohrad-Volynskyi
Novohrad-Volynskyi
Novohrad-Volynskyi is a city in the Zhytomyr Oblast of northern Ukraine...
uyezd
Uyezd
Uyezd or uezd was an administrative subdivision of Rus', Muscovy, Russian Empire, and the early Russian SFSR which was in use from the 13th century. Uyezds for most of the history in Russia were a secondary-level of administrative division...
there he grew chicory
Chicory
Common chicory, Cichorium intybus, is a somewhat woody, perennial herbaceous plant usually with bright blue flowers, rarely white or pink. Various varieties are cultivated for salad leaves, chicons , or for roots , which are baked, ground, and used as a coffee substitute and additive. It is also...
. He sent his sons into a secular Russian school instead of a traditional religious Jewish cheder
Cheder
A Cheder is a traditional elementary school teaching the basics of Judaism and the Hebrew language.-History:...
which was unusual in those times.
Most of his life story is known through the documents related to his complicated feud with the local kahal
Kehilla (modern)
The Kehilla is the local Jewish communal structure that was reinstated in the early twentieth century as a modern, secular, and religious sequel of the Qahal in Central and Eastern Europe, more particularly in Poland's Second Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukrainian People's Republic,...
. In 1803, the kahal accused Moshe of stealing hay; in 1805, they accused him of selling cheaper ordinary vodka as a more expensive "fruit vodka" brand. The official courts cleared Moshe on both counts. In 1806, Moshe, in turn, accused the kahal of shielding local Jews from taxes and their children
Cantonist
Cantonists were underage sons of Russian conscripts who from 1721 were educated in special "canton schools" for future military service .-Cantonist schools during the 18th and early 19th centuries:Cantonist...
from conscription into the Russian Army. In 1808, 22 local Jews accused Moshe Blank of arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
that destroyed or damaged many houses in Starokonastantinovo, including the Blanks' own house . Some researchers believe that the arson charges were true and that Blank indeed was a pyromaniac, while other consider the charges as a false report done as a revenge for his reports. In 1809, Novohrad-Volynian magistrate cleared Blank from the arson charges, but the family had to move to Zhitomir.
In August 1816, Blank wrote a letter to the Emperor Nicholas
Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...
complaining that he is persecuted by the kahal because of his fight for the true Judaism free from what he saw as superstitions and nationalistic excesses. The letter was intercepted by the local administration and was not delivered to the addressee. In November 1816, Moshe Blank sued his son, Abel Blank, alleging that his son had beaten and verbally abused him over a monetary dispute - Moshe promised to pay some dowry after Abel's marriage but changed his mind afterwards. Abel was arrested and threatened with an exile to Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, but eventually after Blanks neighbors gave the best possible character assessment to the son and the worst possible to the father, Abel was cleared from the charges and Moshe fined for the false report.
On 10 July 1820, in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, two sons of Moshe: Abel and Srul were baptized in the Orthodox Christianity
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
. At the time in Russia, conversion of Jews was a rare and a high profile event. The godfathers of the sons were senator
Governing Senate
The Governing Senate was a legislative, judicial, and executive body of Russian Monarchs, instituted by Peter the Great to replace the Boyar Duma and lasted until the very end of the Russian Empire. It was chaired by the Ober-Procurator...
Dmitry Baranov and the Actual Privy Counsellor Alexander Apraksin. Both of the sons were named after their godfathers and received patronymic
Patronymic
A patronym, or patronymic, is a component of a personal name based on the name of one's father, grandfather or an even earlier male ancestor. A component of a name based on the name of one's mother or a female ancestor is a matronymic. Each is a means of conveying lineage.In many areas patronyms...
s after Dmitry Baranov. Thus Abel Moshevich became Dmitry Dmitrievich and Srul Moshevich became Alexander Dmitrievich. The same year, the brothers were admitted to the Saint Petersburg Academy of Medical Surgeons (Петербургская Медико-Хирургическая Академия).. According to the customs of the time, conversions to Christianity meant breaking of the family connections.
In 1825, Moshe Blank finally won his litigation with the Starokonstantinovo Jews; he received more than 15 thousand roubles distributed among the 22 plaintiffs as a compensation for his losses, while 11 of the plaintiffs were imprisoned for libel. The lucky turn of the litigation was probably influenced by the powerful godfathers of Moshe's sons
On 1 January 1845, at the age of 86, Moshe Blank also converted to Christianity. He was baptized Dmitry, probable matching the patronymics of his sons. He wrote letters to the Emperor Nicholas I (there are known letters of 7 June 1845 and 18 September 1846 acknowledging that he had broken with the Jews for 40 years but could only convert after the death of his "very religious wife". In his letters, he advocated to significantly tighten the limitation for the religious Jews: to forbid prayers for the coming of Moshiach, but instead require every Saturday to pray for the Tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
and his family; to forbid Hasidic Judaism
Hasidic Judaism
Hasidic Judaism or Hasidism, from the Hebrew —Ḥasidut in Sephardi, Chasidus in Ashkenazi, meaning "piety" , is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that promotes spirituality and joy through the popularisation and internalisation of Jewish mysticism as the fundamental aspects of the Jewish faith...
and visits of Jewish houses by rabbis; to forbid non-Jews employed by the Jews to work on Saturdays and so on. According to Blank, the new requirements would greatly increase conversion of the Jews and would make Government payments of 30 roubles to each convert unnecessary.
There is no information on the last years of Moshe Blank.
Abel (Dmitry) Blank
Abel Moshevich Blank baptized as Dmitry Dmitrievich Blank after his godfather senator Dmitry Baranov (1794-26 June 1831) was a RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n-Jewish medical doctor, son of Moshe (Dmitry) Blank.
After his conversion to Russian Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
, in 1820, Dmitry was admitted to the Saint Petersburg Academy of Medical Surgeons which he graduated in 1824. Dmitry worked as a medical doctor and was murdered 26 June 1831 during the infamous Cholera Mutiny in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
: the lynching
Lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
mob decided that the cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
epidemic in the city was caused by the actions of the medical doctors and quarantine officials. Among the murdered, there was doctor Dmitry (Abel) Blank who was defenestrated
Defenestration
Defenestration is the act of throwing someone or something out of a window.The term "defenestration" was coined around the time of an incident in Prague Castle in the year 1618. The word comes from the Latin de- and fenestra...
by the mob from his own office on the third floor of the Central Cholera Hospital.
Srul (Alexander) Blank
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
.
According to the mainstream theory, Srul was born in Starokonstantinovo and converted to Orthodox Christianity together with his brother in Saint Petersburg in 1820. He was baptized Alexander, after his godfather Actual Privy Counsellor Alexander Ivanovich Apraksin, and got the patronymic Dmitrievich after his brother's godfather, Dmitry Baranov. 24 July 1824 Alexander enters the Saint Petersburg Academy of Medical Surgeons .
There also exists a less supported theory that there were two different and unrelated Alexander Dmitriyevich Blanks who studied at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Medical Surgeons at the same time. One was the converted Jew, the other an ethnic German. According to this theory, Lenin's grandfather was the second Alexander Blank, so Lenin did not have Jewish blood.
On 19 July 1824, Alexander Blank graduated from medical school with a diploma as surgeon-obstetrician. He worked in the town of Porechye Smolensk Governorate
Smolensk Governorate
Smolensk Governorate , or Government of Smolensk, was an administrative division of the Russian Empire, which existed, with interruptions, between 1708 and 1929....
. Soon, he returned to Saint Petersburg and worked as a police medical doctor, then in the Naval Department; in 1837, he started to work in Mariinsky Hospital. In 1842, he moved to Perm
Perm
Perm is a city and the administrative center of Perm Krai, Russia, located on the banks of the Kama River, in the European part of Russia near the Ural Mountains. From 1940 to 1957 it was named Molotov ....
, then Zlatoust
Zlatoust
Zlatoust is a city in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Ay River , west of Chelyabinsk. Population: 181,000 ; 161,000 ; 99,000 ; 48,000 ; 21,000 ....
.
In 1847, he retired from the practice of medicine and bought the estate of Kokushkino or Yañasala (now Lenino-Kokushkino
Lenino-Kokushkino
Lenino-Kokushkino , informally called Apaqay , is a village in Pestrechinsky District, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, located 10 km south of Pestretsy, district's administrative center. The village is situated on the Ushnya River of the Myosha basin. Population: 2,703 , 2,270 ; 63% are ethnic...
) in Tatarstan
Tatarstan
The Republic of Tatarstan is a federal subject of Russia located in the Volga Federal District. Its capital is the city of Kazan, which is one of Russia's largest and most prosperous cities. The republic borders with Kirov, Ulyanovsk, Samara, and Orenburg Oblasts, and with the Mari El, Udmurt,...
with 39 male serf
SERF
A spin exchange relaxation-free magnetometer is a type of magnetometer developed at Princeton University in the early 2000s. SERF magnetometers measure magnetic fields by using lasers to detect the interaction between alkali metal atoms in a vapor and the magnetic field.The name for the technique...
s, where he lived until his death in 1870. In 1887-1888, Vladimir Lenin was exiled to his grandfather's estate.
Alexander Blank was a doctor of the great Ukrainian
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
poet Taras Shevchenko
Taras Shevchenko
Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko -Life:Born into a serf family of Hryhoriy Ivanovych Shevchenko and Kateryna Yakymivna Shevchenko in the village of Moryntsi, of Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire Shevchenko was orphaned at the age of eleven...
. In 1837, in Saint Petersburg, he reportedly saved Shevchenko (then a young pupil of artist Shiryayev) from a dangerous illness. Later, in 1850s, during his exile to Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...
, Shevchenko was afflicted with an "indecent illness out of his romance with actress Pekunova" (most probably a sort of a sexually transmitted disease
Sexually transmitted disease
Sexually transmitted disease , also known as a sexually transmitted infection or venereal disease , is an illness that has a significant probability of transmission between humans by means of human sexual behavior, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex...
). Shevchenko sent for the retired doctor Alexander Blank who was able to cure him.
Alexander Blank married twice. His first wife was Anna Groschopf (Анна Ивановна Гроссхопф). They had one son, Dmitry, who committed suicide at the age of 19 because of a gambling debt and five daughters: Anna, Lyubov, Yekaterina, Maria and Sofia. Each of the five daughters married a school teacher and left five to ten children. The fourth daughter, Maria married Ilya Ulyanov
Ilya Ulyanov
Ilya Nikolayevich Ulyanov was a Russian public figure in the field of public education and a teacher...
and became mother of Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
.
Anna Groschopf's ancestors came from Northern Germany and that branch of family produced many notable Germans that were discovered to be blood relatives of Vladimir Lenin. Among them are Nazi field marshal
Field Marshal
Field Marshal is a military rank. Traditionally, it is the highest military rank in an army.-Etymology:The origin of the rank of field marshal dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the king's horses , from the time of the early Frankish kings.-Usage and hierarchical...
Walter Model
Walter Model
Otto Moritz Walter Model was a German general and later field marshal during World War II. He is noted for his defensive battles in the latter half of the war, mostly on the Eastern Front but also in the west, and for his close association with Adolf Hitler and Nazism...
, German archeologist Ernst Curtius
Ernst Curtius
You may be looking for Ernst Robert Curtius .Ernst Curtius was a German archaeologist and historian.-Biography:...
, President of Germany
President of Germany
The President of the Federal Republic of Germany is the country's head of state. His official title in German is Bundespräsident . Germany has a parliamentary system of government and so the position of President is largely ceremonial...
Richard von Weizsäcker
Richard von Weizsäcker
Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker , known as Richard von Weizsäcker, is a German politician . He served as Governing Mayor of West Berlin from 1981 to 1984, and as President of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1984 to 1994...
and many others
In 1838, Anna Groschopf died and Alexander Blank married the widow of a government official of XII class, Yekaterina Ivanovna Essen (1842). The second marriage was childless.
Later generations
The Blank daughters married becoming Veretennikova, Ulyanova, Zalezhsky, Lavrova, and Ardasheva.All of those families had many children. Currently, there are known 130 descendants of Alexander Blank.
The most notable is the family of Maria Alexandrovna Blank who married Ilya Ulyanov
Ilya Ulyanov
Ilya Nikolayevich Ulyanov was a Russian public figure in the field of public education and a teacher...
, parents of Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
(born Vladimir Ulyanov), and other notable revolutionaries. Lenin's quarter-Jewish heritage tends to be spotlighted by authors who subscribe to the antisemitic Jewish Bolshevism
Jewish Bolshevism
Jewish Bolshevism, Judeo-Bolshevism, and known as Żydokomuna in Poland, is an antisemitic stereotype based on the claim that Jews have been the driving force behind or are disproportionately involved in the modern Communist movement, or sometimes more specifically Russian Bolshevism.The expression...
conspiracy theory
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
linking Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
and Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
while many Soviet ideologists tried to omit or hide the likelihood of Jewish genealogical connections to Vladimir Lenin.
Victor Ardashev, a first cousin of Vladimir Lenin was a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party
Constitutional Democratic party
The Constitutional Democratic Party was a liberal political party in the Russian Empire. Party members were called Kadets, from the abbreviation K-D of the party name...
from Verkhoturye
Verkhoturye
Verkhoturye is a historic town and the administrative center of Verkhotursky District of Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located in the middle Ural Mountains on the left bank of the Tura River north of Yekaterinburg. Population: 7,815 Verkhoturye is a historic town and the administrative center of...
, Perm
Perm
Perm is a city and the administrative center of Perm Krai, Russia, located on the banks of the Kama River, in the European part of Russia near the Ural Mountains. From 1940 to 1957 it was named Molotov ....
Governorate
Governorate
A governorate is an administrative division of a country. It is headed by a governor. As English-speaking nations tend to call regions administered by governors either states, provinces, or colonies, the term governorate is often used in translation from non-English-speaking administrations.The...
. After the dispersion of the Russian Constituent Assembly
Russian Constituent Assembly
The All Russian Constituent Assembly was a constitutional body convened in Russia after the October Revolution of 1917. It is generally reckoned as the first democratically elected legislative body of any kind in Russian history. It met for 13 hours, from 4 p.m...
, he published a critical proclamation and was murdered (under pretext of attempts to escape) by Yakov Yurovsky
Yakov Yurovsky
Yakov Mikhaylovich Yurovsky was an Old Bolshevik best known as the chief executioner of Russia's last Tsar, Nicholas II and his family in 1918, during the Russian Civil War.- Early life :...
in February 1918. Incidentally, the same Yurovsky was the chief executioner of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
.
Alexander Ardashev, brother of Victor and another first cousin of Vladimir Lenin was also arrested by Cheka
Cheka
Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
but released after the request by Lenin.
Georgy Ardashev, a son of Alexander Ardashev and a first cousin once removed of Vladimir Lenin, was a Praporshchik
Praporshchik
Praporshchik is a rank in the Russian military.-Imperial Russia:Praporshchik was originally a name of a junior commissioned officer rank in the military of the Russian Empire equivalent to ensign...
and a commander of a cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
squadron in Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,350,136 , making it Russia's...
garrison
Garrison
Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....
. In 1918, he refused to disperse an anti-Bolshevik soldier assembly and was executed by Cheka
Cheka
Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
the same night.
Nicholas Pervukhin, a grandson of Zalezhsky and another Lenin's first cousin once removed, was arrested by Cheka and allowed to emigrate to Canada after a letter from Dmitri Ulyanov
Dmitri Ilyich Ulyanov
Dmitri Ilyich Ulyanov was a Russian physician and revolutionary, the younger brother of Aleksandr Ulyanov and Vladimir Lenin.As a medical student at Lomonosov Moscow State University, he became involved with revolutionary activity and joined the illegal Marxist Rabochevo soyuza. He was first...
, a younger brother of Vladimir Lenin, who at that time stopped all the revolutionary activities and worked as a medical doctor. It appeared that Cheka mixed up Dmitri with Vladimir Lenin. He later worked for the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
as a Russian interpreter and incidentally provided the synchronized translation during the famed Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
's shoe-banging incident
Shoe-banging incident
Nikita Khrushchev's shoe-banging incident allegedly occurred during the 902nd Plenary Meeting of the UN General Assembly held in New York on 12 October 1960, when the infuriated leader of the Soviet Union was said to have pounded his shoe on his delegate-desk in protest of a speech by Philippine...
..