21 December 1896

Alexander’s birth in Simbirsk , Province of Volga and Don in Russia.

This city is now renamed Oulianovsk. It is located on the riverbanks of the Volga and is a well known family holiday resort.

Son of Andre Boltoukhine and Anastasia Andrianova Domkine.

Usual nickname for Alexander is « Choura ».

His father Andre was a manager at « Kavkaz & Merkouria » (Waterway transport).

Alexander studied in the town of Samara.

16 July 1918

The star is murdered, Alexander is 22 years old.

Alexander left school with the grade of cadet and is nominated to the grade of captain during the Russian revolution in the Cossack Regiment of “Drozdovstis” meaning “Blackbird”.

He was one of the youngest officers as he took part to the well known walk from Iassy to the Don. He belonged to the 2^nd squadron of cavalry.

His regiment distinguished itself as it joined the regular army lead by General Denikine.  (1)

26 May 1924

Alexander marries Jordana KREMENLIEV (Daughter of Anguel Kremenliev and Elena Pashkulev) in the town of Razlog (Mohamites) in Bulgaria. He is 27 and she is 18.  (2).

He is musician and works in Méhomia.

October 1926

Recruited in Bulgaria, he emigrates to France where he is identified as « Russian Refugee ». Residence permit N°47AF20969.

30 officers - members of a military band – arrived with him in Ugine, Savoie, France.

11 October 1926

He works as a maintenance worker and is later on employed by the steel works in Ugine where he lives.

21 July 1927

He leaves this job to meet up with his wife in Faverges and because his salary was insufficient – remarks in the company’s register. But soon afterwards he seems to be in Lyon.

Lyon – Villeurbanne, at 33 rue Edouard Vaillant.

In Lyon and certainly in Ugine too, he used to sing in the choir of the Orthodox Church.

20 April 1939

Birth of Andre Boltoukhine, Alexander’s son: Birth of a boy we have never got to know personally. According to family traditions, the first born son was to be named Andre or Alexander depending on his father’s first name. As his father was called Alexander, the son was called Andre Boltoukhine.

7 May 1939

Baptism of Andre Boltoukhine in St Nicolas, Orthodox Church in Lyon.

The godfather is the noble Constantin Contantinovitch Ivanoff Trinadzaty, and the godmother is the daughter of a Kuban Cossack officer Zinaïda Valentinovna Romantsova.

Alexander’s wife leaves him and takes with her their first son Andre to Bulgaria.

Separated or divorced?

1942

Alexander is made prisoner during the 1939/1945 world war while he is at work. (During a delivery with a company’s lorry).

He lived in Paris. At the beginning of 1942 he lived at 77, rue du Château des Rentiers in the 13th district of the capital city..

28 February 1942

He is enlisted as S.T.O. (Compulsary Work) in Germany.

He signs a contract of employment with the company IG Farben AG in Ludwigshafen, document drawn up in the barracks “Pépinière”. The contract is signed for at least one year of employment.

8 September 1942

He signs another contract with the company NW 40 – Kronpinzennfer 11 in Berlin.

1^st October 1945

Repatriated to France by train, signed in in Givet (Ardennes) as coming from Düsseldorf.

End 1945 – 1946

After the war he lives in Paris at 28, rue Henrion de Pansey (remark on his passport / His flat is close to the Salvation Army’s estate).

Nansen Passport N°CS 39669 – Additional internal information N° 01784

Exit visa N° 36510.

Alexander meets Irina Kalitowicz. The introduction is organised by « Grand mother adjudant », Mrs Petrojitsky, a family’s friend who was an active leader for the Salvation Army (our researches at the Salvation Army have remained unanswered).

At this time, after the liberation, Irina Kalitowicz lived in Boulogne Billancourt.

He and Irina Kalitowicz took the first steps to get married in Paris but as it turned out, it was impossible to proceed with the marriage as there was no clear evidence of a real separation or divorce with Alexander’s first wife. They will have to wait 7 years before their union can be celebrated (decree in the French government publication concerning exceptional clauses in post-war period).

Alexander immediately requested that Marianne and Georg be considered as his own children.

Estimation 1946

Because of Georg’s health problems they moved to the Pyrenees.

21 February 1947

Birth of Alexander’s and Irina’s daughter Nathalie in Berrogain Laruns.

1^st July 1947

Alexander works for Bomba Norby in Mauleon and leaves that job on 27 April 1949.

1^st November 1947

The family move to Espes Undurein.

8 June 1948

Birth of their second daughter Inna in Espès Undurein.

27 April 1949

He works for Wood-Line in Mauleon, at 61 avenue de Trois Villes, until the 30 June 1952. He is declared as permanent worker.

His work permit in 1949 in the Atlantic Pyrenees states:

Serial G N° 314 537. Russian refugee in France.

21 April 1950

Birth of their third daughter Renita – Olga in Berrogain Laruns.

7 January 1952

The family’s future house has become available. We go to visit it.

10 April 1952

Birth of their last child, their daughter Kira born at Carricar in our village Espes Undurein.

1^st July 1952

Until November 1952 there is no report on Alexander’s activity. It is very likely that this period corresponds to his accident: he crushed his fingers between rubber cylinders at Paritsky in Mauleon.

24 November 1952

He resumes his work for the same company. He will leave that company on the 30^th of July 1954.

Injured lungs as a consequence of the war (Civil war in Russia in 1917/1920). He suffers from constant breathing problems due to the injury.

He worked very hard at the restoration of our home Carricartsia in Espes-Undurein.

Alexander built several outbuildings and restored the house: floor board, roofing, dividing walls, he dug a well and planted fruit trees, he levelled the ground to extend the courtyard, he built a pergola, he made furniture, he maintained the garden and he had a passion: his own motorbike which rarely worked.

The premarital medical check showed problems with his lungs. Complications followed soon afterwards…. asthma and finally lung cancer. Slow evolution until the cancer took over and killed him.

15 May 1954

Alexander’s and Irina’s wedding after years of administrative procedures.

7 July 1954

Alexander is hospitalised in Mauleon, then in Bordeaux at the hospital Saint Andre.

10 July 1954

Declared unfit due to long term illness.

13 September 1956

Alexander’s last stay at the hospital Saint Andre in Bordeaux.

8 September 1957

He dies in Bordeaux after 3 years of care (Asthma and Emphysema).

11 September 1957

He is buried in Bordeaux, a town which seemed so far away from us at that time (Northern Cemetery).

Series 0 – 18th division – row 26 – 6^th grave.

He could not be buried in our village as this was refused by the village priest, Alexander being orthodox and a stranger.

18 September 1962

His coffin was removed and transferred to a common grave. Series H N°602.

1) The formation of voluntary troops against the « Bolsheviks » in 1917 and 1918 was not the prerogative of the Don territory. So, several groups of voluntaries started gathering at the end of 1917 on the Rumanian front, in the town of Lassy. One of these groups, the second division comprised of 1063 men (667 officers, 370 soldiers, 14 doctors and priests, 12 nurses) under the commandment of staff Colonel Mickaïl Gordieyevitch Drozdovski managed to leave Rumania on the 26^th of February 1918 and travelled over 1200 kilometres, fighting several battles in order to rejoin the voluntary army of General Kornilov on the Don Voïsko. On the way, more volunteers joined the “Blackbird” group. (This nickname came from their commandant’s name Drozdovski which means blackbird in Russian). After breaking through the Don front and fighting on the 25^th of April 1918 in front of Novotcherkassk, Drozdovski and his group placed themselves under General Denikine’s commandment who was coming back from the first campaign in Kuban – Ice campaign. Drozdovski’s group is integrated to the volunteers army as the 3^rd and 4^th Blackbird Divisions.

2) Jordana’s brother, Boris Kremenliev emigrated to the United States of America where he became a worldwide renowned ethnomusicologist. We have been looking for information on this family and established the first contact with them in September 2008.