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12 March 1916 |
Irina’s birth at Barwienkowo–Kharkov’s Oblast (Ukraine)
The date follows the « Gregorian calendar ». Following the « Julian calendar » she is born on the 28th of February 1916.
Baptised Orthodox at St George’s church in the same town.
Daughter of Edward KALITOWICZ and Augusta POTEMKIN. |
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1917 |
Russian civil war |
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1922 |
According to a photo she is in Crimea. |
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1923 |
Evident disagreements between her parents in their correspondence. |
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26 August 1924 |
She is in Barwienkowo. Her mother asks for her birth certificate so that she can enrol her at Slaviansk school (Ukraine) but we believe that this was done to prepare to immigrate to Poland (birth certificate n° 36 was given in 1916). |
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1925 |
Arrives in Poland but only stays a few months. |
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1926 |
Arrives in France with her mother. Her father stays in Poland. She is ten years old.. |
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1926 to 1933 |
Studies in France (Paris - Vincennes at Ecole du Nord and Lycée Léopold Bellon). They live at 95, boulevard de la République. |
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27 October 1928 |
Her parents divorce. She is 12. |
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November 1928 |
Her father remarries with Kasimira Antczak JAWIDZYK
She goes to the « Zoo de Vincennes » and becomes friends with an elephant that recognises her after her return from the war. |
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8 May 1929 |
Birth of her half sister Stanislava Maria Kalitowicz (in Poland). |
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10 November 1929 |
She is temporarily enrolled at the château of Mosquéros in Salies de Béarn, a school for Russian emigrants. |
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1931/1932 |
She meets Elie Grekoff, a Russian immigrant, passing through Turkey and his mother Zoe Grekoff. She was close to them throughout her life. They live in Sartrouville. Zoe was like a second mother to her.. |
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17 June 1932 |
Birth of her half brother Mark Jury Kalitowicz(in Poland). |
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2 July 1932 |
Recieved her « Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures » in Paris |
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October 1934 |
Leaves for Poland with her father. She is 18.
Warmly received by and strong relationship with her mother in law.
Kazimiera Jawidzyk. |
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8 November 1934 |
Death of her father Edward. He has a heart attack only ten days after her arrival.. |
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December 1934 |
On holiday in Zakopane in the Tatras. She will return there often. |
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1st October 1936 |
Her mother moves to 5, Rue Mizon, Paris 15th. |
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1939 |
Takes up her studies again in Poland: Polish language. For her career she will speak Russian, Polish, French, German, Serb, Croatian, Czechoslovakian and some English.
She works as an hostess in an aviation company « Lot »
She flies for a hobby and is a good pilot (three stars). She receives 2 out of three for the high-test national qualification.
Polish Aero club south of Warsaw. She is 23 years old and war arrives …. |
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10 September 1939 |
German invasion of Poland.
Work and studies are put on standby. She works for the red cross making frequent interventions in this terrible war. As the aero clubs pilots are being hunted down by the Germans she leaves Warsaw. Lack of food and work force her to return. |
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10 September 1940 |
Augusta Potemkin, remarries with Constantin Chestakoff (a tarot card reader had already predicted this to Irina in Poland!) |
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14 June 1941 |
After a raid in Warsaw she is deported to Germany and carries out forced labour in a fruit and vegetable canning factory « Meinecke Werke » until August 1941 in Braunschweig.
She lived at Cellerstrasse 54.
Brought to justice for indiscipline, she had the opportunity (given by the prefecture and due to her linguistic competence) to be assigned to the passport department as an interpreter in Wattenstadt (15 km south of Braunschweig). She travelled from Braunschweig on special buses. |
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15 September 1941 |
Lived at “ Sonnenstrasse 6”
She moved to 20 Beckenwerkerstr, a privilege given to civil servants working in the passport and visa department.
She meets Abel Legros, who lives on the same estate in the homes reserved for foreign workers. |
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10 November 1941 |
Maries Abel Legros in Braunschweig. (personal documents concerning his civil status have not been found). |
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9 March 1942 |
She travels alone to Paris with false documents to spend 15 days with her family (she makes the documents herself which is evidently risky).
She was pregnant with her first baby (Marianne) but did not know it. |
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11 March 1942 |
A Czechoslovakian turns her in for falsifying travel documents. She is arrested by the Gestapo and French Police at her mother’s home, 5, rue Mizon Paris 15ème
Both are imprisoned. There is no information about Mr Chestakoff.
She is put in the “Prison de la Santé” in the German zone for two months.
No record of her stay has been found (records disappeared with the owners departure). |
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15 September 1942 |
Transferred to Germany by two members of the Gestapo and put in another cell. Motive for imprisonment “preventative detention”
Put in a prison cell for 7 months for resistance, in total 9 months imprisonment with a difficult pregnancy.. |
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24 November 1942 |
Marianne is born in Braunschweig; Gisella Gerke Scheibbe, a midwife, will remain her closest friend throughout her life.
Marianne is taken from her mother. Post natal complications and operations are followed by seven months hospitalisation. |
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1943 |
New employment. She works in Lutherwerke factory offices under Gestapo surveillance. She did not have the right to access the factory. |
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9 March 1943 |
Moves to Broitzemerstrasse 37 (Br. Luther Werke, Lager Carl Weiss). |
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10 May 1943 |
Lives at Blumenstrasse 11. |
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August 1943 |
With the help and complicity of friends Marianne is repatriated to Paris, rue Mizon. She is given to her grand mother. She is 9 months old. |
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2 September 1943 |
She lives at 19 Beckenwerkerstr, at Jorns, a privilege given to civil servants working at the « passport and visa » department.
Was it a calm period? No, there was work and constant bombardments. |
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19 September 1944 |
Georg is born (prematurely at 6 months and weighing 900 grams) in Braunschweig. He is born following a fall during a bombardment siren. |
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15 October 1944 |
Due to the destruction of the town, she is transferred to Greitz / Thuringe (Czechoslovakian border). This transfer was brought about by Gisella Gerke Scheibbe in order to help them arrive at a forest family estate.
Her lodgings were guaranteed from an unknown date until the 31st of March 1943 by the Ortskrankenkasse of Braunschweig. She was employed at the « Reichswerke Hermann Göring » |
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28 November 1944 |
She is still under Gestapo surveillance.
She is authorized to travel under the name « Irina Legros – Kalitowicz »
She stays at Gisella’s parents hunting estate. It was a tense time. They had to be careful. Gisella’s mother hid fugitive soldiers. Gisella’s father, once home from the war (Russian front) is also a problem. He had become crazy and was eating rotten meat that he found and hid to eat. This estate would be requisitioned to care for the wounded in the war. |
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4 December 1944 |
We have an authorization for travel from Greiz to Braunschweig for three days. She was still under the name Legros-Kalitowicz. |
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Easter 1945 |
Abel comes to visit them with special permission. This will be his last meeting with Irina Kalitowicz.
Abel Legros is declared missing (maybe killed during the bombing of Leipzig station the day before or after Easter day). We will later find, in 2004, that he lived for longer than we thought. They would never have lived together or been able to live together!
Greitz would be the meeting point between Soviets and American soldiers. Soldiers from both nations would be present on the estate. The castle would not be destroyed thanks to the alimentary aid given to American and Soviet troops. |
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27 May 1945 |
She returns to France after liberation by American troops (she will be classed as a Russian Refugee). Liberation will be assured by the Americans even if Greitz will be definitively occupied by the Soviets.
War is over. She lives with her mother: Paris 15th - rue Mizon. |
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2 July 1945 |
A document certifies that she lives with her mother with her two children. She still has the name (Legros - Kalitowicz).
She meets Alexandre Boltoukhine in the social services department of the salvation army.
A document stipulating her marriage with Abel Legros in Germany has not been found. As the Legros family rejects her, she starts a new life with Alexandre. |
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1945 |
She takes steps to marry Alexandre in Paris. The marriage is dissolved for legal reasons as in Alexandre Boltoukhine’s documents his divorce was not justified. |
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7 October 1945 |
Georg is baptised at the Orthodox church at rue Pétel, Paris 15th in the « Paroisse des trois Saints Docteurs ». |
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21 January 1946 |
She is employed as a bookkeeper for « Société d’Expansion de marques pharmaceutiques » (24 rue Augustin) in Paris until the 6th July 1946.
She lives at 13, rue Solférino in Boulogne Billancourt. |
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1946 |
Arrives in the Pyrenees to live (Aussurucq, Tardets then Berrogain-Laruns). They move for Georg’s health.
Vera Nochler welcomes us to Berrogain Laruns. |
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1st October 1946 |
Works at the Agueria retirement home which is also a catholic brother initiation centre on the hills in Mauleon. They live at « Maison Houroum » in Berrogain-Laruns. |
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21 February 1947 |
Birth of Nathalie Boltoukhine in Berrogain-Laruns. |
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10 November 1947 |
Moves to the village of Espes-Undurein to the windmill of Armagnague just near to Haïnharp. |
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8 June 1948 |
Birth of Inna Boltoukhine in Espes-Undurein. |
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21 April 1950 |
Birth of Renita Olga Boltoukhine in Berrgain-Laruns. |
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19 September 1950 |
Georg starts back at school and the whole family moves nearer to the school in Uturbu. Marianne boards in a school in Oloron.
Alexandre often takes his bike to pick her up or drop her off at school. |
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20 September 1950 |
Our home « Carricartia » is bought. |
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1st March 1950 |
We move into this run down house in the village of Espes. |
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10 April 1952 |
Birth of Kira in Espes-Undurein. |
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15 May 1954 |
Marriage between Irina and Alexandre is made possible and carried out in Espes-Undurein in the Pyrenees. After seven years wait their situation is sorted out and the children are legally recognised. |
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7 July 1954 |
Alexandre is put into the “Hospital St Andre in Bordeaux”.
It is a difficult time for Irina. She is alone with the children and her husband in hospital. |
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8 September 1957 |
Alexandre BOLTOUKHINE, her husband, dies in Bordeaux.
Guardians: Family council for guardian ship (Byrde, Nieprejetsky. |
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Summer 1958 |
She meets Constantin KLOBOUKOFF at the “Camp Russe OREL in Jouaublanc, Soustons. She has worked on this camp for many years in order to pay for our holidays by the sea. |
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26 August 1959 |
Auction sale of our house Carricartia the 21st of September 1959. |
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6 November 1959 |
She marries Constantin Kloboukoff, father of 4 , at the town hall (Paris 15th). French nationality is obtained for all the family. We leave the Pyrenees and become Parisians.
She looks after the house and 10 children in the 15th arrondissement of Paris( 61, Bd Vaugirard ) It is a flat with two rooms full of bunk beds. We move to Bourg la Reine on the southern outskirts of Paris. (34, avenue du panorama).
With the precious help of Nicolas Bataille, she works at the ticket office of the Cinema « La Rotonde » and the theatre “Théâtre de la Huchette”. |
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1st January 1963 |
Team member of Cimade until the 30th of April 1966. |
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6 November 1964 |
Constantin Kloboukoff and Irina separate but still share a flat – 34, avenue du Panorama in Bourg la Reine.
Moves to Fresnes: Résidence des Gémeaux - B1, rue Auguste d’Aix.
We come together to face new challenges: Georg returns from the army.
Sandra Boltoukhine is born on the 17th of May 1966.
Mum finds a new job in Gironde. |
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30 May 1966 |
She is in charge of reception at the Clinique Bagatelle in Bordeaux (Management staff during 14 months). |
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7 October 1967 |
Irene and Constantin Kloboukoff divorce after exhausting procedures. |
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1967 to March 1971 |
She takes up her activities again at the Cimade. She welcomes refugees from the East. She lives in Bobigny with Volodia Potemkin for a while and then at number 176, rue de Grenelle at the Cimade head office.
Carries some research work in Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Poland. |
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1st April 1971 |
New job. She moves again to Cannes where she is chief surveyor in a retirement home in Cannes « Fondation Tolstoï » with 200 boarders until the 5th of April 1976. |
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April - May 1976 |
Retires – moves to Espes-Undurein. She gets there in her little car. It is an expedition but also the end of paid work and the right to rest.
Lives in Undurein and starts her garden. |
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24 October 1979 |
She and her daughter Renita are baptised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by Georg. |
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Around 1980 |
Moves from Undurein cul de sac to the train station in Espes that is out of use when the train stopped running there.
Her car breaks down and with limited finances she cannot repair it. She also starts to be afraid to drive because of the car poor condition. |
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1986 |
She moves to Le Mans- family close and a lifestyle improved thanks to commodities available in town and less rustic heating. Wood heating had become very difficult.
Lives at number 30, rue du Pavé. Near to the centre of town. |
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She is a volunteer interpreter when Rostov upon Don and Le Mans are twinned. |
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31 July 1987 |
Holiday trip to Poland by car with Georg, Isabelle. We cross the iron curtain to visit the family who live in Warsaw. |
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18 June 1992 |
Death of her mother Augusta Potemkin in Rouen les Sapins. |
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15 June 1993 |
Leaves Le Mans – Returns to the south, toAnglet to be close to her daughter Renita who is diabetic.
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1st July 1993 |
She moves Clos St Jean Gochoa, 2, rue du professeur Gavel in Anglet.
Then she moves into the centre of Bayonne to have a less isolated life. |
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September 1994 |
Last trip to Poland with Kira and Salome. |
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5 November 1995 |
Informed of heart problems, put under observation and hospitalised at Clinique Paulmy in Bayonne. Diagnostic and preparation for surgery.
Writes her last will and testament in our favour. |
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13 November 1995 |
Hospitalised in hospital « Haut Lévêque - Bordeaux Pessac ». |
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16 November 1995 |
Dies during a heart operation (valves and by-passes).
Mum was 79 years, 8 months et 4 days old. Did we really take advantage of her? |
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21 November 1995 |
Tomb in Espes-Undurein, our chidhood village where she knew we would always return. She rests facing the mountains that were so dear to her and in this village where we were raised and where she would say with nostalgia that we will always return. |
