“Local fashionistas, following the example of our women, began to cut their hair short” – Kommersant FM
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Kommersant FM columnist Pyotr Voronkov tells how his compatriots left a mark on the history of the city.
And again Istanbul today is an attempt to find its Russian features. Tens and even hundreds of thousands of refugees from Russia in the 20s of the last century flooded the ancient city. Vladimir Nabokov and Alexey Tolstoy, Leo Tolstoy’s niece, Ivan Bunin and Pavel Chelishchev, satirist Arkady Averchenko…
Alexander Vertinsky sang in the famous cabaret “Black Rose” (there, according to rumors, he dealt in drugs). On Sakiz Aghaji Street there was a popular restaurant “Russian Hearth”. Now it is no longer there, but in the window, as a tribute to memory, there are jars of Russian jam and mushrooms.
Even getting to present-day Istanbul was a great success then. For example, the ship Bunin was on was called “Sparta”; it wandered for a long time in waters literally stuffed with mines. The Albanian captain had terrible knowledge of the pilotage and was also extremely drunk. Upon arrival in Constantinople, the writer’s family miraculously escaped the icy shower for disinfection and spent the night outside the city in some damp and drafty ruins. The next morning it turned out that quite recently lepers had been living here.
However, let’s return to our excursion. Russian aristocrats opened the first joint beaches in the city (for men and women), a detective agency, photography and painting studios, pastry shops open around the clock, and the first ballet school. Vodka king Peter Smirnov operated his factory here for some time. And local fashionistas, following the example of Russian women, began to cut their hair short.
The “Flower Arcade” on the pedestrian Istiklal Street is an echo of the era when Russian girls sold flowers. 100 years ago, almost every building on this street had Russian establishments. Even the famous network of minibuses in the city of Dolmus was founded by soldiers of the armored brigade of Denikin’s army. And in the Orthodox cemetery (in the center of Istanbul) our princes, princesses and countesses lie. Rest in peace.
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