Everything tagged: Russia

Peter M. Piankoff was born in Irkutsk, Siberia which he left with his wife Evodika Filipoona in 1907 to run a bakery in Harbin. After a brief spell in Vladivostok in 1914-1915 the couple returned to Harbin and left Russia for good. (See https://gwulo.com/node/45369) He seems to have come to Hong Kong in or around 1924.

In 1925 Mr. Piankoff was a baker ('fancy pastry and wonderful iced confections in almond paste and marzipan') at the Lane, Crawford bakery in Wanchai. He was not the baker in charge, but he had 'assistants' so enjoyed some seniority.

Michael Martin writes:

Leo Borisoff was a White Russian Policeman in HK and in Stanley Camp and he was friends with my grandfather and his cousin Vitaly 'Vic' Veriga.

The first mention I see for him is in the 1933 Jurors List, where he is working as a Steward at the H.K. & Shanghai Hotels, Ld. By the 1941 List, he's still with the same company but promoted to Maitre d'Hotel.

John Black's copy of the CWGC list of internees at Stanley has a typo in the surname: "V I Olafinsky". It gives his occupation in 1941 as "Ast Hotel Manager", and DoB as 1905.

The information comes from Nona's website, which has lots more information about her aunt Jenny.

Boris Milenko was born in central Russia during the Russian Revolution - the civil war which followed resulted in the Milenko family, along with many other White Russians who opposed the Red Russian communists, relocating to Harbin, Manchuria in 1920. Boris' father (Yuri Lukich Milenko) was a lawyer in St Petersburg prior to the Revolution, and continued to practice as a solicitor in Harbin from 1920 until the late 1940s.

Nikki Veriga asks:

does anyone have any information/knowledge about Alexander (Alex) Kriloff who, I believe, was involved with BAAG?  He was also known as Alex Kennedy. He was my uncle - brother-in- law of Vitaly (Vic) Veriga.

Georges Joseph Hofer was living in Shanghai with Swiss nationality at the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in the summer of 1937. Later that year he was evacuated with his wife and a number of fellow nationals to Hong Kong, where he claims to have worked as a masseur. 'Claims' is the operative word: Hofer was an elaborate and skilled fantasist (who might have been born eight years later than the 'official' date given).

Nona Pio-Ulski writes:

Anna Akimovna Nozadze was my grandmother, a White Russian who fled Russia with her husband and daughters during the Revolution and ended up in Shanghai.

After Hong Kong was liberated, my parents organised for her to come to Hong Kong togther with her daughter Evgeniya.

When I first started speaking I couldn't say Baba Anya, which is Russian for 'Grandmother Anya', and called her Balia, and this name stuck with her for the rest of her life.

Note from Dave Deptford:

G F Robinson, Sgt E 24  B 20,04 1908, enlisted 27.5.1930, employed with Anti-Piracy Contingent and regraded to Sub Inspector post war, awarded Colonial Police Long Service & Good Conduct Medal 1948, retired shortly thereafter. Regret I don't have his Russian name.