Imperial Russia Konstantine Solomonovich Tsikovani

[Chuck In Oregon]

Konstantine Solomonovich Tsikovani. We don't know much about him other than he was from Tbilisi, Georgia, where his family still lives. They wrote his name on the back of this photograph for me.

He served in the Tsar's army and he earned this St. George Cross. That's it, all we're ever going to know. And here he sits, obviously uncomfortabe (could it have been his first photo?) in a posed studio portrait, incongruously holding a bunch of flowers. Just him, his cross and his flowers. There's something touching about that. Oh, and that's his braid, too, in the attachment.

Chuck

[David Gregory]

Chuck,

Although we will probably never know much more about him than what you can tell us, he is at least "known" and being viewed by more people than he could ever have imagined so long after he passed away.

I sometimes wonder if anything we leave behind will ever be paid as much attention by collectors in the not-too-distant future.

With groups such as the one you show here, we seem to accumulate snapshots of history that were not significant enough to make the history books (expect perhaps for items attributed to historical figures).

Are there any archives or records that might reveal why he was awarded his St. George Cross?

David

[Guest Rick Research]

Is that a police uniform? Can you date the George from its number? No other medals at all... what period are we talking about for the photo-- pre 1900?

[Chuck In Oregon]

Chuck,

Although we will probably never know much more about him than what you can tell us, he is at least "known" and being viewed by more people than he could ever have imagined so long after he passed away.

I sometimes wonder if anything we leave behind will ever be paid as much attention by collectors in the not-too-distant future.

With groups such as the one you show here, we seem to accumulate snapshots of history that were not significant enough to make the history books (expect perhaps for items attributed to historical figures).

Are there any archives or records that might reveal why he was awarded his St. George Cross?

David

* * * * *

When I look at my collections, I sometimes wonder if someday someone will look at some forgotten picture of me in uniform and wonder about me. At least there is a strong possibility that my family will be able to, in the unlikely event that they might want to. Even these Georgian and Russian guys who didn't get killed in the war didn't have much of a future.

The grandfather of one of my closest friends was liquidated for being a former White officer. Later, his son was liquidated for "Harboring Anti-Soviet Thoughts". Then his brother, my friend's father, was kicked out of university and lost all his party affiliations for being the brother of a liquidated person.

Another good friend became a pretty notorious dissident after doing his time in the Red Army in the early '80s. He was beaten several times, then he was sentenced to 15 years in the gulags for "Expressing Anti-Soviet Sentiments". He only served about six months of really hard time before Reagan and Gorbachev signed the Glastnost Agreements. One of the terms of the agreements was to release some political prisoners. My friend was one.

<<Are there any archives or records that might reveal why he was awarded his St. George Cross?>> None that I have ever heard of, although I have often wondered the same thing. Maybe someone out there knows a definitive answer.

Chuck

[David Gregory]

My Great Uncle Walter served with the RFC during WW1 and as a police officer loaned by the British to what later became Iraq in the early 1920s. There he met my Great Aunt Olga who came from a White Russian family and had fled together with her sister from the revolution.

We only knew that the rest of her family had been killed and that she would never be able to return.

If ever surviving archives or records become available, I would like to try to find out more about her family roots. The chances seem very slight, but who 20 years ago could have imagined the exchange of information on obscure aspects of military history such as we enjoy here.

Provided the records have not perished, perhaps we will find some information one day.

[Guest Rick Research]

The Soviets kept EVERYTHING. Despite the Nazi invasion and devastation, amazingly there are archives available today that show awards of the Georges by serial number well back into the 19th century, at least-- I've seen posts and scans from previous websites -- just haven't seen the Russian person who's been in there here yet. I don't remember if the tsarist stuff is in Podolsk with the Soviet military records, or is someplace else.

I live in dread of the terrible day when an archive over there goes up in smoke and things horded for over a century end up as ashes.

That's why I'd recommend getting anything researchable researched NOW, before either the political winds change again (and only the young in their happy ignorance think that can never happen again-- or that we Old Ones will be able to predict HOW) or a cigarette butt makes an end to records kept for lifetimes.