Romanovsky Revisited. Tragic Scenes From A Wonderful Book.
Part of writing about history is that sometimes you have to write things that are painful - both for the writer and the reader. My main interest is - and always has been - the purely chess side of things. However, we also have to remember that chess players are, first and foremost, real people, and in commenting on a biography you have to include biographical material that has made an impression on you.
First things first - all the material here - other than my own words - is the property of Elk and Ruby Publishers, and, as such, subject to their copyrights. My humble thanks to them for being allowed to use their material. Thanks guys, and keep up the great work!
Way back when, I put together an article about Peter Arsenevich Romanovsky. You can find it here:- https://www.chess.com/blog/simaginfan/peter-arsenyevich-romanovsky It is still one of my favourites amongst my blogs.
Elk and Ruby recently published a wonderful book on him, by Sergei Tkachenko, who is fast making a reputation for himself as one of the very best. ( see a previous blog of mine for example https://www.chess.com/blog/simaginfan/alekhines-odessa-secrets-chess-war-and-revolution )
In that earlier article I briefly mentioned the death of his family during the Siege of Leningrad, so by way of giving an example of the biography in the book I will - with permission - give two relevant pages. They are pretty harrowing, and painful to read.
Page 130.
Romanovsky sent his next letter three months later, with a different sender’s address on the envelope: “21st March 1942. I’m currently in the railway hospital in Alexandrov, 120 km from Moscow. Because of my ill state, I was dropped off the evacuee train there. In Leningrad, a catastrophe befell my family. Agnessa Vasilyevna died on 6th January, Svetlana on 10th January, my sweetheart Anya on 14th January, Rogneda on 22nd January, and Kira on 26th January. I alone survived… Five dates will always drag my thoughts back to the snowy, snarling, uncaring Leningrad, to my five little corpses… My anguish is unbearable. Half an hour before her death, my Anya smiled and said, ‘Daddy, my dear, sweet daddy, we almost managed to fly south.’ Then she fell silent, and soon opened her eyes, shuddered and stiffened… After my last girl, Kirochka, died, I sat down to write my new, most difficult historical work.” In 1985, Shakhmaty v SSSR published an article titled “He was a Leningrader”. It was written by the master’s son Viktor Romanovsky, born in February 1945. The article was based on his father’s recollections and surviving siege notebooks – invaluable wartime evidence. Let’s quote this article, with minor cuts: “January 1942. Leningrad is besieged. Cold and hunger. Bombs and missiles exploding on the streets. They reach Krestovsky Island as well; the building where my father, Peter Arsenyevich Romanovsky, lives with his family is standing there. Just a short while earlier, his daughters would walk through the entire city, to the other bank of the Neva, to pick up soup and a piece of bread from the Sports Committee cafeteria. Now nobody goes anywhere – they are too weak. Nothing remains in the house except for books and notebooks, the coveted notebooks… There’s no firewood, all furniture has been burned. Their only food is potato peel broth, but it’s not enough… Romanovsky suffered a massive heart attack before the war, and the consequences are still felt. The tragic outcome is near… On 31st January 1942, he wrote on the first page of notebook number 15 in crisp letters: ‘In the space of 20 days, the harsh reality has killed my entire family. On 6th January 1942, Asya (56 years old) died, on 10th January – Svetlana (17 years old), on 14th January – Anya, my sweetheart! (6 years),
Page 131.
On 22nd January – Rogneda (15 years old), and on 26th January – Kira (18 years old). Why must I live on, why has fate spared me, and is it for long? The only way to live on for me is to work. And so, until death grabs me by the throat, I will work on my new book, Selected Games. They were selected in the context of historical processes… I mean the historical process of development of chess thought. To reflect it through annotating characteristic games of various stages of chess history – this is the approximate goal I set for myself.’ It’s cold. His hands are going numb. But there’s nothing to burn in the stove, and he has to conserve his strength for work. On the other hand, cold is a good thing – behind the glass door, on the veranda, lie the frozen bodies of his beloved… As though they are still alive. Peter Arsenyevich sometimes gets up from the table, goes to the glass door and looks at the clear faces of his daughters. He knows he’s also doomed. He’s dizzy from hunger… Still, he stubbornly breathes on his cold fingers and continues to write. He’s starting a new book. He must finish it in time!.. My father very rarely talked about that time. Such a pity that neither I nor anybody else wrote down his meager memories! I remember how shaken I was when I, a schoolboy at the time, heard the tale of six year-old Anya dying in our father’s arms. It’s still hard to keep calm while remembering our conversations – it’s probably always hard for a son to write about his father… Here’s the first entry in father’s diary at the time: ‘The dreadful flame of war has engulfed our Motherland. Thousands of the best sons of the Soviet country have already given their lives for the freedom of our Fatherland. In such conditions, it’s hard to think about chess, and I’ve been consciously avoiding it in my thoughts for two months. After a deep think, however, I came to the conclusion that the slogan “Everything for the Frontlines!” should further the development of all areas of the Soviet people’s activity, not hinder them. And so, gathering all my willpower, I return to my writing…’. This entry was written on 26th September 1941. The productivity and thoroughness of my father’s work was incredible in that period. In a month, he finished two articles and started working on a third. Here’s what we read on the last page of his second wartime notebook: ‘From the beginning to the end, it (his work) was carried out during the Great Liberating Patriotic War against the German invaders, against the Nazi animals of the evil Hitler.
Two relevant photographs from the family archives.
Such an image, with the knowledge of what was to follow, rips your heart out.
The publishers tell me that there is another from the time awaiting publication.
O.K. There is also plenty of chess in the book!! Having previously noted that above all Romanovsky valued chess as a form of creativity - an art form if you like -( There are many such quotes in the book) there is a lot of beautiful chess of his to be found. I only have time to give one - the notes to most of the games are as extensive as you will see here - so chose this next one.
Romanovsky endeavouring to create winning chances on the Black side of a quiet opening, with his notes revealing the human side of the struggle.
leningrad 1934.
A final word of thanks to the author, publishers annotators and translators - our own Alexei Zakharov (@Spektrowski) and Grigory Baranov. They have done wonderful work. Hopefully some who read this will support their efforts by buying the book. Anyone who does so will not be disappointed.
