There are two main surnames in my Russian family. One is Lebedeff. I know more about that name because it’s a common name and they were an established priests’ family in Saratov vicinity long before my Great Grandfather left for China. Also, due to past, and modern day diligence (not mine) there’s a great deal of genealogical information available. Yeah!
It’s not the case for the other family name – possibly Shlev, Shelev, Shelov, Shchelov & or other variations including those with F or FF instead of V.
Everything about this name seems still a mystery to me. I know my Great Grandmother Katherine Borisovna Shelev was born in Pyatigorsk, Stavropol Krai in the Caucasus. However I don’t know much else. Where did this name come from? How and when did her family come to be in the Caucasus? The trail is cold from the very few clues that I have. And so far my lowest price DNA test doesn’t connect me to the Caucasus but more to Eastern Europe and Western Russia.
Occasionally I go through the trouble of trying to find more on this family name. It’s complicated to do this because I don’t speak or read Russian. But below is what I found today. It was translated through Google so it does not make perfect sense.
https://www.nkj.ru/archive/articles/4894/
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SHCHEL – WELFARE, INACCURATE
To you the teacher-logopedist Antonova Anna Valentinovna addresses. My 85-year-old grandfather comes from Balashikha (a part of Moscow). He has a very rare surname. His name is Shchelov, Mikhail Timofeevich. To my great regret, he is the last in our family, who wears such a name, never seen me anywhere else. I would like to know if this name (Shchelov) is the only one in our country and what does it mean (where could it come from)?
A. Antonova (Pavlovo, Nizhny Novgorod region).
Your grandfather’s surname is rare, but not the only one. Attention is drawn to the fact that in the past in the writing of many words the letters w and u did not differ and were mutually replaced. They wrote: Shelka and slit, husks and cracks. The same in the surnames: Shelin and Schelin , Shelev and Shelev , Shelkunov and Schelkunov, Shelov and Shchelov. It is especially difficult to explain the latter.
In different dialects of the Russian language there are words like clicking – to tear, mock, click – scoffer, to scoff, to crack – to hobble, to crack – to joke, to talk, to crack – a rake. They all have a common initial part schel- possibly historically connected with the foundation of shal- (Mad, naughty). Let’s pay attention to the double writing in the past of such words as slut / shelava – vagrant, shalapai / shelopai, shalega / shelega – fat, lard, shalaput / sheloput, prank / shelk – to lash.
Based on the above examples, it can be assumed that in antiquity there was a word shal / go / click , associated with the designation of sharp movements, self-will, disobedience, which came in as the basis in the name Shalov / Shelov / Shchelov. This is an example of a word that has been preserved in the names of its own and not preserved in common nouns.
Подробнее см.: https://www.nkj.ru/archive/articles/4894/ (Наука и жизнь, ORIGIN OF NAMES AND SURNALIES, 2002, №10)
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Of course it’s not an origin story like I would like. Also it gives me no way to respond to the post about someone who we could be related to.
But it does give me something besides the translation of ‘slit or slot’ for shelev as I usually find. It gives me that the foundation of shal may be mad and or naughty! Wow!
The only other information I have on this surname would be in relation to where she came from and her Godfather. I shared in this trail of posts here about Katherine’s Godfather. This is still a trail to follow but I can’t do it without time or money. http://forum.alexanderpalace.org/index.php?topic=14694.0 (See below for even more information)
I hope someday to find something more about Katherine and the young soldier Leo below who may or may not be her brother. Unfortunately, he was killed in Vladivostok.
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Katherine Borisovna Shelev
And maybe Leo Borisovich Shchelov?
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Below are links to photos of her Godfather I posted on Alexander Forum looking for more information about that I believe was taken from there and misidentified. The man in the picture is Katherine’s godfather. He is likely connected to Katherine’s family perhaps her father or mother in some way. (Details here: http://forum.alexanderpalace.org/index.php?topic=14694.0 (See below for even more information)
After taking the photo, the family created a plaque to the man they believe the picture represents and put it on a building. These are the google translated texts from the newsarticles.
http://vetstav.ru/press-tsentr/novosti/ob-ustanovke-memorialnoy-doski-slavnomu-urozhentsu-g-novoaleksandrovska-general-mayoru-ile-tolmachev/?sphrase_id=1478
Ilya Timofeevich Tolmachev from June 1910 to May 1914 commanded the 1st Sunzhensky-Vladikavkaz General Sleptsov regiment of the Terek Cossack army in the rank of colonel. His regiment of seven hundred sabers, standing in friendly Persia (Iran), was a reliable guarantor of the security of Russia’s southern borders from the Ottoman Turkey.
In May 1914, Ilya Tolmachev was awarded the rank of Major-General. It was in all respects an outstanding man. About the revolution that can happen in Russia, he thought a lot and understood that he would not change his oath. Therefore, after he was fired from his TKV by length of service, he emigrated with his family abroad. And to this day in Novoaleksandrovsk this man remains the only Cossack who has served his time up to the rank of general.
This year, the leadership of the city of Novoaleksandrovsk and Novoaleksandrovsky district decided to perpetuate the memory of the famous ancestor by erecting a memorial plaque on the former home of a general who served the Fatherland faithfully, decorated with the orders of St. Vladimir and St. Anna.
Last Friday in Novoaleksandrovsk, many were remembered not only by the frosty piercing wind, but also by the event that left its mark on one of the oldest buildings in the city center.
On the street Karl Marx, next to the veterinary pharmacy, a memorial plaque appeared in the wall of a one and a half story house in honor of his long-time inhabitant – Cossack Major General Ilya Tolmachev.
This place a few weeks before the Heroes of the Fatherland Day, which is celebrated on December 9, was transformed thanks to the initiative of the descendant of the glorious family – Yuri Tolmachev, the head of the administration of the city of Novoaleksandrovsk Igor Kartishko, the chief veterinarian Alexei Mikhailovich Simachev, who restored the historic building.
The rally, which brought together the Cossacks of the Nizhny-Kuban Cossack Society, veterans of war and labor, deputies, schoolchildren, residents of nearby streets and remote farms was opened by the head of the NRM administration Sergei Fyodorovich Salagaev. He noted the exceptional role of the Cossacks in the history of Russia, its military honor and valor.
The head of the administration of Novoaleksandrovsk, Igor Vladimirovich Kartishko, in his speech stressed that we all come from those glorious times, and we bring a well-deserved tribute to the memory of our ancestors. Last year, a solemn opening of the memorial wall was held for the founding fathers of the village, today the name of Ilya Tolmachev, a native of the stanitsa, the only Cossack general, returned from non-existence.
Yuriy Ivanovich Tolmachev thanked the leaders of the city and the district for their assistance in perpetuating the memory of his great-grandfather and expressed the hope that, someday, the streets of the former Cossack village will regain their original names.
After the canopy was removed from the memorable plate, the ataman of the Nizhny-Kuban Cossack society Sergei Zdvizhkov congratulated fellow countrymen on the landmark event and assured that after the publication of the great historical work “Encyclopedia of Novoaleksandrovsky Cossacks” – residents of the district learn a lot about the heroes, life whole generations of village residents until 1920 …
Today in the home of Major General Ilya Tolmachyov is the state budgetary institution of the Stavropol Territory “Novoaleksandrovsky district station for the control of animal diseases”
http://www.stapravda.ru/20161014/kazachiy_rod_tolmachevykh_iz_novoaleksandrovska__istoriya_semi_m_97235.html
A native of the Cossack family Yury Tolmachev currently lives in Stavropol, but in Novoaleksandrovsk, the former village of Novoaleksandrovskaya, happens often. Another reason to come to my native land is the opening of the memorial plaque in honor of the Cossack Major-General Ilya Timofeevich Tolmachev, one of the sons of his great-grandfather, who was the first ataman of the village of Novoaleksandrovskaya, Timofei Doromenevich Tolmachev.
Чтобы восстановить историю потомственного древа Толмачевых, Юрий Иванович, ныне подполковник в отставке, три года изучал архивные документы, которые запрашивал из Краснодара, Ставрополя, Армавира, в том числе из закрытых архивов ФСБ и МВД. Накопился достаточно большой том разного рода исторических документов, из которых можно много почерпнуть не только о семье Толмачевых, но и об истории станицы Новоалександровской.
The fate of the grandfather Yuri Ivanovich, Timofey Tolmachev, in something similar to the fate of the literary hero Mikhail Sholokhov – Grigory Melekhov. In 1900, from the village of Novoaleksandrovskaya, he was drafted rank-and-file in the Livland Cossack regiment. On the eve of his departure for service, he was married to 20-year-old Elizaveta Dolzhenko. I used to go home very rarely. Service. But every time after the holiday from the troops to his native penates, his wife gave birth to a baby. In 1914, having already been promoted to the rank of sergeant-major, Timofei Tolmachev got on the Western Front of the First World War.
A well-adjusted life turned over when in 1917 a revolution took place in St. Petersburg and the Bolsheviks seized power. The Kuban army was dissolved, and Timothy remained out of work. From the front, he returned to his native village. The Bolsheviks who seized power at first did not belong to the Cossacks. They were remembered in 1919 – on January 24, the secret secret directive of the Orgburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (B) “ On the attitude towards the Cossacks” came out , which initiated the Red Terror, which, according to some sources, destroyed more than two million Cossacks.
In 1920, General Denikin’s troops left the village in connection with the successful offensive of the Red Army. The last ataman of the village I. Valyukhov, along with 18 wealthy Cossacks, left Novoaleksandrovskaya together with the White Guards.
Timofey Tolmachev was respected in the village for fairness, and it is not accidental, as it was said, in archival documents, in February 1920, “ elected general commission of the indigenous and non-indigenous population of his village as commissar of the government.” New power – new names. The population of this fact was perceived as the appearance of a new ataman.
However, a month later, reforms began. On instructions from above, revolutionary committees were set up at the peak of the Cossack administration. In Novoaleksandrovskaya, the Revolutionary Committee headed a trusted comrade, the laborer Vzdyhalkin, and Tolmachev was left pre-revolutionary, given his knowledge of local specifics. In October, the Cossack was killed – meanly, from an ambush. They knocked on the window of the hut, they said that the government was burning, it was necessary to extinguish … It turned out that they just called for reprisals. It did not turn out for Timofey Tolmachev, serving the new power, to protect the Cossacks from the Red Terror. “ It’s still not clear who killed my grandfather,” Yury Tolmachev said. – “Clients could be both conflicting parties. The reason for its elimination could be a complete confiscation of property, livestock and the housekeeping, conducted by the Revolutionary Committee on the orders of the commander of the 10th Red Army, in which he could not but participate in the post. The fact is that, despite the announced amnesty (if they return back to the village), the Cossacks who left Denikin under the leadership of I. Valyukhov appeared only in 1928-1929. Where they were all this time, it is unclear. It is known, however, that the leader, the last ataman of Novoaleksandrovskaya I. Valyukhov, was captured by the Cheka and shot for organizing an armed rebellion against violent collectivization. And the fate of his comrades was no better.
They could organize the murder of his grandfather, according to the researcher, and the Reds. It is no accident, working in the position of comrade (deputy) of the pre-revolutionary, Timofey never waited for his confirmation in office, remained acting. With the chief with the eloquent surname Vzdyhalkin, Timofei had fundamental differences about the cruel measures applied to the families of escaped Cossacks. All the same, only the elderly, women and children remained on the farm.
The shooting around the corner was not investigated by anyone. Although, it would seem, the Revolutionary Committee should have stood up for his comrade. According to the memorials of the campers, Timofey Tolmachev was a respected man. The widow of Elizabeth survived her husband for 37 years and died in March 1957. At one time, she gave birth to 13 children, but most of them died in infancy, only two survived. This is the father of Yury Ivanovich Ivan and his sister Anna.
Ivan, a private soldier of the Red Army, when the Great Patriotic War began, was surrounded by Vyazma, but managed to escape from the trap and left for the partisans in Belarus. Nobody knew what to think. The family remained in ignorance for a long time – there was no connection. And later, when our troops moved farther to the west, a long-awaited letter came from his father: he was left to restore the destroyed Byelorussia. Everything went well, but I wanted to go home most of all, and in 1947 Ivan returned to the Stavropol region.
In Stavropol, he worked at a machine-repair factory as a fitter at first, and then rose to a deputy director, without having higher education. Technician, despite the lack of special education, he was excellent.
And his son Yuri Ivanovich went on a family path – he became a military man. Today is a lieutenant colonel, already retired. He does not sit idly by. Engaged in the history of the native village, the genealogy of the Tolmachev family, one of the iconic families for today’s Novoaleksandrovsk. It is the same that the fate of a single family reflects, as in a mirror, the uneasy story of a small homeland and the entire Cossacks.
At the house where Ilya Timofeevich’s family, the son of the first ataman of the village, used to live, after the restoration of the building a memorial plaque with his name will be placed. From June 1910 to May 1914 he commanded the 1st Sunzhensky-Vladikavkaz General Sleptsov regiment of the Terek Cossack army in the rank of colonel. In May 1914 he was promoted to the rank of Major-General. It was in all respects an outstanding man. About the revolution that could happen in Russia, he thought a lot and understood that he could not change the oath. Therefore, after his seniority was fired from TKV, he emigrated with his family abroad. And to this day in Novoaleksandrovsk this man remains the only Cossack who has served in his time up to the rank of general.
In September 2016, Yury Tolmachev appealed to the head of the administration of Novoaleksandrovsky district with a petition to perpetuate the memory of his famous ancestor by constructing a memorial plaque at his former home in the center of Novoaleksandrovsk (today it houses a veterinary hospital). The head of the city, Igor Kartishko, approved the initiative. Taking into account the historical significance of the building, the current owner restores it, a solemn ceremony of opening a memorial plaque in memory of the general who served the Fatherland properly, decorated with the orders of St. Vladimir and St. Anna, will take place soon.
In fact, it is very important, when well-deserved people are paid due. The historical research conducted by the descendant of the general became a good material for future Cossacks, whom they call Cossacks today. The Cossack spirit of the village lives. Here remember their heroes. Remember also that it is dangerous to forget the lessons of history.
http://www.stapravda.ru/photo/kazachiy_rod_tolmachevykh_iz_novoaleksandrovska__istoriya_semi_m_97235/
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