Alright, guys, I’ve been lying to you this whole time – I’m ..

Alright, guys, I’ve been lying to you this whole time – I’m an immortal vampire, and here’s my photo from a century ago. Just kidding. The portrait actually shows my great-grandmother on my maternal side, Marfa Simeonovna Kuzminova. She was born in 1904, presumably in late May or early June, in Dvinsk. The exact date is unknown; when she asked her mother about it, her mother would reply, “When it was warm.” She was born into a petty bourgeois family.

Her father, Simeon, came from a very wealthy merchant family, was well-educated, and participated in many community projects. On a plot of land gifted by the tsar, he built a school for underprivileged children. Her mother, Aksinia, was from Lithuania. She had a beautiful, resonant voice and would often lie on the stove singing. She gave birth to 12 children, delivering all of them while sitting on her husband’s knees. Aksinia was deeply upset whenever a girl was born, saying, “Why did you have to be a girl? Now I’ll have to give birth again.”

However, most of her children died because, whenever they had a fever, she would take them outside, saying, “The baby is too hot and needs to be cooled by the wind.” As a result, only five children survived: Pelageya, Poliekt, Fevroniya, Epistimiya, and Marfa. Marfa was the youngest – intelligent, quick-witted, and resembled her father with dark hair and brown eyes, while the others were all blonde with light-colored eyes.

At seven, Marfa started school. She adored her father, excelled in her studies, and was incredibly ambitious and capable. However, due to the onset of World War I, she only managed to complete 2.5 grades. In 1914, her beloved father passed away suddenly, shattering the family’s material and emotional stability. At the same time, the war began.

At the start of the war, Tsar Nicholas II announced a mass evacuation of civilians from the western borders of the Russian Empire. As a result, 10-year-old Marfa, her illiterate mother Aksinia, her sisters Fevroniya and Epistimiya, along with Pelageya’s family (her husband Tita and their two children, Masha and Misha), boarded a train bound for Petrograd. They lived for nearly four years in refugee barracks near Volkovo Cemetery. Back then, it was considered the outskirts of the city, but now it’s the center. Everyone was starving. They suffered from smallpox and typhus. Marfa, being the strongest, fetched water even while sick.

The Volkovo Cemetery left a deep impression on Marfa – she loved walking among the noble graves, admiring the monuments, especially a statue of a weeping woman carved from white marble. For a time, Marfa thought it was a ghost.

During their time in Petrograd, Pelageya’s eldest daughter, six-year-old Masha, tragically died from protein deficiency edema. She swelled terribly and passed away. She was buried in that cemetery.

In 1917, they returned to Dvinsk, only to find their home ransacked. Tita was executed, but it remains unclear who was responsible – it could have been the Reds, the Whites, or the Germans. The likely culprits were a militarized group occupying the Dvinsk fortress at the time, with whom the hot-tempered Tita had clashed.

By 1918, the Spanish flu epidemic struck. The entire family became infected. Marfa, being the strongest, took care of everyone. Pelageya suffered the most. In her final moments, she suddenly opened her eyes, stretched out her arms, and called for her beloved husband before passing away. The only survivor from Pelageya’s family was her son, Misha, whom 14-year-old Marfa cared for. Marfa was extremely short due to malnourishment. She became the primary provider for the family – her older brother Poliekt was away at war, and her mother was largely incapacitated.

The family frequently went to the forest to gather porcini mushrooms. They wore no undergarments, dressed in sarafans, and walked barefoot even in early frost, passing water on their feet to stay warm. They sold the mushrooms to wealthy Jewish households and dried some for their own use.

To buy bread, Marfa would pack what little handcrafted goods they had left (extra threads, buttons, needles) and head to the train station. She’d sneak onto a train, hide under a bench, and soldiers would cover her with their coats so the officers wouldn’t see her and throw her out. She would ride to rural areas, trade her goods for food like potatoes, bread, and vegetables, and return the same way – or walk back on foot.

Before contracting typhus, Marfa’s hair reached below her knees – all the women in the family had incredibly beautiful, long, thick hair. When they went to the bathhouse, their hair covered them entirely, and everyone admired it. But during typhus, her hair began to fall out, and her head was shaved.

During World War I, soldiers called Marfa and her family the “angelic family” because they were mostly women, extraordinarily beautiful, and always treated those in need with kindness and humanity. None of the family members were subjected to violence by soldiers.

Little Misha’s story was tragic. While playing with other children, he lost an eye after being hit with a stone. He was malnourished and severely rickety. Aksinia constantly cooked onion soup with mushrooms, but it provided little nourishment. Misha eventually fell ill with pneumonia.

Marfa went to the cemetery to Pelageya’s grave, prayed, and said that she loved her family dearly but that Misha was suffering terribly, and she begged Pelageya to take him to her. When she returned home, Misha seemed to improve. That night, she had a dream where the house was empty. Running outside, she saw Pelageya walking toward the cemetery, holding her son’s hand. Marfa called out to them, but Pelageya turned, looked at her sadly, and sternly shook her head. When Marfa woke up, Misha was dead.

In the portrait, Marfa is about 19 years old. The story of the portrait is this: in the Old Believer tradition, being photographed was considered sinful. But Marfa loved being photographed, for which her mother harshly criticized her. Regarding this photo, Marfa was sitting by the window brushing her beautiful hair. A passing photographer was mesmerized by her beauty and asked her to come to his studio. Aksinia forbade her from going with her hair down, as it was seen as improper. The photographer brought all his equipment to their home and took the photograph there.

For a long time, this photo was displayed in the photographer’s shop window, but Aksinia demanded it be taken down because rumors were spreading that Marfa was a loose woman. Her beauty made many envious, but sadly, most of her photographs were destroyed during World War II, a story I’ll share another time.