Descendant of Aaron - Part 1. Grandfather Andrey

Historical novel based on actual facts

Translated from russian by author
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          "A nation that forgets its past has no future."

                (Winston Churchill)
      


                Part 1. Grandfather Andrey.
                Chapter 1. Aronchik(1)

    Little Aronchik was the fifth child in the Goldstein family. Besides him, Jacob and Maria raised another son and three daughters. Aronchik was born in the city of Vilna. At that time, the remnants of the Polish-Lithuanian state already belonged to the Russian Empire.
    If you go deeper into history, then Vilna belonged earlier to the Rzeczpospolita. It was the first republic within the Polish Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This huge republic included central-eastern Poland, three quarters of Ukraine, all of Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, part of Estonia, Russia, Moldova and Slovakia. The historical period of the first Rzeczpospolita lasted from the end of the 15th century until the First Section in 1795.
    After a long kinglessness period, in 1573 in the village of Kamen near Warsaw, the Sejm gathered, which unanimously elected Henry III of Valois, the son of Henry II and Catherine de Medici, as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. The coronation took place on February 21 in Wawel. The royal power was significantly "curtailed" by the Diet, and the state was officially named Rzeczpospolita of Both Nations. Thus, Poland was one of the first in Europe to push the importance of the monarchy into the background and become the prototype of the republic in its modern sense. This page in the history of Poland is usually called "Sarmatian".
    Aronchik's Mother, beauty Maria, was the daughter of Polish gentry. Their ancestry goes back to the family of King Casimir III, who extended the privileges given by Boleslav to the Jews throughout Poland. Rumor connected the act of Casimir III with a passion for a Jewish woman named Esterka, who, judging by the portraits, was a beautiful woman with gentle, kind eyes and sensual full lips. The king settled his beloved in his Krakow palace and soon they had offspring. It was decided to educate girls in Judaism, boys in the Catholic faith. Subsequently, the sons of Casimir III Pelko and Nemir became the founders of the Polish noble families. It is not known how much the beloved of the king Esterka influenced the advancement of the Jews, but Casimir ordered to build a Jewish town near Krakow, which grateful Jews named after their patron Kazimierz. Krakow grew rapidly and soon Kazimierz became one of its districts. Kazimierz was a special place - people lived here not according to the laws of the Kingdom, but according to the prescriptions of the Talmud. It is known that Casimir loved to be here, talking for a long time with Jewish scholars and sages.
    Maria's father, Andrzej Valevich, was a colleague of Kastus Kalinowski and Zygmunt Sierakowski, leaders of the uprising for the independence of Lithuania in the Commonwealth. The uprising was brutally suppressed, and Maria's father was executed by order of General M.N. Muravyov, who was popularly nicknamed "The Hangman". The mother was exiled to Siberia. So the one-year-old Maria remained in the care of her aunt, who had three of her young children.
    Jacob grew up in the family of a rabbi. He received an excellent education at a yeshiva and with a private teacher. He was naturally very intelligent and loved to read. Over time, he became interested in the works of leading European philosophers and scientists. Jacob upset his dad by abandoning the career of a clergyman, graduated from a university in Germany and chose the profession of an engineer.
    Jacob and Maria met in the library. It seemed to them that an electric charge passed between them. Yakov could not take his eyes off the blond, blue-eyed slender girl. And when he came to himself, he found that he was sitting next to Maria, and she was happily telling him something, pointing to a page of an open book.
    Old Meir, Jacob's father, agreed to bless their marriage only on condition that Mary converts to the Jewish faith. All formalities were followed. This is how Pinya, Sarah, Rachel, Hana and the youngest, Aronchik, were born.
    Aronchik was handsome, blond, with blue eyes. He was distinguished by excellent health and physical strength. He was mother's favorite. Maria found in him more and more similarities with her father, the only photograph of which was given to her by Aunt Christina. Maria loved to stroke Aronchik's curls. And when they were alone, she called him affectionately "Andrzej".
    When Aronchik was five years old, Yakov and his family moved to Ukraine. Pan Karol Brzozovski invited Jacob to modernize a sugar factory in the village of Sokolovka, Olgopolsky district, Podolsk province. It was once the main residence of the Belina-Brzozovski family.
    Brzozovski acquired Sokolovka in the 1790s, having bought a number of estates with very fertile soils - Chobotarka, Zhabokrich, then Levkov, Tarnavka, Kriklivets, Myastkovka and others. The Brzozovski were liberals - they introduced guardianship relations between the master and the serfs, established savings banks for their clerical and other employees. They created a peasant bank, a school, a hospital, which paid for a permanent doctor.
    Aronchik studied at school with pleasure. He quickly established good relations with the guys, although he often had to fight. He grew up as a mischievous person, and Maria often had to hear complaints from neighbors, and Jacob put in broken glass.
    That winter evening, Aronchik and Pinya went outside to play snowballs. The end of December turned out to be snowy. The frosty air was surprisingly fresh and clean. There was no wind, it was so quiet that they seemed to hear the whisper of the stars, which densely dotted the dark sky. The full moon shone brightly on the courtyard, which was covered with glistening white snow. New 1904 Year  was coming.
    The headlines of provincial and metropolitan newspapers have long been full of patriotic articles about Russia's determination to teach a lesson to Japan for its expansion in the Far East. The government fueled militant nationalist "Hurray" actions by the petty bourgeoisie. At that time, starting a war with Japan for Russia was a great risk, if not a gamble. Finance Minister Witte, a smart man and capable of foreseeing the situation a few steps ahead, advised to confront Japan with economic methods. But Nicholas II was afraid of popular demonstrations. The tsar himself did not deeply delve into the analysis of the international situation and the military capabilities of Russia in relation to Japan. He liked the advice of Plehve, Minister of the Interior, more, namely: "Russia now needs a small victorious war. This will help solve all our problems."
    As time has shown, the war was not small and not victorious. And it only exacerbated Russia's problems.
   Two months later, Pinya was mobilized into the army, straight to Port Arthur.