A tutorial of a writer s success. Chapter 3

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Chapter 3. Plant an Astrakhan apple tree next your home in childhood

when you will become an adult - may be you will  become a millionaire in Russia and will see a sequoias in the USA and will build a house in Athens!


In the book by Heinrich Alexander Stoll there is a mention of the Astrakhan apple tree, which grew next the pastor's house in Ankershagen. Heinrich Schliemann left this apple tree with his childhood and with his home in 1831, and, being a citizen of the United States and a resident of Athens, he visited her in 1883 [Штоль. С. 389] [Stoll. P. 389].

I found the mention of this apple tree interesting. What else of Astrakhan things, or - more broadly - Russian ones, could be found in the Baltic Mecklenburg? In 1844, in cosmopolitan Amsterdam, Henry failed to find a native speaker of the Russian language (except for Consul Tannenberg)! [Штоль. С. 103—105] [Stoll. P. 103-105].

In 1866, a Russian citizen and merchant Heinrich Schliemann almost reached Astrakhan, traveling along the Volga (after passing Saratov, he turned from city of Tsaritsyn [nowadays Volgograd, formerly Tsaritsyn (Цари;цын) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (Сталингра;д) (1925–1961)] towards Taganrog, and further towards Paris). (In Astrakhan, there were sometimes representatives of Schliemann-merchant - about trade affairs [Богданов И. А., 2008 а. С. 245] [Bogdanov I. A., 2008. P. 245]).

How much did the Astrakhan apple tree influence young Heinrich during shaping his aspirations? Did this tree really exist? Did Heinrich know the name of this apple tree? Why exactly an "Astrakhan" apple tree? Did he know what “Astrakhan” was? That it's a city, located in Russia? What did they tell him in the fabulous Ankershagen about Russia, about Astrakhan? Maybe they mentioned that Russia borders on China? As a child, he heard about China, about the Great Wall of China - we know this from his Autobiography.

Did he have a chance to taste delicious, bright red, sweet, slightly sour apples?

When he made decisions: first to learn Russian (without teachers, without textbooks, almost without books in Russian), and later - in 1846 - to go to distant and not very understandable Petersburg: did memories of delicious red apples flashed at these moments, or, at least about the apple tree itself? Did he remember something about the apple tree when he, unexpectedly becoming rich in Russia, got acquainted  in London with the documents about the amounts belonging to him in bank accounts?

To what extent was the apple tree preserved by the arrival of Heinrich Schliemann after his many years of absence?

Heinrich Stoll does not give answers to these questions in his book. And, probably, he could not give such infotmation.

May be, in the diaries, letters or memoirs of Heinrich Schliemann's contemporaries there are some mentions ...

But for an inquisitive boy like Heinrich, it was quite natural to ask a lot of questions about any matter, including on the apple tree. Moreover, according to Stoll, the little Heinrich himself planted the Astrakhan apple tree near the home of his childhood.

The time has come, and in 1865 in the United States, Heinrich Schliemann,  a millionaire, who became an American citizen in 1869, was inspecting the California sequoias [Богданов И. А., 2008 а. С. 360] [Bogdanov I.A., 2008 a. P. 360].

Of course, the author of this book cannot vouch for the authenticity of the mention of the Astrakhan apple tree in the book by Stoll; but the biographical detail itself, certainly, is a beautiful one.

(“And at the same time, he managed to make such things like campaigning for the cultivation of eucalyptus trees on the streets of Athens. He brought a hundred young eucalyptus trees (dug together with roots), and distributed them to local homeowners. Among the hundreds  trees, were planted, only one survived, the rest died. Schliemann, like a child, regretted about the trees" [Мейерович М. Л. С. 154] [Meyerovich M. L. P. 154]).