Grandfather

Gun licence obtained by Paul Woronoff in 1918

War rages and he obtained a gun licence

It is 1918 and Russia is in the last stages of World War II. On the 3rd of March of that year the newly formed Russian government, under the leadership of Lenin, signed a peace treaty with Germany called the Brest-Litovsk treaty, ending Russia’s involvement in the war. For the

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Pavel Voronov in uniform

A letter to a deserter; you do not exist for us…

That is the gist of the letter I found among my grandparent’s possessions. It was written by my grandfather, Lt Pavel Voronov (Paul Woronoff). This letter is most likely a draft as words and sentences have been crossed out. In the image below I have crossed out most of the

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Ipatief House Ekaterinburg

An ancient motif; the swastika – lucky charm of Empress Alexandra

It is apparently common knowledge that Empress Alexandra of Russia believed the swastika to be lucky. However, I didn’t know that until I began to look through old French magazines which I inherited. It makes sense though as, according to my grandmother Olga Woronoff, the Empress was deeplyreligious but also

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Plagiarism; or shall we say theft?

Plagiarism is a hot topic at the moment in the Australian literary scene. Plagiarism is also the reason I have not written a blog post for a couple of months. In late April someone shared with me a Facebook post about my grandfather. Naturally I clicked on the link and

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