Question 1

Who are the Kalaushins?

Accepted Answer

The Kalaushins are a family of Khoper, later Kuban, Cossacks, documented since 1815. Their progenitor was the Khoper Cossack Trofim Pakhomovich (b. c. 1737). The family lived in the stanitsas of Batalpashinskaya and Labinskaya, served in the Khoper regiments and the Emperor’s Convoy, and was known for its saddlery: Fedot Alekseyevich is named in the 1915 List of Purveyors to the Imperial Court. The 20th century gave the family the Pushkin scholar M.M. Kalaushin and the artist B.M. Kalaushin.

Question 2

Where does the name Kalaushin come from, and how is it pronounced?

Accepted Answer

The stress falls on the u: Kalaúshin (ka-la-OO-shin), Kalaúshina; this is how the family says it. The name is rare and absent from the dictionaries of surnames we consulted, and the records also spell it “Koloushin”, “Kaloushin”, “Kolaushin”. △ Most likely it began as a nickname from a dialect word with the stem kalaush-/koloush-: kalaush, a travelling bag, or kalaushka, an earflap hat. The Kalaus River is possible but weaker; kalauz, ‘guide’, and a link with the name Goloushin are unlikely.

Question 3

What is “Kalaus steel”?

Accepted Answer

It is the family’s own name for the steel of the Kalaushin masters. As relatives tell it, Matvey Alekseyevich obtained Damascus steel through Suleymanov, father of Lyubov Geychenko, re-tempered it himself, and kinzhals “of Kalaus steel” were very highly prized in the Caucasus. △ Most likely it means kalaushinskaya, “the Kalaushins’ steel”: in the Caucasus a blade re-tempered by a well-known master was named after him — “Bazalay steel”, “Chilli buolat”. The word also echoes the Kalaus, where the Khoper Cossacks lived in 1777–1825.

Question 4

Were the Kalaushins Purveyors to the Imperial Court?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The official List of Purveyors to the Imperial Court, compiled at the beginning of 1915, names among its 1,340 firms and persons “the saddle-maker Fedot Kalaushin of Batalpashinskaya stanitsa”. The family recalls that the Emperor granted the title after the saddle for the Shah of Persia, and Matvey Alekseyevich’s grave in Labinskaya bore the words “Purveyor to the Court of His Majesty”. The file on the title in RGIA (f. 472) will give the date.

Question 5

What is known about the saddle for the Shah of Persia?

Accepted Answer

◇ family testimony · confirmed by relatives. On the order of Nicholas II, the saddle for the Shah of Persia was made over two months in Fedot Alekseyevich’s workshop; the master took it to St Petersburg himself, and at a review on his last day of service the Emperor praised the work and congratulated him on the title of Purveyor to the Court. The account is recorded in the family history and confirmed by relatives. △ The most consistent dating is spring to early summer 1900, for Mozaffar ad-Din Shah’s visit of 4–10 (17–23) July 1900.

Question 6

What was the parade commission for Archduke Franz Ferdinand?

Accepted Answer

◇ family testimony · confirmed by relatives. The family names a complete set of parade equipment for Archduke Franz Ferdinand — harness, saddles, sabres, kinzhals — as the last commission Matvey Alekseyevich carried out together with Fedot Alekseyevich. The family history records that it was a “political” commission, meant to help improve relations with Austria-Hungary; relatives confirm that it was completed. △ The work was finished no later than 1912. Papers on the gifts may be held in the Austrian State Archives (HHStA) and the Konopiště inventories.

Question 7

Did the Kalaushins serve in the Emperor’s Convoy?

Accepted Answer

Yes, for more than half a century. In 1853 Uryadnik Andrey Ivanovich became chamber Cossack to the Tsesarevna Maria Alexandrovna. Mikhail, Fedot and Aleksandr Alekseyevich served as uryadniks of His Majesty’s Own Convoy, Fedot in 1892–1900, at Gatchina under Alexander III and in St Petersburg under Nicholas II. On 31 May 1900, at the Alexander Palace, the Emperor handed the departing Convoy men their service badges in person. In 1911 Ivan Stepanovich came with the Kuban delegation to the Convoy’s centenary.

Question 8

What St George Crosses did the Kalaushins hold?

Accepted Answer

They held the Insignia of the Military Order, 4th class — the soldier’s St George Cross. The first went in 1859 to Uryadnik Stepan Alekseyevich, for actions on the Right Flank of the Caucasus Line, and to Cossack Stepan Kalaushin, for the fight at the Psebay fortification on 19 October. For the battle of Dayar on 9 June 1877, in the Russo-Turkish War, crosses went to Uryadnik Yegor and Prikazny Ilya. In the First World War the family’s officers received the Orders of St Anna, St Stanislaus and St Vladimir.

Question 9

Who was Matvey Matveyevich Kalaushin?

Accepted Answer

A Pushkin scholar and museum-maker (1904–1968), son of a Labinskaya master saddler and a pupil of Boris Eikhenbaum. He worked for more than twenty years in the Literary Museum of Pushkin House, served as acting commandant of Pushkin House in the Siege winter, and on his recommendation Semyon Geychenko became director of the Pushkin Reserve in 1945. From 1953 to 1965 he was the first director of the All-Union Pushkin Museum; for his centenary its successor, the All-Russian Pushkin Museum, held the exhibition “Our First Director”.

Question 10

Who was the artist Boris Kalaushin?

Accepted Answer

Boris Matveyevich Kalaushin (1929–1999) was a book artist and painter, son of the Pushkin scholar M.M. Kalaushin. As a boy he made hand-written booklets in besieged Leningrad; at fifteen he drew the war-ruined Mikhailovskoye; later he illustrated more than a hundred children’s books. His painting was first shown in 1987; The Flower Fairy (1968) is in the Russian Museum, and some 120 originals are in nine Russian museums. With his sister he founded the Apollon society and published books on the Russian avant-garde.

Question 11

Where did the Kalaushins live?

Accepted Answer

The first known Kalaushins lived in Stavropolskaya stanitsa (now Stavropol). In 1826–1827 the family moved to Batalpashinskaya (now Cherkessk), and later Matvey Alekseyevich’s branch settled in Labinskaya (now Labinsk). Kalaushins also lived in Bekeshevskaya, Maykop, Vladikavkaz and Sukhum; the Convoy men served at Gatchina, St Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo. In the 20th century part of the family moved to Leningrad, and émigrés ended up in Harbin, Serbia and France.

Question 12

How was this history researched?

Accepted Answer

The chronicle rests on three layers: the family roster Kalaushiny, which Aleksandr Borisovich Kalaushin compiled over more than forty years (Philippov website, version 03.02 of 13 July 2025); documents of each period — revision tales, orders, newspapers, award lists; and the work of historians. In 2026 the roster was checked against the documents; the chronicle now draws on 215 sources, 398 catalogued images, 284 people and 140 events. Every reference is marked by class: ◆ documented, ◈ published source, ◇ family testimony, △ hypothesis.

Question 13

What do the marks ◆ ◈ ◇ △ mean?

Accepted Answer

They are source classes. ◆ documented — a primary source of the period whose text we have seen; ◈ published source — a book, article, reference work or database; ◇ family testimony — the family’s account; △ hypothesis — our inference: an identification, a dating, a reconstruction. The mark always comes with its word.

Question 14

Why are some relatives given by name and relationship only?

Accepted Answer

For people born in 1940 or later with no known date of death, the chronicle gives only the name and the relationship. The exception is a public role: the author of the site and Oleg Vyacheslavovich Kalaushin. For those born in 1925–1939, also the year of birth and any public role.

Question 15

Which calendar are the dates in?

Accepted Answer

Dates before 1 (14) February 1918 are Old Style; New Style is added in brackets where useful, for example 31 May (13 June) 1900.

Question 16

How does the chronicle treat family accounts?

Accepted Answer

Family memory is a full source of the chronicle. The family’s account comes first and in full, marked ◇; the documentary context and, where needed, a dating (△) follow separately. The saddle for the Shah of Persia and the commission for Archduke Franz Ferdinand are confirmed by relatives.

Question 17

How can relatives add to the chronicle?

Accepted Answer

By sending the author scans of photographs (front and back), documents, objects bearing marks and written accounts. Every account will appear in the chronicle as family testimony, in the teller’s words.