Anastasia Aleksandrovna Shirinskaya Manshtein. Princess Anastasia, last stop

In 1920, when she ended up in Africa - in a French colony - she was 8 years old. On this continent alone they agreed to shelter the remnants of Baron Wrangel’s army - 6 thousand people.

Lake Bizerte is the most northern point Africa. The thirty-three ships of the Imperial Black Sea Fleet that left Sevastopol were cramped here. They stood with their sides pressed tightly together, and bridges were thrown between the decks. The sailors said that this was the naval Venice or last stop those who remained loyal to their Emperor. St. Andrew's banner was raised every morning.

There was a real Russian town on the water here - a naval building for midshipmen on the cruiser "General Karnilov", an Orthodox church and a school for girls on the "St. George the Victorious", repair shops on the "Kronstadt". The sailors were preparing the ships for a long voyage - back to Russia. It was forbidden to go on land - the French surrounded the ships with yellow buoys and quarantined them. This went on for four years.

The ships went under the knife. Perhaps the most tragic moment in the life of Russian sailors has come. On October 29, 1924, the last command was heard - “Lower the flag and guy.” Flags with the image of the cross of St. Andrew the First-Called, the symbol of the Navy, the symbol of the past, almost 250-year-old glory and greatness of Russia, were quietly lowered...

Brilliant naval officers built roads in the desert, and their wives went to work for wealthy local families. Some as a governess, and some as a laundress. “Mom told me,” recalls Anastasia Alexandrovna, “that she was not ashamed to wash other people’s dishes in order to earn money for her children. I’m ashamed to wash them poorly.”

Homesickness, the African climate and unbearable living conditions took their toll. The Russian corner in the European cemetery was expanding. Many left for Europe and America in search of a better life and became citizens of other countries.

It was only in the 90s that changes began to occur in Bizerte. Patriarch Alexy II sent an Orthodox priest here, and a monument to the sailors of the Russian squadron was erected in the old cemetery. And among the African palm trees the favorite march of the sailors “Farewell of the Slav” thundered again.

Her first book with the help of the mayor of Paris and Russian diplomats was presented to President Vladimir Putin. After some time, the postman brought a parcel from Moscow. On another book it was written - “Anastasia Alexandrovna Manstein-Shirinskaya. In gratitude and as a good memory. Vladimir Putin."

Anastasia Alexandrovna, loving Tunisia with all her soul, lived for 70 years with a Nance passport (a refugee passport issued in the 20s), not having the right to leave Tunisia without special permission. And only in 1999, when this became possible, she again received Russian citizenship and, having arrived in her homeland, visited her former family estate on the Don.

“I was waiting for Russian citizenship,” says Anastasia Alexandrovna. - I didn’t want Soviet. Then I waited for the passport to have a double-headed eagle - the embassy offered it with the coat of arms of the international, I waited with the eagle. I’m such a stubborn old woman.”

She is the most famous mathematics teacher in Tunisia. That's what they call her - Madame Teacher. The former students who came to her home for private lessons became big people. Full of ministers, oligarchs and the current mayor of Paris - Bertrano Delano.

“Actually, I dreamed of writing children’s fairy tales,” admitted Anastasia Alexandrovna. “But she had to hammer algebra into the heads of schoolchildren in order to earn a living.”

Together with her husband (Server Shirinsky - a direct descendant of an old Tatar family), she raised three children. Only son Sergei remained with his mother in Tunisia - he is already well over 60. Daughters Tatyana and Tamara have been in France for a long time. Their mother insisted that they leave and become physicists. “Only exact sciences can save us from poverty,” Anastasia Alexandrovna is convinced.

But her two grandchildren, Georges and Stefan, are real French. They don't speak Russian at all, but they still adore the Russian grandmother. Styopa is an architect, lives in Nice. Georges worked for Hollywood director Spielberg, and now draws cartoons for Disney.

Anastasia Alexandrovna has an excellent Russian language and excellent knowledge of Russian culture and history. Her house has a simple but very Russian atmosphere. Furniture, icons, books - everything is Russian. Tunisia begins outside the window. “A moment comes,” says Anastasia Alexandrovna, “when you understand that you must make a testimony about what you saw and know... This is probably called a sense of duty?.. I wrote a book - “Bizerta. Last stop." This family chronicle, a chronicle of post-revolutionary Russia. And most importantly, the story is about the tragic fate of the Russian fleet, which found a berth off the coast of Tunisia, and the fate of those people who tried to save it.”

In 2005, for her memoirs published in the “Rare Book” series, Anastasia Alexandrovna was awarded a special award from the All-Russian Literary Award “Alexander Nevsky,” called “For Work and the Fatherland.” It was this motto that was engraved on the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky, established by Peter I.

Tunisian filmmakers in the 90s filmed documentary“Anastasia from Bizerte”, dedicated to Shirinskaya. For her contribution to the development of Tunisian culture, she, a truly Russian woman, was awarded the Tunisian state order “Commander of Culture”. In 2004, an award came from the Moscow Patriarchate. For her great work in preserving Russian maritime traditions, for caring for the churches and graves of Russian sailors and refugees in Tunisia, Anastasia Aleksandrovna Shirinskaya was awarded the Patriarchal Order of “Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga,” who sowed the seeds of the Orthodox faith in Rus'.

And here is a new reward... The square in Bizerte, on which stands the Alexander Nevsky Temple, which was built by former Black Sea soldiers in the middle of the last century in memory of their fallen squadron, is named in her honor.

Today St. Petersburg sailors come here to get married. Blue domes. The joyful ringing of bells, drowned out by the loud singing of a mullah from a nearby mosque. This is her area. She says she's happy. I waited - the St. Andrew’s flag was raised again on Russian ships...

Greetings from Russia (Kostroma)
Alexander Popovetsky 2006-10-05 20:48:21

I saw you in the documentary series “RUSSIANS” (Host: Svetlana Sorokina), I admire your perseverance and am proud that I am also Russian.

Condolences from Patriarch Kirill and Sergei Lavrov
Nikolai Sologubovsky 2009-12-25 14:47:37

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' expressed condolences on the death of Anastasia Alexandrovna Shirinskaya-Manstein, an elder of the Russian community in Tunisia. She died on December 21, 2009 in Bezerte at the age of 98. To the rector of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Tunis (Tunisia), Archpriest Dimitri Netsvetaev, to the Russian community in Tunisia With a feeling of deep sorrow, I learned about the death of the elder of the Russian community in Tunisia, A.A., in the 98th year of his life. Shirinskoy-Manstein. I pray for the repose of her soul in eternal abodes. Living far from her homeland, Anastasia Alexandrovna showed truly Christian care for our compatriots who had found their refuge on the soil of North Africa. She put a lot of effort and work into the arrangement of Russian churches in Tunisia, being their permanent patron for several decades. In my memory, Anastasia Alexandrovna left the image of an amazingly bright, modest and noble person, rooting for the fate of the Fatherland. I believe that her life legacy will be preserved by our contemporaries and descendants, who have already done a lot for this good cause by creating a museum named after her in Tunisia. Eternal memory of the newly deceased servant of God Anastasia! KIRILL, PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL Rus' In Russia, the bright memory of Anastasia Shirinskaya-Manstein will be preserved Moscow, December 22. In connection with the death of the permanent spiritual mentor of the Russian community in Tunisia, Anastasia Aleksandrovna Shirinskaya-Manstein, on December 21, 2009, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sent a telegram of condolences to her family and friends. The daughter of a Russian naval officer A.A. Shirinskaya was born in 1912 in St. Petersburg, and in 1920, by the will of fate, she was taken on a ship of the Black Sea squadron of the Russian Fleet to the Tunisian city of Bizerte, where she spent her entire life. Anastasia Alexandrovna carefully preserved the traditions of Russian culture and Orthodoxy, never accepted citizenship other than Russian, and sincerely and sparing no effort contributed to strengthening friendly ties between the peoples of Russia and Tunisia. She did a lot to unite the Russian community in Tunisia. In 1999, her book of memoirs, Bizerta, dedicated to Russian sailors and their families, was published. Last stop." Anastasia Alexandrovna’s notable contribution to patriotic education has received recognition both in Russia and among her compatriots abroad. In 2003, by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, A.A. Shirinskaya was awarded the Order of Friendship. For many years of ascetic activity, the Russian Orthodox Church awarded A. A. Shirinskaya with the orders of Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga and Sergius of Radonezh. The Russian Geographical Society awarded her the Litke medal, and the Navy Command awarded her the “300 Years” medal. Russian fleet" Anastasia Alexandrovna is the only woman whom the St. Petersburg Maritime Assembly awarded the Order of Merit. In 2005, for her outstanding personal contribution to the cultural development of St. Petersburg and the strengthening of friendly ties between the peoples of Russia and Tunisia, the Legislative Assembly of the city awarded her an Honorary Diploma. For services in the field of culture A.A. Shirinskaya was awarded state award Tunisia, one of the squares of the Tunisian city of Bizerte is named after her. The Russian Foreign Ministry will preserve the fond memory of Anastasia Aleksandrovna Shirinskaya. Information bulletin of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation dated December 23, 2009.

Gratitude
Lyudmila 2010-02-21 14:38:42

I offer my sincere gratitude to everyone involved in restoring the true history of the Russian state, to those who are not indifferent to the memory of great people, true patriots. Today my family and I watched a Channel 1 program about Anastasia Shirinskaya. A low bow to everyone who, like us, was imbued with a sense of patriotism, pain for the departed worthy, honest generation of our ancestors, for whom honor is not an empty phrase. Special thanks to Vladimir Putin for recognizing Anastasia. Even though we live in Ukraine, patriotism has no borders.

The film received the NIKA Award from the Russian Film Academy as the best non-fiction film in Russia in 2008. Director: Viktor Lisakovich. Script writer and cameraman - Nikolai Sologubovsky. Studio "Elegy", producers - Levon Manasyan and Dolores Melkonyan.
"Anastasia. Angel of the Russian squadron"

This film is about an amazing Russian woman, Anastasia Shirinskaya-Manstein. She left Russia as a little girl and lived almost her entire life in exile in Tunisia.

In the fall of 1920, after fierce fighting, units of the Red Army took Perekop. In Crimea, which remained one of the last strongholds of the White movement in Russia, an evacuation was announced... 130 ships, including ships of the Imperial Black Sea Squadron, passenger, icebreaker, cargo, tug and other ships, left Crimea.

Almost 150,000 people went on board them to Constantinople.
Most civilian refugees and military units remained in Turkey, Serbia and Bulgaria.
On December 23, 1920, 33 Russian ships entered the Tunisian port of Bizerte on the shores of northern Africa. Along with the sailors, their families also arrived. Among them was the eight-year-old daughter of the commander of the destroyer Zharkiy, Anastasia.

Witness and chronicler of a bygone era, Anastasia Aleksandrovna Shirinskaya-Manstein remembers everything perfectly...

Memories of the bulky and old battleship "St. George the Victorious", on which families of sailors lived for months and years, are still alive. On Easter he smelled of Easter cakes... On the battery deck in the admiral's cabins, a school was opened, where admirals and officers of the Imperial Navy worked as teachers.

The children were taught arithmetic by a general who had once taught algebra and astronomy in the Marine Corps.
Anastasia remembers how the children, like sparrows dotting the masts, sat there for hours, constantly looking at the open sea... hoping for something... what exactly, they themselves did not know.

She often fought with one boy who bullied her younger sisters. And every time his enraged mother jumped out of the cabin and scolded Anastasia as a “Bolshevik”... And many years later, this old woman, who had almost lost her mind, fading away on her deathbed and squeezing the hand of Anastasia bending over her, whispered: “Have you come to me from Sevastopol? If only you knew how much I want to go there..."

Anastasia remembers how once emigrant melancholy and a hopeless life pushed several officers to a desperate act: they opened the seacocks and sank the gunboat "Grozny" from the squadron, and in an attempt to take their own lives, they opened their veins.

She remembers the disasters and poverty that befell the crews of Russian ships that were written off ashore. Having no citizenship, the sailors worked as land surveyors, built roads, and walked the length and breadth of Tunisian land. Those who begged to be given work at sea, at least on fishing schooners, were invariably refused by the authorities.

Rear Admiral Behrens sewed handbags on a sewing machine, but refused to accept French citizenship. Anastasia’s mother said: “I am not ashamed to go to someone else’s house to work as a servant, just so that my children can study.” The girl remembers very well how in the evenings her mother washed clothes in a huge vat, in ice-cold water, singing: “Oh, my Rus', Sovereign Rus', my Orthodox Motherland.” And everyone New Year the sailors raised their glasses with the same toast: “We’ll be in Russia this year.” They lived with this hope and died with it.

On the gates of the Russian Temple in Bizerte there is an inscription: “Blessed are those who were exiled for the sake of righteousness... for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.” It was built with donations from the sailors themselves. And everything in it - from construction work to icon painting - was done with their own hands. In the Temple there is a marble slab on which are carved the names of the ships that arrived in Bizerte in 1920.

Even 20 years ago, Anastasia would have found it difficult to believe what ultimately happened. Ships flying the Russian St. Andrew's flag again enter Bizerte. And she sees them. The honor guard, accompanied by the sounds of a brass band, takes a step towards the grave of the sailors of that Russian squadron. And Anastasia is the most dear guest on the ships of the Russian Navy that dropped anchor in Tunisia. She - living memory, a connecting thread between two eras.
While working on the film, its authors asked Anastasia Alexandrovna: what would she like to convey to the Russians? And she answered: “You should never lose hope!”

House-Museum of Anastasia Alexandrovna Shirinskaya-Manstein in Bizerte

Source http://www.1tv.ru/documentary/fi6442/fd201002211210
“Bizerte. The Last Stop,” a book of Anastasia Alexandrovna’s memoirs in French and Russian, has already gone through several editions and was awarded the Alexander Nevsky Literary Prize.

Anastasia Alexandrovna Manstein. Daughter of a naval officer, commander of the destroyer “Zharkiy” A. Manstein. (August 23, 1912, Nasvetevich estate in the former village of Rubezhnoye, Russian empire(now the city of Lisichansk, Luhansk region, Ukraine) - December 21, 2009, Bizerte, Tunisia) - an elder of the Russian community in Tunisia, a witness to the evacuation of ships of the Black Sea squadron from Crimea during the Civil War in Russia. Anastasia Alexandrovna made a great contribution to the preservation of historical relics and the memory of the Russian squadron and its sailors.

Books for the centenary of the birth of Shirinskaya
Anastasia Aleksandrovna Shirinskaya - Manstein. Excerpts from her book
“Bizerta. Last stop" http://www.sootetsestvenniki.ru/books/manshtein.html

Anastasia Alexandrovna remembers everything. Children's balls in St. Petersburg, which does not know about the imminent rise to power of the hegemon. Grammar with yats, fits and hard signs at the end of words. The wind was crazy strong, pushing the refugees rushing to leave Sevastopol in November 1920 at their backs. The father, who despaired of repairing the destroyer “Zharkiy” moored near the Grafskaya pier on time, but firmly decided: “The captain will not leave his ship.” The mother barely made it to the departing steamship “Grand Duke Constantine” with the surviving family valuables folded into a basket: icons, photographs and a manuscript of a book by her ancestor, Christopher Hermann Manstein. A storm that arose immediately after setting out to sea. Several months of chaotic sailing from one European port to another and, finally, ten days before the New Year - a joyful message: the Russian squadron was allowed to stay in Tunisia, which was under the French protectorate...
The passage of 33 Russian ships to Bizerte was led by the commander of the cruiser Edgar Quinet, Bergasse Petit-Thouars. The ships sailed with French tricolors on the main masts, but St. Andrew's flags fluttered at the stern. On December 27, the Russian flotilla dropped anchor in the Bay of Bizerte. They stood up, pressed against the sides, and built bridges between the decks. Everyone was in a good mood, the first toast, welcoming 1921, was said: “To a speedy return!”
All 6,000 people sacredly believed that not today or tomorrow the ordeal would end and be forgotten, like a random nightmare. This “bright tomorrow” helped to survive the long quarantine imposed by the French authorities, the need to surrender weapons and be under the protection of Tunisian sentries, the cramped conditions of the floating hotel, church and school for girls, set up on the battleship “George the Victorious”... Meanwhile, time passed, and life took its toll.
On all Russian ships, service was carried out as expected. St. Andrew's flags rose and descended at sunset. A year later, the Naval Cadet Corps, opened in Bizerte, graduated its first midshipmen. A year and a half later, the “Sea Collection” began to be published on the submarine “Duck”. Another six months later, “the orchestra of General Kornilov” began playing in the city garden, and the officers and squadron ladies staged scenes from “Faust” and “Aida” at the Garibaldi Theater on their own.
The military and civilians quarreled, made peace, gave birth to children, fell ill, glorified Christmas and Christ's Resurrection, visited each other, gossiped about their neighbors. And no one knew that another month or two would fly by and yesterday’s problems would seem empty...
As soon as France recognized the USSR in 1924, Moscow demanded the return of the ships of the Black Sea squadron. In return, Paris asked for payment of the royal loans and compensation for living expenses for Russian sailors in Tunisia. The Soviet commission that arrived in Bizerte was headed by the former commander-in-chief of the Red Fleet, Evgeniy Behrens. Why this mission was entrusted to him is clear: the Tunisian squadron was commanded by his brother, Rear Admiral Mikhail Behrens. True, the brothers did not manage to meet - communication with the White Guards was strictly prohibited by Bolshevik instructions. But even if this meeting had happened, it would hardly have been able to influence the outcome of the negotiations. The transfer of the squadron and the return of the loans never took place, and since, according to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, no country had the right to take over Russian ships, it was decided to sell the fleet for scrap.
Remembering what happened in those days, Anastasia Shirinskaya to this day cannot restrain the trembling in her voice: “They allowed us to take away everything that was dear to us. But my father considered it looting. Mahogany furniture, expensive china - everything went under the knife. Dad took with him only the ship’s icon of the Savior...”

On the morning of October 29, 1924, destroyer"Daring" arrived the naval prefect of France in Bizerte, Admiral Exelmans. Having officially informed the officers about the liquidation of the squadron, he ordered teams to be built on the ships to lower the flag and jack exactly at 17:25. There was no point in resisting...
Everyone gathered: officers, sailors, midshipmen. To the sounds of the bugle, flags with the image of the cross of St. Andrew the First-Called slid down...
The sailors became immigrants. A new life began, literally “from scratch,” in which there was no place for previous merits, awards and titles. The French and Arabs, not wanting competition, refused to hire Russian sailors on their ships. Military officers took on any job: farm laborers, waiters, masons. The elderly General Zavalishin searched in vain for a job as a watchman... General Popov dreamed of a job as a mechanic... Rear Admiral Stark got a job as a taxi driver...
Some managed to leave in search of a better life in Europe or America. By the summer of 1925, only 700 Russians remained in Tunisia, 149 of whom settled in Bizerte...
How did people expelled from their homeland manage to separate their hatred of the Soviets that dispossessed them from their love for Russia? Only one person in the world can talk about this today - the last living witness to the evacuation of the ships of the Black Sea squadron from Crimea - Madame Russian Squadron. And Anastasia Alexandrovna tells...
In the early 1930s, the officers who remained in Bizerte decided: an Orthodox person, no matter where he finds himself, needs a church. They collected what funds they could, designed, built, carried out finishing work themselves, and at the beginning of 1937, a church appeared on Mohamed V Avenue, consecrated in honor of the Holy Blessed Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky. To decorate it, the icons were partly painted by themselves, partly collected by families - heirlooms. They brought ancient standards, relics, and documents to the temple for safekeeping. On the installed marble board, the names of the ships that arrived in Bizerte in 1920 were embossed in gold. But after the end of World War II, very few parishioners remained. Looking at how the church decoration was deteriorating, Anastasia Shirinskaya felt: the only thing that could be called “connection with the homeland” was leaving the life of “Russian Africans”...
Anastasia Alexandrovna does not like to talk about how she invested all her funds into maintaining the temple for four decades. But her labors were not in vain. When history began a new turn in the early 1990s and Russians began to appear regularly in Tunisia, church life revived. One of the current parishioners, Tatyana Garbi, says: “Shirinskaya threw out the cry: “Save Orthodox churches!” And we - believers, non-believers, atheists - wrote a petition to the Moscow Patriarchate so that they would send us a priest..."
On June 20, 1996, Russian sailors brought to the Bizerte Church of Alexander Nevsky a handful of earth taken from the entrance to the Vladimir Cathedral in Sevastopol, where in 1920 the sailors of the Black Sea squadron leaving their native shores received a blessing. In September 1996, at the Central Naval Museum of St. Petersburg, a ceremony was held to transfer the St. Andrew's flag returned to Russia from the Bizerte Church. And on July 17, 1997, Anastasia Alexandrovna, who had lived in Tunisia for 70 years with refugee documents, was awarded a Russian passport. Madame Russian Squadron told reporters briefly about what she experienced: “I was waiting for Russian citizenship. I didn't want anything Soviet. Then I waited for the passport to have a double-headed eagle - the embassy offered it with the coat of arms of the international, I waited with the eagle. I’m such a stubborn old woman...” And, after being silent for a minute, she added: “I always tell everyone: no matter what happens, we must strengthen ourselves. Don't complain or whine. Hope..."

Vladimir Ermolaev

Anastasia Aleksandrovna Shirinskaya-Manstein(August 23, 1912, Nasvetevich estate in the former village of Rubezhnoye, Russian Empire (now the city of Lisichansk, Lugansk region, Ukraine) - December 21, 2009, Bizerte, Tunisia) - elder of the Russian community in Tunisia, witness to the evacuation of ships of the Black Sea squadron from Crimea in the years Civil war in Russia. Anastasia Alexandrovna made a great contribution to the preservation of historical relics and the memory of the Russian squadron and its sailors.

Biography

At the age of 8 she arrived in Bizerte with her mother on the destroyer Zharkiy. The commander of the ship was her father A. S. Manstein, whose family goes back to General Christoph-Hermann von Manstein, the author of “Memoirs of Russia” (18th century).

Graduated in 1929 high school Lyakor and was accepted into the penultimate class of Stephen Pichon College thanks to good exam results. From that time on, she began giving private lessons.

She received further education in Germany and returned in 1934 to Bizerte.

All these years, using her own modest means and the means of a few Russian Tunisians, she looked after the graves and repaired the temple built by the emigrants who arrived in Bizerte with her.

On May 5, 1997, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation, she received citizenship of the Russian Federation.

She returned to her homeland again in 1990. I visited my former family estate in Lisichansk.

“I was waiting for Russian citizenship. I didn't want anything Soviet. Then I waited for the passport to have a double-headed eagle - the embassy offered it with the coat of arms of the international, I waited with the eagle. I’m such a stubborn old woman.”

She lived for 70 years with a Nansen passport.

In 2000, during a new visit to Russia, she met with the Russian public at the House of Friendship in Moscow.

In 2006, the municipality of Bizerte renamed one of the city squares, where the Orthodox Church of St. Alexander Nevsky is located, and named it after Anastasia Shirinskaya.

In the dimensions of time, 70 years is nothing. Therefore, our generation knew that such a country, such a thousand-year-old civilization with such qualities of the Russian people cannot perish. But I want to say thank you to my French teachers who taught me to write in French, because I could write a book in French.

She wrote a book of memoirs “Bizerta. The Last Stop", published in French and Russian. In 2005, for this book, Anastasia Alexandrovna was awarded a special award of the All-Russian Literary Prize “Alexander Nevsky” “For Labor and the Fatherland.”

In April 2009, the full-length documentary film "Anastasia", based on Shirinskaya's memoirs, received the Nika film award from the Russian Film Academy as the best non-fiction film in Russia in 2008.

Family

In 1935 she got married and gave birth to three children.

Her husband is Murza Server Murtaza Shirinsky, a direct descendant of the Crimean Tatar Shirinsky family.

Son Sergei (born September 17, 1936) lived with his mother in Tunisia for a long time and died on May 4, 2013. Daughters Tamara (1940) and Tatyana (1945) moved to France, as Anastasia insisted that they leave and become teachers of physics and chemistry. Grandsons George (George) and Stefan (Stepan) were born to Tatiana.

Bibliography

Shirinskaya A. A. Bizerta. The last stop.. - M.: Military publishing house, 1999. - 246 p. - ISBN 5-203-01891-X.

State and public awards

Order of Friendship (Russia, April 16, 2003) - for great services in strengthening friendship between the peoples of the Russian Federation and the Tunisian Republic
Pushkin Medal (Russia, December 3, 2008) - for great contribution to the development of cultural relations with Russian Federation, preservation of the Russian language and Russian culture
Jubilee medal “300 years of the Russian Fleet” (Russia)
Commander of the Order of Culture (Tunisia)
Honorary diploma of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg (2005) - for outstanding personal contribution to the cultural development of St. Petersburg and strengthening friendly ties between the peoples of Russia and Tunisia
Order of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga, III degree (Russian Orthodox Church) Decree of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, 1996.
Order of St. Sergius of Radonezh (Russian Orthodox Church) Decree of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, 1996.
Order of St. Innocent of Moscow (Russian Orthodox Church) Decree of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, 2007
Patriarchal charter (Russian Orthodox Church) 1997
Anniversary Patriarchal Charter (Russian Orthodox Church) 2001
Special award “For Labor and Fatherland” of the All-Russian Literary Award “Alexander Nevsky” (Russia)
Litke Medal of the Russian Geographical Society
Order of Merit (Naval Assembly of St. Petersburg)
Small Cross of the Order of St. Catherine (Russian Imperial House)

On January 31, they will remember the only survivor of the 20th century participant in the transition from Sevastopol to Bizerte, undertaken by Wrangel’s Russian squadron in 1920, Anastasia Aleksandrovna Manstein-Shirinskaya.

On January 31, they will remember the only survivor of the 20th century participant in the Sevastopol-Bizerte transition undertaken by Wrangel’s Russian squadron in 1920, Anastasia Aleksandrovna Manstein-Shirinskaya. She died on December 21, 2009 at the age of 97 and is buried in the Christian cemetery of Bizerte, Tunisia.

Here the daughter of the Baltic Manstein is 16 years old.

Mathematics is a bright mind and a clear life

— Vasya, how are you doing in mathematics? — Anastasia Alexandrovna asked my teenage son in a stern teacher’s voice when we were visiting her the summer before last.

“Okay,” Vasya answered honestly, because he studied for fours, not fives.

- Right! Study well in mathematics,” and added that in this case he will have a bright mind and a clear life.

Children were often brought to her - descendants and relatives of those who went through the Bizerte epic. It’s one thing to listen to family legends, another thing to come into contact with a real person, the bearer of the old St. Petersburg speech and the keeper of the most incredible details of the life of the first wave of Russian emigration.

IN last years Anastasia Alexandrovna was the only one who remained the link between the era of the Civil War and our time. And she herself Civil War for her, it seems, it never ended...

“Remember, Vasya,” she again instructed my son, “as long as portraits of Lenin hang in Russia and monuments to him stand, Bolshevism will not end!” If you see where his portrait is, say so to yourself: shame!

Vasya nodded in agreement, being somewhat dumbfounded: he must not only be in Tunisia, where the Russian squadron was stationed in the twenties, but also find Shirinskaya herself, previously known to him only from her amazing book “Bizerte, the Last Station.”

It turned out to be a fighting old woman - grandson Pierre, an elderly gentleman, even with a smile calmed down the ardor of his grandmaman, who was firing at Ilyich with all her might. And at the same time, she equally ardently defended Putin, who in 1997 returned her Russian citizenship. Before that, having lived all her life in Bizerte, she had not accepted any other citizenship - she proudly lived as an exile of her harsh Fatherland, considering herself a refugee.

New Year on a ship

She was born in 1912 into the family of Russian Navy officer Alexander Manstein, and the first years of her life were spent in the Baltic, in Kronstadt. In the fall of 1920, she and her parents found themselves in Crimea - as they said then, on the last piece of Russian land free from Bolshevism.

On November 20, 1920, what they then hoped was a temporary retreat of the White Army from Crimea took place. However, whatever they called it back then, this was escape - evacuation, historical chaos, scurrying. Almost 140 thousand people were taken from Sevastopol to Constantinople by 83 military transports and dozens of civilian ships, who were subsequently to disperse throughout the earth. The sailors believed that they would form the Russian naval forces in exile. They hoped to spend the winter in Tunisian Bizerte, the northernmost point of Africa, in order to launch a new offensive by the summer of 1921, making the transition to Kronstadt.

Bizerte was then under a French protectorate - the French agreed to give shelter to Russian sailors and their families. In total, almost six thousand people arrived at this port in December 1920: military, civilians, all beggars, many of them were sick and wounded and - a large number of children.

The families were placed on the ship "George the Victorious", which quickly acquired some kind of plank outbuildings on the upper deck and received the name "Babanosets" from the officers - the ladies on the ships still did not correspond to the spirit of the battle fleet.

On the Old Russian New Year, January 13, electric “1920” was built on the stern mast of the lead battleship of the squadron “General Alekseev”. At 12 o’clock, along with “0”, “1” popped up, the orchestra burst out, “hurray” - and the priest of the squadron, Father Georgy Spassky, said a speech that was later passed down verbatim by the participants and decades later: “Shrouded in a bloody haze, the year 1920 is leaving us.”

The next day, a Christmas tree for children was organized at Alekseev. On it, among the jumping and noisy children, was the daughter of officer Manstein, Anastasia - who would have known that she alone would have to complete the Bizerte epic in 2009, ten days before the moment when zero would change to one again? She almost didn’t live to see 2010, the year of the 90th anniversary of the exodus of the Russian squadron from Crimea.

The squadron never went to Kronstadt, the desired counter-revolution did not take place, and the warships themselves became hostages of the so-called royal debts - loans collected from the French for the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. After France recognized Soviet power in Russia, the French demanded the ships for themselves in payment of the debt. New Russia did not recognize the royal debts, the ships were torn apart and rusted, the sailors scattered first around Tunisia, then moved to other lands - a significant number of officers were invited to Czechoslovakia, where Vasya and I were related, midshipman from the General Alekseev Pavel Vasilyevich Repin.

Anastasia Alexandrovna signed her book for us in pre-revolutionary Russian spelling.

“And Mama Shirinskaya lives with us...”

The Mansteins settled in Bizerte. Anastasia became a mathematics teacher - for many, many years. That’s why, as she herself said, she retained her clear, bright mind until old age. It was amazing to hear how she sprinkled dates, names, and titles in conversation. I remembered who served on which ship, who was friends with whom.

“Anastasia Alexandrovna is in good health, with God’s help,” Shirinskaya’s housekeeper and Russian woman Eleonora answered questions about her health recently.

The flowery street on which her house stood could be shown to any resident of Bizerte. Moreover, hearing Slavic speech on the street, the Bizerte residents were the first to make contact: “Do you know that Mama Shirinskaya lives with us?” - that’s what they called her here.

The Tunisian, who himself stopped Vasya and me at the Bizerte fortress - the medina, began to tell us that Shirinskaya’s mother also had books. We proudly showed us what she had just signed, in the old Russian spelling, and for the Tunisian we became simply family, fellow countrymen...

Actually, Anastasia Alexandrovna’s address could be indicated on postal envelopes: “M-me Chirinsky, Bizerte, Tunisia” - her letters were found. For small, cozy, not at all touristy Bizerta, Shirinskaya was an incredible attraction - films were made about her, and she was also called “Russian Princess Anastasia.” Now her name has been given to the square in front of the Alexander Nevsky Church, built in 1937 with the money of Russian emigrants.

Shirinskaya was buried at the municipal Christian cemetery of Bizerte. Her final resting place is among the graves of other sailors of the Russian squadron, maintained by local authorities in exemplary condition.

A memorial service and a memorable evening dedicated to Shirinskaya, an elder of the Russian community in Tunisia and the head of foreign Orthodox parishes in the cities of Tunisia and Bizerte, were held on New Year's Eve 2010 at the Holy Trinity Alexander Nevsky Lavra. She will also be commemorated on January 31, the 40th day after her death.

And her sailors.

Curriculum Vitae

Anastasia Aleksandrovna Shirinskaya-Manstein was born on August 23, 1912 in the Rubezhnoye family estate in Donbass. Her father is senior lieutenant Alexander Sergeevich Manstein. In 1920, he was the commander of the destroyer Zharkiy. Mother - Zoya Nikolaevna Doronina, whose family belonged to the middle class of St. Petersburg: small entrepreneurs, artisans, officials.

She graduated from Lyakor high school this year. Given her good exam results, she was accepted into the penultimate class of Stephen Pichon College. Then she began giving private lessons.

In the same year, Anastasia went to Germany to continue her education. In the year she returned to Bizerte. In 1935 she got married and gave birth to three children.

Today Anastasia Aleksandrovna Shirinskaya-Manstein is the last of the “white” Russians who came with the Russian Squadron to Bizerte. Having lived her life far from Russia, she never parted with it. Her house has a simple but very Russian atmosphere. It is Anastasia Alexandrovna who is today the heart and soul of the Russian diaspora, the keeper of Russian traditions on the soil of Tunisia. The Motherland awarded Anastasia Alexandrovna the Order of Friendship. The Maritime Assembly of St. Petersburg awarded the “Order of Merit”. Russian Orthodox Church - medal of St. Princess Olga. Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali awarded the Order of Commander of Culture.

But Anastasia Alexandrovna herself considers the day June 20, 1996, to be her greatest reward, when Russian sailors handed over to the Alexander Nevsky Church, built in Bizerte in memory of the last squadron, a handful of earth taken from the entrance to the Vladimir Cathedral of Sevastopol, where back in 1920 year, the sailors of the Black Sea squadron, leaving their native shores into the unknown, received the blessing.

In the year of the birthday of the Russian pride of Tunisia, the municipality of Bizerte decided to rename one of the squares on which the Orthodox church is located and name it after Anastasia Shirinskaya. This is the only square in all of North Africa that bears the name of a living Russian legend. To a true patriot, a courageous woman, a talented person, a keeper of the memory of the Russian squadron and its sailors. No one else has ever received such a high honor from our compatriots.

History of life and activities

The fate of Shirinskaya is the fate of the first wave of Russian emigration. She remembers the words of her father, a naval officer, commander of the destroyer Zharkiy: “We took the Russian spirit with us. Now Russia is here.” The year she ended up in Africa - in a French colony - she was 8 years old. On this continent alone they agreed to shelter the remnants of Baron Wrangel’s army - 6 thousand people.

Lake Bizerte is the northernmost point of Africa. The thirty-three ships of the Imperial Black Sea Fleet that left Sevastopol were cramped here. They stood with their sides pressed tightly together, and bridges were thrown between the decks. The sailors said that this was the naval Venice or the last stop of those who remained faithful to their Emperor. St. Andrew's banner was raised every morning. There was a real Russian town on the water here - a naval building for midshipmen on the cruiser "General Kornilov", an Orthodox church and a school for girls on the "St. George the Victorious", repair shops on the "Kronstadt". The sailors were preparing the ships for a long voyage - back to Russia. It was forbidden to go on land - the French surrounded the ships with yellow buoys and quarantined them. This went on for four years.

In 1924, France recognized the young Soviet Republic. Bargaining began - Moscow demanded the return of the ships of the Black Sea squadron, Paris wanted payment of the royal loans and accommodation of sailors in Tunisia. It was not possible to reach an agreement. The ships went under the knife. Perhaps the most tragic moment in the life of Russian sailors has come. On October 29, 1924, the last command was heard - “Lower the flag and guy.” Flags with the image of the cross of St. Andrew the First-Called, the symbol of the Navy, the symbol of the past, almost 250-year-old glory and greatness of Russia, were quietly lowered...

Russians were offered to accept French citizenship, but not everyone took advantage of this. Anastasia's father, Alexander Manstein, stated that he swore allegiance to Russia and would forever remain a Russian citizen. Thus, he deprived himself of official work. A bitter emigrant life began... Brilliant naval officers built roads in the desert, and their wives went to work for rich local families. Some as a governess, and some as a laundress. “Mom told me,” recalls Anastasia Alexandrovna, “that she was not ashamed to wash other people’s dishes in order to earn money for her children. I’m ashamed to wash them poorly.” Homesickness, the African climate and unbearable living conditions took their toll. The Russian corner in the European cemetery was expanding. Many left for Europe and America in search of a better life and became citizens of other countries.

But Shirinskaya tried her best to preserve the memory of the Russian squadron and its sailors. Using her own modest means and those of a few Russian Tunisians, she cared for the graves and repaired the church. But time inexorably destroyed the cemetery and the temple fell into disrepair. It was only in the 90s that changes began to occur in Bizerte. Patriarch Alexy II sent an Orthodox priest here, and a monument to the sailors of the Russian squadron was erected in the old cemetery. And among the African palm trees the favorite march of the sailors “Farewell of the Slav” thundered again. Her first book, with the help of the mayor of Paris and Russian diplomats, was presented to President Vladimir Putin. After some time, the postman brought a parcel from Moscow. On another book it was written - “Anastasia Alexandrovna Manstein-Shirinskaya. In gratitude and as a good memory. Vladimir Putin."

Anastasia Alexandrovna, loving Tunisia with all her soul, lived for 70 years with a Nansen passport (a refugee passport issued in the 20s), not having the right to leave Tunisia without special permission. And only in 1999, when this became possible, she again received Russian citizenship and, having arrived in her homeland, visited her former family estate on the Don. “I was waiting for Russian citizenship,” says Anastasia Alexandrovna. - I didn’t want Soviet. Then I waited for the passport to have a double-headed eagle - the embassy offered it with the coat of arms of the international, I waited with the eagle. I’m such a stubborn old woman.”

She is the most famous mathematics teacher in Tunisia. That’s what they call her – “Madame Teacher”. The former students who came to her home for private lessons became big people. Full of ministers, oligarchs and the current mayor of Paris - Bertrano Delano. “Actually, I dreamed of writing children’s fairy tales,” admitted Anastasia Alexandrovna. “But she had to hammer algebra into the heads of schoolchildren in order to earn a living.” Together with her husband (Server Shirinsky - a direct descendant of an old Tatar family), she raised three children. Only son Sergei remained with his mother in Tunisia - he is already well over 60. Daughters Tatyana and Tamara have been in France for a long time. Their mother insisted that they leave and become physicists. “Only exact sciences can save us from poverty,” Anastasia Alexandrovna is convinced. But her two grandchildren, Georges and Stefan, are real French. They don't speak Russian at all, but they still adore the Russian grandmother. Styopa is an architect, lives in Nice. Georges worked for Hollywood director Spielberg, and now draws cartoons for Disney.

Anastasia Alexandrovna has an excellent Russian language and excellent knowledge of Russian culture and history. Her house has a simple but very Russian atmosphere. Furniture, icons, books - everything is Russian. Tunisia begins outside the window. “A moment comes,” says Anastasia Alexandrovna, “when you understand that you must make a testimony about what you saw and know... This is probably called a sense of duty?.. I wrote a book - “Bizerta. Last stop." This is a family chronicle, a chronicle of post-revolutionary Russia. And most importantly, the story is about the tragic fate of the Russian fleet, which found a berth off the coast of Tunisia, and the fate of those people who tried to save it.”

In the 90s, Tunisian filmmakers made a documentary film “Anastasia from Bizerte,” dedicated to Shirinskaya. For her contribution to the development of Tunisian culture, she, a truly Russian woman, was awarded the Tunisian state order “Commander of Culture”. In 2004, an award came from the Moscow Patriarchate. For her great work in preserving Russian maritime traditions, for caring for the churches and graves of Russian sailors and refugees in Tunisia, Anastasia Aleksandrovna Shirinskaya was awarded the Patriarchal Order of “Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga,” who sowed the seeds of the Orthodox faith in Rus'.