Photo Display Board: “A family like many others in the world, suffering senselessly.”
Description
- Creator
- Bokan, Nikolai, 1881-1942, Photographer
- Media Type
- Image
- Text
- Item Type
- Photographs
- Description
- A photo display board created by Nikolai Bokan in 1936. The display board features portraits of the nine Bokan family members, namely Nikolai Bokan, his wife Vasilina, and his children Nikolai (Jr.), Vladimir, Boris, Konstantin, Aleksandr, Lev-Leonid, and Anna. Six of the portraits are covered with labels (Nikolai (Jr.), Vladimir, Konstantin, Aleksandr, Lev-Leonid, Anna) and three portraits are visible (Nikolai, Vasilina, Boris). The labels include brief descriptions of each child's fate (see "Inscription Details" for more information).
Notably, Nikolai's son Konstantin (top row, second from the left) died of starvation in June 1933. In the few months prior to his death, Konstantin had been working on a collective farm where he was overworked and poorly fed. He had left his family home earlier in the spring of 1933, as his parents were struggling to provide for their large family during the famine. It is unclear whether Konstantin was asked to leave or whether he left of his own accord. Konstantin would have been around twenty-two years old at the time of his departure from the family home.
At the time the board was created, Boris (top row, centre) was the only one of Bokan’s children who remained on good terms with his father. Boris had embraced pacifist values, although unlike his father, his inspiration came from an interest in anarchism rather than religion. Boris spent over a year in prison for refusing to join the Soviet Army on the basis of his adherence to pacifism. He was first imprisoned in the Far East and subsequently in Konotop, near Baturyn. Boris also sought to learn photography from his father, and for a time worked as his assistant. Boris gradually became more sympathetic toward the Soviet regime, causing similar tensions with his father as had emerged among his siblings. Nevertheless, Boris was eventually arrested in 1937 alongside his father, accused of conducting anti-Soviet agitation. In his appeal against the verdict, Boris expressed his regret for refusing to join the Soviet Army and blamed his father for his negative influence. His appeal was refused, and he was sent to a labor camp in Sevvostlag, where he died in December 1939.
From the perspective of Nikolai Bokan, the tensions between him and his children were largely rooted in disagreements about religion. Nikolai Bokan was an adherent of the Tolstoyan movement, which was based on the philosophical and religious writings of Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy’s views were formed by the study of the ministry of Jesus. The movement promoted values of non-militarism, vegetarianism, and moral improvement, and aspired for the attainment of a rural, self-sufficient livelihood. Among Nikolai's children, only Boris appears to have briefly engaged with Tolstoyan philosophies.
Nikolai Bokan did not perceive his children's estrangement as a personal affront, attributing it instead to their aversion to Christianity. In his memoir, Nikolai mentions the influence his “non-religious” wife Vasilina had on their children. From Bokan’s memoir, we know that, though Vasilina was a Christian, Bokan believed that she blindly followed religious tradition and the teachings of a corrupt clergy, without attempting to attain religious or spiritual enlightenment. In line with Tolstoyan views, Bokan perceived spiritual enlightenment and religious adherence as intellectual endeavors and regretted that his family’s aversion to religion distanced them from intellectual engagement.
These dynamics within the Bokan family occurred amid widespread anti-religious sentiment propagated by Soviet authorities beginning in the late 1920s as a means of disseminating atheism and promoting loyalty to the state. These anti-religious campaigns coincided with the beginning of the forced mass collectivization of agriculture.
- Inscriptions
- A transcription of the Russian text and English translation are available in the "Inscription Details" document on the right-hand side of the screen.
- Date of Publication
- 1936
- Personal Name(s)
- Nikolai Bokan ; Vasilina Bokan ; Nikolai Bokan ; Vladimir Bokan ; Boris Bokan ; Konstantin Bokan ; Anna Bokan ; Lev-Leonid Bokan ; Alexandr Bokan
- Local identifier
- PD403
- Collection
- Nikolai Bokan
- Language of Item
- Russian
- Geographic Coverage
-
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Chernihiv, Ukraine
Latitude: 51.34567 Longitude: 32.87794
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- Copyright Statement
- Copyright status unknown. Responsibility for determining the copyright status and any use rests exclusively with the user.
- Location of Original
- State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine: https://ssu.gov.ua/ua/pages/98
- Terms of Use
- Any reproductions of images from the Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine must include the following reference: Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine, fonds 6, case № 75489-fp, volume 2.
Iнформуємо, що при публікації документів ГДА СБУ обов'язкове посилання на місце їх зберігання за зразком: ГДА СБ України, фонд 6, справа 75489-фп, том 2. - Reproduction Notes
- Reproduced with the permission of the State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine.
