Foreword, texts and comments by V. G. Bortnevsky
Third Edition revised and augmented
Twentieth Century series
Moscow: Minuvshee Publishing, 2013
60х90/16, 312 pages, 56 illustrations
ISBN 978-5-905901-06-5
The «Notes of a White Officer» originally written as a personal diary by Erast N. Geacintov languished in the White Army Archive in Prague until they were seized by the Soviet Smersh (Death to Spies) secret service as Prague was occupied by the Soviet Army in 1945. Until Perestroika around 1990 they remained inaccessible under the strict control at KGB Headquarters in Moscow. Finally as the Communist regime crumbled, a young Russian historian and relative of the writer Victor G. Bortnevsky was given access to the 3 note books and requested permission of the family to publish the material he had collected. The book first appeared in Russian in 1992 and opened a window on life in Russia before the Revolution.
The family name derived originally from the flower “Hyacinth” (Гиацинтов) was bestowed on good students at the church school attended by our ancestors in the 17th Century. In an effort to come as close as possible to the correct pronunciation of the name in various languages the spelling was changed for example to Giacintov in Czech, Giazintow in German, Guiatsintoff in French and finally to Geacintov upon arrival to the USA in January 1952.
Cyril E. Geacintov. Publisher
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