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Blinov Collection?


b3rn

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Several photographs in the museum at Portianou on the island of Lemnos were marked "BLINOV COLLECTION". They relate to the Dardanelles expedition, shots of the camps in Mudros.

A Google search brings up Hoover Institution, Stanford University:

Michael Blinov collection, 1877–1988

This collection of papers of individual émigrés and records of émigré veterans' organizations was assembled by Blinov over many years. The materials relate to Russian military history, especially during World War I and the Russian civil war, and to Russian émigré affairs. Included are memoirs, correspondence, printed matter, and photographs.

Anyone familiar with this collection?

These were photos of Mudros (Lemnos) I'd not seen online or in books.

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Thanks Adrian. Photo #3 must be the Russian Cemetery on West Mudros. My photos from there don't take in that angle or perspective but it looks about right. Assume it's not the Turk & Egyptian labourers' cemetery (crosses) and it isn't either of the British military cemeteries,

I assumed photos 1, 2 & 4 were c.1915. Is that a fair assumption? Photos that came into possession of the Russians in the years following? Writing on #1 is Russian?

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All the Blinov photos appear to date from 1920-21, though things wouldn't have changed much in the preceding 5 years. One of the reasons the Russian refugees went to Limnos (and Gallipoli and Constantinople) was that there were still camps & barracks & hospitals to house them, left over from WW1.

Photo 1 is captioned at russianfilm.ru as "View of the Russian army on the island of Limnos, 1921".

I can't read the Russian handwriting on your copy. "something barracks" possibly...

Photo 2: Captioned at gallipoli.ru as "Cossack camp on the island of Limnos. The cross marks the tent of radio engineer Lt.Col. Popandopulo".

Photo 3: As you say, the Russian cemetery on the "Turk's Head" peninsula.

Photo 4: Captioned at mail.ru as "Limnos. Encampment". Not very helpful... :)

There are more photos of Limnos including the cemetery from the Blinov Collection at

http://my.mail.ru/community/history0/tag/%D0%EE%F1%F1%E8%FF

Scroll to about half way down! You can copy/paste the captions into Google.Translate to get an idea of what they show.

Re. the cemetery:

Modern view: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s80ObyQ_S3o/ToHe3kIByhI/AAAAAAAAAPs/6ZLFe5dRhe0/s1600/DSCN2294.JPG

Apparently, it held more than 350 graves, 82 of them children. When the Russians left in Dec 1921 it was neglected, and was only rediscovered in 2004.

From the background in the photos, the cemetery looks to be located about 39.8846 25.2158, but modern Greek sources describe it as being at Pounta, which is the area near the tip of the peninsula (around the cairn). Do you have an exact location? GWF member montbrehain should know where it is, according to his post #38 in http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=82649

And according to a thread on the Axis History Forum, the "cairn" at Kaloyeraki Point (see montbrehain's post #24) is the White Russian Monument.

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=97627 page 1 near the bottom, and page 2 last post.

Hope this helps!

Adrian

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Adrian, unsam - thank you very much

the forum thread photos afford an excellent view of the piers on the south side of the West Mudros peninsula built by the Dardanelles expedition, and in this one the railway line is clearly seen ... this 1915 map shows 'railway pier' which I think is the closest in the photo below; perhaps the longer one in the distance is 'Monmouth pier' but to be honest the maps show a multitude of piers & jetties, with different names too.

779be18d0fc8.jpg

We didn't see any evidence remaining of the railway but it's a large area to walk over covered by scrub. I did take my daughter swimming in this bay and we snorkeled over an area that must have been a pier (perhaps the first or second of the piers in the foreground of the photo above), with a sunken boat (rowboat I guess) but had no way of knowing if it was 100 years or 10 years old

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RE: the Russian cemetery

Uploaded my photos to Flickr. Also transcribed the plaque.

My camera has GPS and it matches [Gmaps link] with the location [39.8846, 25.2158] you wrote. The Flickr photos are geolocated and you can grab the reading given by the camera from that.

6327583706_c4b6a7046c.jpg

Have you been there? It is easily accessible from the dirt road that runs down the peninsula. There is a farm building at the bottom of the hill. When standing at the Russian cemetery, looking west, we think those hills immediately west were home to 3rd Australian General Hospital. Later I will upload more photos. One is of nurses & a couple of officers sitting at the end of the hill, east of the Russian cemetery, watching the last of the troops from the Gallipoli evacuation landing via barge on the jetty on the north side of the peninsula.

6327590232_4220e14f85.jpg

Both these photos looking north - photo at top north-west, photo at bottom north-east

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RE: the cairn or monument

Reading the Axis forum link, I'm not sure if the cairn photos are definitely Lemnos, could be Gallipoli? And reading in Google translation the many Russian articles about the memorial's opening, no mention of a cairn or monument.

But this 1944 map (Geographical Section, General Staff, No. 4468. Published by War Office, 1944) labels it as "MONUMENT" which suggests the Lemnos cairn's function was not utilitarian.

6328089434_cfe7892343.jpg

6327347861_28917a47ac.jpg

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