I’ve been scanning in family photos and I came across this one. My father, rather unhelpfully, wrote-

Russian photo from my maternal grandfather: [NAME] Among the notables: back row, third figure on right is Maxim Gorky[!]; front row, second figure on left (with watch-chain) is Feodor Chaliapin.

Chaliapin was apparently a notable opera singer.

What are the other names so I can know which one is my great-grandfather? If it’s okay, once the names are transliterated, I’m not going to say which one I’m related to. I realize it was a long time ago, but you never know.

But how cool is it that he knew Maxim Gorky?

  • @Sprinks
    33•6 months ago

    Theyre names so the latin alphabet form would be the translation, more or less.

    Пятницкiй, Скиталецъ, М. Горький, Найденовъ, Л. Андреев, Шаляпинъ, Бунинъ, Телешевъ, Чирико

    Would be…

    Pyatnitsky, Skitalets, M. Horky (possibly gorky?), Naydenov, L. Andreev, Shalyapin, Bunin, Teleshev, Chiriko.

    (Note, im a native english speaker studing to speak Ukrainian)

    • Flying SquidOP
      12•6 months ago

      Thank you, that’s what I was hoping for!

      • Farid
        13•6 months ago

        I speak Russian at a native level, but that’s an archaic pre-revolution orthography that I’m not 100% sure about. But I’m 99% sure that most of those transliterations are correct. Except Gorky. In Ukrainian Г makes a rough H sound, while in Russian it’s G, as in “good”.

        And a bonus fun fact for you, горький (gorky) means “bitter”.

    • Flying SquidOP
      8•6 months ago

      Also, definitely Gorky. He’s the most famous.