Prince Moussa bey Tuganoff

[maffoo]

Ok, i have what might sound like a strange request .... i have just finished reading a book entitled "From tsar to Cheka" by a guy named Prince Moussa bey Tuganoff, an Ex-noble from the Caucasian mountains region. Some of you may know this book.
he spent a while in a Gulag after being captured by the bolsheviks after working for the White Guards & managed to escape, ending up in germany. He tried to work with various anti-bolshevik organisations but nothing really came of it.

What intrigues me is the last line of the book .. it reads "The Germany which has become a second home to me is the Germany of National-socialism and of Hitler" ... This book was written in 1936

i would dearly love to know what he did after he wrote this book. Did he become a national-socialist? Was he involved in the military & was he involved in Barbarossa? Did he fight strongly to remove bolshevism from Russia? he sounds like an ideal candidate for a high-ranking military post, & would have appealed to the prussian love of nobility & such...
or was he just considered 'da russ' & shot/imprisoned.....

can anyione hear help me or point me in the right direction? This is the only forum i know of that may be able to help
& yes, i have googled it... all i get is the book i just read...

TIA, Maffoo

[AWBG]

Ämne: The furst Tuganoff
Datum: den 14 februari 2010 22:27

Hello!

My brother, who is at present doing research on our Family history and things/happenings pertinent to it, has been doing a bit of "googling" about Mussa Bey Asgiri Tuganoff, Fûrst.Tuganoff, when he ran into your question on the Axis history website. I believe I have some information to present, but I would also like some information from you.

After WW II, a woman who presented herself as the Fürstin Elin Tuganoff, came and asked for a position as housemaid to a brother and his wife of my grandmother on my mother´s side. She got the position and later somehow brought her husband, Mussa Bey A. Tuganoff to Sweden and was received in the home of my granduncle and his wife. They spoke German, and the Fürstin also spoke Swedish, as she was Swedish born.

On the 4th of December, 1948, the Fürst and Fürstin were received together with my granduncle and his wife, in the home of my parents. They signed the guest-book of my parents, which my brother still holds. I was only 6 years old at the time and my brother was 3, but I can still remember the old Fürst as being a very tall and slender man. My Father always referred to him as "a very charming and noble person". My Mother (who spoke an excellent German, as she had learned the language in Greifswald after the !st WW), tried to help the old Fürst with a project selling typewriters to India. My brother recently discovered some of the papers pertaining to this project in our family archives.

So, I have actually met the old Fürst and his last wife. They are both buried in the Skogsö Cemetery in the town of Saltsjöbaden, some 15 kilometers East of Stockholm, Sweden.

My request from you is that I would very much appreciate to learn where I could get hold of a copy of the old Mussa Bey´s work "From Tsar to Cheka". I have "googled" many times, but have never got an answer to where I could find it. He must have written it before marrying Elin, who at the time probably carried the family name of Bernhard. Would you know if that name was carried by Nazi officer? She did have a son and a daughter by her first marriage and they carried the family name Bernhard and later emigrated to Australia.

Yours sincerely,
AWBG

[GABRIELLE]

I am replying to a site I just came across - Amne: the First Tuganoff
My name is Gabrielle Bernhard and apparently a Tuganoff was my fathers step mother.
My uncle - whose mother was a Tuganoff is still alive in australia - but 92. I think there is also a daughter still alive ( my aunt)
I would like to find out her/the family history - can only add abit from this side. have no contact with my aunt but do talk to my uncle.

[AWBG]

Dear Ms Bernhard,
How lucky I was to log in to my account on the Axis History Forum today, when I came across your message from the 12 July 2010! My brother and I are working on the history of both the late Prince Mussa Bey Tuganoff and his wife. It seems that the Prince married a lady of Swedish descent in 1940 or -41, who was the widow of a man from Russia. His name was Siegfried Bernhard and he died some time between the 1st and 2nd World Wars. Is your father´s name by any chance Walter Kurt? And what is the name of your aunt? I would be very much excited to be hearing from you, soon!

Best regards, AWBG

[AWBG]

I most sincerely regret something that I wrote on the 14th of February 2010 which may suggest that the gentleman who had married the Fürstin (Princess) Elin Tuganoff, née Andersson, was in any way connected with the NSDAP. I have recently learned that Mrs. Elin Bernhard as a widow married a gentleman named Otto Waldschmidt (in London) and that he, as a matter of fact, was deprived of his estate by the Nazi government of Germany in the 1940ies. This shows that the history of Germany was indeed very complicated in the 20th Century!
AWBG

[maffoo]

I had no idea someone else had replied to this thread
Hello Gabrielle, how is Australia today, I trust you enjoyed ANZAC day & I hope you have made some ground in your search

I am going to PM you but just wanted to say hi here.....

I would also like to express my amazement & thanks to axis history forum for allowing/providing this contact.... gotta love the internet

[tyurana]

I am replying to a site I just came across - Amne: the First Tuganoff
My name is Gabrielle Bernhard and apparently a Tuganoff was my fathers step mother.
My uncle - whose mother was a Tuganoff is still alive in australia - but 92. I think there is also a daughter still alive ( my aunt)
I would like to find out her/the family history - can only add abit from this side. have no contact with my aunt but do talk to my uncle.

Hello My name is Tuganova. I found this forum when looking for information like that. The history of our faimilii tragic. Tuganova in the Caucasus is almost completely destroyed by Bolsheviks. My great grandmother otoshi right to family Giray (Crimea). She married H. Tuganova So Giray intermarried with Tuganova. They are always proud of their origins khan, adding finishing the giri to the name. My father was Azamatgiri. His uncle studied in St. Petersburg. I have some confidence that we are of the same genus. I would be very interesting to talk with relatives Moussa Bey

[Tripod]

@AWBG:
I lately acquired this book in a depository in the British Isles and I too cannot find an electronic version, although with the passage of time you may have come into possession of a print or a copy of some sort.
Annoyingly, the book has no index or Contents listing and the only initial clue as to the contents comes in the sub-title "FROM TSAR TO CHEKA: THE STORY OF A CIRCASSIAN UNDER TSAR, PADISHAH AND CHEKA". The Foreword reads:

"I have written these reminiscences many years after the events which I describe took place. I have had no diaries, no notes at my disposal, but have had to rely entirely on my memory. It is, therefore, not impossible that I have occasionally recorded a wrong date or name.
My Caucasian home has often been falsely and fantastically described. I shall be content if my book helps to give a truer and clearer picture of it.
M. B. Tuganoff.
Berlin, 1936."

The book states "Translated from the German" but does not name the translator. In fact, it does not make clear whether the book had originally been published in German, or indeed at all. The name of the author is given on the title page as "PRINCE MOUSSA BEY TUGANOFF". The English reads very naturally and the later narrative is quite compelling although I have had time to read only various unconnected parts so far.

Chapter I begins:
"CHAPTER I

I
In the year 889, Arpad, son of Duke Almo of the Magyars, was elected leader of the Magyars. He is the founder of the Hungarian state, the national hero who still lives to-day in song and legend. He overcame the Moravians, the Dukes of Transylvania, the Croats and the Slovenes. Called to the aid of the Byzantine Emperor against the Bulgars, he made the Bulgarian King Simeon his vassal. His conquering expeditions led him twice into Italy. Four of his five sons fell in battle. When Arpad died in 907 he had ensured the inheritance of his last and youngest son, Szoltan, who raised the dynasty from the rank of elective dukes to that of hereditary kings.
In 972 the pious Sarolta, wife of Geza, Szoltan's grandson, first allowed Christianity to be preached in Hungary under her protection, and her son, Stephen, was given by the Church the name of saint for having conceded to it almost unlimited power in his kingdom. It was, in fact, the power of Christian priests and German knights which made of the savage, and at first only half-conquered, tribes, a civilised race. The dynasty of Arpad reigned for four hundred
years until, in 1301, Andrew III lost the throne in a prolonged civil war with the powerful Magyar nobles. ..."

I was interested to see your remark: "They are both buried in the Skogsö Cemetery in the town of Saltsjöbaden, some 15 kilometers East of Stockholm, Sweden." Have you come into posession of any further information identifying this as the same M. B. Tuganoff, and specifically, the date of his death?

[AWBG]

Sir,
It was my brother who informed me about this last entry about the late Prince (Mussa Bey) Algiri Tuganoff. He died on New Year´s Eve (31st December) 1950. I have actually met and shaken hands with the late Prince. He wrote one chapter in a book with the title "Fifty Amazing Hairbreadth Escapes" from 1937. His entry bears the title "Called out to be shot". You can find it in the British Library. Unfortunately for me, it is still under copyright and I am not able to get a digital copy if that particular story.
Yours sincerely, AWBG

[Mishka03]

I am the Grand Daughter of Kurt Walter Bernhard, living in Australia.

[Astra]

Dear friends!

I live in North- Ossetia /Russia. Mussa Tuganoff was born hier, in North-Ossetia. he was ossete. i have his family tree and would like to contact with all, who are interestedd.

[Katia Hadidian]

Hello everyone,

I am fascinated to see this forum. My grandmother and great aunts (Baza, Tamara and Zayra) were the daughters of Prince Nikolai Tuganoff, one of Moussa Bey's sons. They also had two brothers, Tazret and Timur. I am afraid when I was little I only listened to their stories with one ear, not two, so I am bad on details, but I do have some photos if anyone would like to see them. The family was separated during the Terror: they moved from Tuganovka, near Orzhenikidze in North Ossetia, to Moscow. From there the two brothers were arrested and sent to Siberia. Prince Nikolai died of grief and poverty. The two brothers were released to fight in World War Two. The youngest, Tazret, died in the USSR in the 1950s after a truly terrible life. The eldest brother lived a modest life in Kiev, marrying a woman who found his half-dead body in a field and nursed him back to life. The three sisters were captured by the Germans and taken to a displaced persons camp in Germany. When this was liberated by the Americans and British they were offered passage to the USA or England. Tamara and Zayra came to London, Baza went to New York with her daughters, one of whom is my mother. Then Tamara and Zayra joined their sister and eventually the entire family settled in California in the 1950s, where there to this day there is a community of Ossetians, Circassians, Kabardinians and more. One of my great happinesses is that when Gorbachev came to power, my Great Uncle Timur made the pilgrimage to see his sisters after some 60 years of separation, and they were reunited. Despite the hardship of his life, he was calm, composed, and an absolute gentleman.

I would be delighted to receive a copy of the family tree. I have seen several errors over the years online. Baza was married to a worker from the family estate, a Kazbek, and once in America married again.

The gentleman who went to Sweden was a cousin. He took several belongings off my grandmother and her sisters "for safekeeping" and left them quite destitute! This included an oil painting of their grandfather, who I believe commanded a regiment in the Russo-Polish wars, which was when he was awarded the majority of his lands in Ossetia. He also was in charge of the Tsar's cavalry regiments.

The fellow who wrote "From Tsar to Cheka" was another cousin, not a son, of Prince Nikolai, though a nephew of the General.

Another interesting story is that Prince Nikolai's niece, Lisa Khanum Tuganova, was married to Murtuza Mukhtarov, an oil millionaire, who built what is now the Palace of Happiness in Baku. Sadly during the Revolution, the Reds came for them. Seeing them at the door, he sent Lisa with the clothes she stood in out the back door and went down to receive his "guests". Of course he knew he was being arrested. He excused himself to fetch his hat upstairs, got his gun, and shot them dead and then himself. Lisa eventually made it to Istanbul, but from there the trail goes cold... We hear she died in poverty and despair.

How the nation survived such trauma is beyond me. Such misery was inflicted on everyone.