FATE  OF  SANCT-PETERBOURG  KIN  
Von WAGNER

 

The kin of Von Wagner descends from Andreas von Wagner, a Liefland nobleman, who was admitted to military service in 1791, became a poruchik in 1799, but was dismissed as a captain in 1809. According to a family legend, his ancestors moved to Russian Empire from Bavaria, therefore, were Catholics. The colours of the coat of arms are red and black in 4 fields.

Andreas possessed an estate in the rural district Nerekhta of the Government Kostroma. Name of his wife was Alexandra Ivanovna - it is not easy to say, whether she was a Russian or a German, daughter of some Johann. They had 7 children: sons Nicolas, born in 1809, Dmitry, born in 1814, and Andreas, born in 1815, daughters Olga, Anna, Alexandra and Elisabeth. Dmitry participated in suppressing the Polish-Lithuanian revolt of 1831 and ended his career as a staff captain of Novorossiysk Dragoon Regiment. His wife, Ekaterina Basilyevna, was probably a Russian noblewoman. At their estate in Nerekhta they had 144 peasants. Their children were sons Nicolas, DD, and Andreas, a daughter Elene. The parents being aged, the children soon orphaned. They were tutored by a military major Dmitriev, who made Andreas marry his daughter Olga. Andreas was a typically Russian landowner, a prodigal who hated his wife. Nicolas, on the contrary, assiduously made a military career.

It is not known when members of the kin became Orthodox. Probably this was the tutor Dmitriev who gave this confession to his wards. The representatives of this branch married women of old Russian nobility and were westernised not more than any Russian noblemen under the influence of the Metropolis of Sct.-Peterbourg. Nevertheless it seems significant to remark that only after Nicolas, DD, the grandson of Andreas and Alexandra, had married a westernised Peterbourgian (see further), his descendants of the female line restored their German family name.

 

After finishing the Emperor Institute in Gatchina, Training Cavalry School for Military Officers, Nicolas von Wagner, DD, was admitted to the military service at the 3rd Equestrian and Artillery Brigade in 1873. Having achieved the rank of rotmister in 1889, he served in the 13th Kargopol Dragoon Regiment, to which brother of his wife Ludmilla, Constantin Ekimov, C4, was admitted in 1892. N. von Wagner was awarded the Order of St.Ann of the 3rd degree and became lieutenant-colonel in 1899, when he served in the 14th Lithuanian Dragoon Regiment. The Order of St. Stanislaus of the 2nd degree was awarded to him in 1909. The rank of colonel was achieved in 1910. 

DD was dismissed in 1914 before the war. He died unexpectedly ascending a gangway to a warship when he prepared the escape of his family to the West. This death condemned his descendants to misery and Russianising.

Ca. in 1889 DD married a westernised Peterbourgian Ludmilla Ekimov, D3. 

 

DD and D3 had 4 children: daughter Olga, K0, son Nicolas, K1, son Constantin (Koka), K2, daughter Ludmilla (Lyolia, Lusi), K3. 

Olga, Nicolas and Koka von Wagner.

The brothers were cadets of the Pages' Corpus before 1917, but this did not hinder K2 to become an engineer in subsequent Soviet period. He was a frequent guest at the flat of C4 on 2, Konyushennaya Str. before the war. Constantin Ekimov, H7 recalled how K2 came there in hope to find crumbs of bread in a kitchen cupboard after the blockade and starvation had begun. K2 groped for the crumbs with his hand on the shelves of the cupboard but the shelves were empty. He died of starvation during the blockade in 1942. His son Vladimir, S5, is still living in the Town with his family and son Constantin, Z0. No data about K1 preserved. 

Lyolia von Wagner    Son Dmitry.

K3 married Dmitry Chepurnov in Moscow, where she died in 1992. Her descendants were son Dmitry Chepurnov (died there in 1987) and daughter SW, living in Moscow with her daughter ZW. The latter restored the family name of their female ancestors.

The kin of Von Wagner is related to that of Ekimov through the marriage of DD and D3.