Genealogy "MEDWEDEFF"

This work is dedicated to my grandfather Alexander Medwedeff () after who I was named.

In the following text I described the history of my family in the way I learned about from my relatives or from archives until now. If somebody has further information or has to put somehting right, please contact me alix@carto.net.

Index of historical pictures Documents from the KGB-archive Alexander & Lydia The death of Alexander The resettlement of Lydia The brothers and sisters of Alexander The brothers and sisters of Lydia

Alexander Medwedeff was born on the 30^th of September 1904 in Alytus in Lithuania and was a descendant of Russian emigrants to Lithuania but he himself has never been in the UDSSR. The father of Alexander was called Flor, the maiden name of his mother was Emma Wanagat. She was german from the descent. Alexander studied law in Kaunas and moved to the southern part of Lithuania to the surrounding of Marijampole later. There he learned to know my grandmother Lydia Heidrich.

Lydia Heidrich was born on the 28^th of November in Suvalki. Her family always was german from the descent, but they have been living in Lithuania for hundreds of years. Her father was an estate manager in Marijampole. Her father, Karl Heidrich, born on the 1^st of April 1870 in Nowodelen, deceased on the 12^th of September 1936 in Marijampole, was married twice. Lydia was a child from the second marriage with Hedwig Oktavia Sneikus, born on the 19^th of November 1878 in Virbalis (). He brought already four children into the marriage (the first wife Klara died): Gregor, Walfried, Erich and Vera. Karl had two children with Hedwig: Lydia and Bruno.

Lydia and Alexander married on the 11^th of August 1935 in Marijampole in the greek-catholic church (). Lydia had her first son Klaus (at that time Nikolai) on the 12^th of April 1936 in Marijampole. The second son, Vladimir, was born on the 1^st of August 1939 in Kalvarija.

Alexander became a victim of the "Stalinist purge": he was arrested on the 30th of Juli 1940 by the National Comittee for Inner Affairs because of counter-revolutional activity. Yet in Kaunas he has been a member of an organisation of young Russians, the so-called "Jaunarusiu" (young russians)". This group of russian emigrants set up an information service by emigrants for emigrants in Lithuania and dealt mostly with political topics. In cooperation with emigrants in Paris they prepared - as accused by the KGB - an active fight against the Soviet Union with the aim of the reestablishment of the monarchy.

First Alexander was in the hard worker prison in Kaunas. There he was questioned, probably also tortured until he admitted his guilt. My father and I were at the KGB-archive and we saw the old original documents. There are a lot of pages just full of questionings, alternatly in Lithuanian and Russian. Every single page is signed by Alexander himself. The case is not very voluminous. This was apparently the case because Alexander was brought to Siberia very quickly. There exist heavy books about other citizens of Lithuania who have been supervised by the KGB for years.

On the 23^rd of April 1941 - without beeing present - Alexander was condemned to 8 years in Siberia (GULAG Vorkuta, Pechora, north the polar circle) in a Muscovite sentence. It was reported that Alexander Medwedeff died in the region Archangelsk (at the white sea, close to the polar circle). His niece Tatjana Kudriavceff told me about a message of Alexander he had sent in 1950 from a hospital in Komi. It was just a piece of jotting paper, teared off hastily. It was only a short message. Apparently he was not allowed to establish contact with his family before and in hospital he had the chance to do so. This was the last sign of life of him.

In the early 90's Lydia reported his missing in a special newspaper in Lithuania. A GULAG companion of Alexander, who unfortunately already deceased, was found and confirmed his death. It is not known where the documents of this search are now.

In the course of the agreement between Hitler and Stalin the ethnic Germans were resettled to Germany and were naturalized there. According to Lydia the Russian occupation was very dangerous for the Germans in Lithuania than the resettlement to Germany. Therefore nearly everyone who was german from the descent seized the opportunity and resettled.

In spring 1941 after the kidnapping of Alexander she arrived together with her two children, her mother and some others in a camp in Grotniki (Poland under German administration). In autumn/winter of the same year they all were transfered to Werningerode. There Lydia became acquainted with Leonid Oschmiansky, married him and moved with him to Oker. She had two children with him: Edgar, born in 1944, and Dagmar, born in 1950. They separated later again and Lydia married Erich Pätz. Lydia Pätz died on the 31^st of August 1995 in Oker.

Alexander had a sister called Olga, who was probably (according to photos) some years older than he. In Marijampole Olga learned to know Georg Kudriawceff (Lithuanian: Kudrevcevas) and married him later (). Georg was a Russian teacher at the school in Marijampole. They had together one daughter, Tatjana (), born on the 6^th of November 1930. Olga died in 1941 during one of the first bombings in Marijampole. Tatjana and her father had been in Kyrbati, as they came home they found their house in ruins and Olga dead. Georg married again and lived until his dead (probably 1970) in Marijampole. The mother of Alexander and Olga resettled to Germany together with Lydia and her family in 1941. But according to Tatjana she came back to Lithuania where she died in 1949

Today Tatjana lives in Vilnius, where we visited her in spring 2000 as we travelled Lithuania. ().

Bruno (), born on the 10^th of September 1916 in Parausen, who was the youngest of the brothers and sisters, was the only one, who died during the war. There are picture documents of him from the Russia battle (he fought on the side of the Germans) and letters from his vacations in Lithuania during his military service.

Erich () born on the 17^th of January 1907, was the only one of the brothers and sisters who did not want to leave Lithuania at the beginning of the 1940ies. In 1946 he was condemned to 10 years of imprisonment in Siberia and came back home in 1956. In 1957 he married Brone and had two sons with her, who we visited in spring 2000. Above all Vydas helped me a lot during my search for documents about Alexander Medwedeff and spent many hours in the archive. Besides it was Erich's family who kept in touch with all the emigrated members of the family. This made it easier for me to find my relatives.
In 2003 we met Vydas again, this time in Salzburg in Austria

Walfried () was married twice. With his first wife he had two children, Leo and Edith. These two live in Germany today. After the death of their mother they spent their childhood in Lithuania with different relatives. Together with them they resettled to Germand in the 1940ies.
In 1948 Walfried married Else (with maiden name Fuchs) and emigrated with her to Chicago (USA). With Else he had one daughter, Helga.

Gregor () founded a flight school in Nida in Lithuania and was later a flight officer during the war. At the end of the war he and his family moved to Germany. Later they emigrated to the USA to L.A.. Today his family live in the region of L.A. and in Vancouver, Kanada.
During our visit in Lithuania we were also in Nida and visited the remains of the glider's school.

Vera () emigrated to Chicago also to the United States. Later she moved to Florida because of health reasons. She had four children: Leo, Danguole (Maria), Erikas (Erik) and Birute (Juljia). Leo emigrated to Australia, the rest of the family lives in the south east of the United States today.