In her memoirs, Paths of Exile, published in the United States in 1978, Zinaida Nikolayevna Zhemchuzhnaya, who had lived for many years in Harbin, described her visit to that department store after her arrival from Moscow: «Churin's seemed so luxurious to me, like the Grand Hotel. I experienced the long-forgotten pleasure of shopping, selecting cloth, trying dresses, shoes, and hats. Soon I was owner of a fur seal cloak,
Laptop, so light and soft after my clumsy fur coat, a new hat, shoes, boots, and several pairs of silk stockings.» 7
Young and pretty Russian émigrés worked at the store, modeling the latest collections. Nikolai Bryansky, who now lives in Australia, writes about one of them, Ludmila Nikolayevna VasilyevaLebedeva, his mother-in-law: «To support her family, Ludmila Nikolayevna took a job as a typist at the CERR,
Women's Shoes, and in the evenings she showed dresses at Churin's Department Store.» 8 There she met Nikolai Nikolayevich Vasilyev, a former naval officer and a widower with three children. They soon married. The story of Vasilyeva-Lebedeva, who subsequently became a famous dramatic actress, was typical of the period. She was born in Moscow in 1901 to Kazimir Iosifovich Serafinovich, a doctor born in Vienna, and Tatyana Kachaganova, from the family of the Italian sculptor Cacciagani, who came to Russia in
Opposite: The Church of the Protection of the Holy Virgin Mother, built in 1930, in the Old Cemetery, Harbin. Photo by Alexandre Vassiliev, 1993.
Above: A view of Shanghai, 1920s.
the reign of Catherine the Great to ornament St. Petersburg. Ludmila's father died young of tuberculosis and her mother moved to Siberia in 1908. During the revolution, young Ludmila, who had just graduated from the seventh grade of the Romanov Gymnasium in Tomsk, was sent to Omsk, away from the disorder and chaos of the city. There she took a job as a typist first in the Artillery Department and then in the office of Admiral Kolchak. Ludmila Nikolayevna recalled, «His personal orders had to be typed without a single mistake of type. I remained with Supreme Commander Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak right up until the evacuation, 14 November 1919. We evacuated, and I had to travel in the admiral's train, continuing my work along the way. At the Yenisei Station near Krasnoyarsk, we were separated by the Czechs, who took Admiral Kolchak, his wife, Anna Vasilyevna, and his retinue in one car under their guard. I was left to the fates.» 9
Ludmila Nikolayevna met her future husband, Innokentii Ivanovich Lebedev, during this time. With great difficulties, she managed to escape with her mother and infant daughter, Natalia, to Manchuria via Verkhneudinsk and Chita. After working as a model at Churin's, Ludmila Nikolayevna took part in amateur theater and by the late 1930s had become a favorite of the public, playing leading roles in the troupes of Vassily Tomsky and Vera Panova. In 1956, with her third husband, Abram Pevzner, she emigrated to Australia, where she continued her stage career until the end of her life.
In addition to Churin's store, Harbin had several other houses of ready-towear clothing. Among them was VolgaBaikal at 61 Kitaiskaya Street, which belonged to the brothers Krinkevich, Kirillov, and Kamov and specialized in dresses and lingerie. Konsovsky had a special store of ready-to-wear at 168 Kitaiskaya Street. On the same street, at 152 was the Viennese Association, managed by Karsha, Khutoryansky, and Blyakhman. Nearby were several other stores: Petrov's, which sold «coats, cloaks, and suits»; the Oborot Store, which belonged to Mazursky and Yankilovich; and the Louvre atelier, run by Kazachkov and Bergolson. Felix Pisarsky, an émigré now living in Hong Kong, recalls, «Most of the stores dealing with fashion and custom dresses in Harbin were situated on Kitaiskaya Street. The ladies then dressed in a firstclass way. When winter came, Kitaiskaya Street was the site of competition of furs, dresses, and everything festive.» 10
Many stores were also found on Mostovaya Street, including Luxe, Manchurian Association, Clothing, Cheap Bazaar, and Depot of Ready-to-wear. The owner of the Luxe ready-to-wear salon, Galina Andreyevna Vinogradova, lived in China for a while before she moved to Australia with her daugh-
ter in 1956 and started a dressmaking business. Olga Stefanovna Koreneva, publisher of the magazine Politekhnik, supplied details about the store's work: «The Luxe salon had a workshop with seamstresses, some of whom took sewing home. The salon had a millinery workshop, where they sold ladies' hats. The salon made, besides dresses, blouses with cross-stitch embroidery that were very popular. I bought dresses for myself at the Luxe as well as at Churin's store at the Wharf, and in New City I bought dresses and had them made to order.» 11
Vinogradova's daughter Kaleria Mikhailovna Avramenko recalls that the women of Harbin were fashion conscious, but tried to copy Western fashion. They imported French and American magazines, such as Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. Olga Korneva told me about a light blue dress with silver embroidery that she ordered at Churin's, based on a Vogue pattern, that still hangs in her closet in Australia.