SERGEI SKADOVSKY AND HIS CITY

Sergei Baltazarovich Skadovsky, member of the State Council elected from the Taurida Governorate, 1907 / wikipedia.org

One of the prominent philanthropists of the late 19th – early 20th centuries was Sergei Baltazarovich Skadovsky, a descendant of a Polish noble family. In 1899, he donated 5,000 poods of millet to the impoverished residents of the Dnieper Uyezd of the Taurida Governorate; the Skadovsky family funded a school, and in their estate house a hospital was opened for tuberculosis patients. And this was only a small part of what the founder of the city of Skadovsk did.

A PLEASANT INHERITANCE

ergei Skadovsky was born on March 2, 1863, in Kherson. There, at the Real School, he received his secondary education, and for higher studies he went to Germany, to the Technical Institute in Karlsruhe. However, he did not complete his studies.

In 1884, his father, Baltazar Yakovlevich, passed away, and Sergei returned home. He was 21 years old, inherited his father’s estate, and decided to continue the family business. The inheritance comprised 33,000 desyatinas of land, 35,000 fine-wool sheep, about 500 horses, and numerous cattle. There was also the Zorinka estate, which was renamed Baltazarovka in honor of his father.

The younger Skadovsky threw himself into vigorous activity, becoming increasingly well known in his region. From 1886, he was an honorary member of the Kherson Provincial Board of Children’s Orphanages, and the following year, he was elected Marshal of the Nobility of the Dnieper Uyezd of the Taurida Governorate (a position to which he was re-elected several times thereafter). In the same uyezd, from 1889 and for the next six years, Sergei Skadovsky served as an honorary justice of the peace.

In 1887, in Simferopol, he met Maria Schlippe, the niece of the well-known philanthropist and major entrepreneur of that time, Sofia Falz-Fein. A year later, the young couple married. Their first two sons, Alexander and Lev, were born soon after. In time, sons Sergei and Yuri (Georgy) followed, as well as four daughters — Maria, Elizaveta, Olga, and Nina.

From an early age, Sergei Baltazarovich taught his sons to work and, most importantly, to take the family business seriously. Upon reaching the age of 18, each of them received 500 desyatinas of land, along with the opportunity to compete in how best to use those lands.

THE IDEA TO FOUND A CITY

Let us return to the time when Sergei Baltazarovich conceived the idea of founding a city. According to one document, Sergei Skadovsky purchased 5,000 desyatinas of land in 1891, while another states he bought 4,000 desyatinas in 1892…

However, Skadovsky himself described this fact best. In his letter to the governor of the Taurida Governorate, dated November 1895, he wrote: «In April of 1893 I purchased from the nobleman Grigory Lvovich Ovsyanikov-Kulikovsky, through purchase, the estate Vtoroe Primorskoe, located in the Dnieper Uyezd on the shore of the Black Sea near the bay called Dzharylgach», and further: «I built a pier in my estate for the mooring of ships, and the result exceeded my expectations…»

In 1893, Skadovsky bought 3,700.33 desyatinas of land with farm buildings near the Krasnoe estate, and already the following year, he acquired another 3,275 desyatinas. The construction of the «new little town» began.

In the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary of the 1900 edition, one can read the following about the city: «Skadovsk — a harbor on the coast of the Karkinit Gulf of the Black Sea, Taurida Governorate, Dnieper Uyezd, 70 versts from the uyezd town. Previously, only a small settlement existed here. In 1893, on the initiative of the landowner S. B. Skadovsky, a harbor was established in the Dzharylgach Bay for loading grain to be exported abroad…»

THE FIRST SERIOUS ANNIVERSARY OF SKADOVSK

The exact date of the city’s founding was indicated by its founder himself when he scheduled the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the city for July 5, 1904. This fact was reported by the newspaper Yug in August 1903. Thus, it turns out that the city of Skadovsk was founded on July 5, 1894. Its official status and name, however, appeared somewhat later.

So, on the deserted coast of the Black Sea, protected by the island of Dzharylgach, a port and harbor began to be built in 1893 on the initiative of and thanks to the funds of Sergei Baltazarovich. Settlers arrived here from Ochakov, Oleshky, Kherson… The inhabitants engaged in trade, crafts, and agriculture.

In May 1897, the first foreign ship carried out more than 40,000 poods of grain from the port. And by autumn of the same year, already 11 ships had exported 1,516,000 poods of Taurida wheat… The city gained grocery and textile shops, a mill, carpentry, joinery, and wheel-making workshops, as well as a post office, school, hospital, and pharmacy. Medical care for port workers was free of charge.

INTRODUCTION OF THE EIGHT-HOUR WORKDAY

Skadovsky was the first in Europe to introduce the eight-hour workday. Starting from that same year, 1897, regular steamship routes were established between the port and Odessa, and on November 1 a customs office was opened, allowing ships to sail to Constantinople as well. Telegraph communication and a pilot service appeared. In 1898, the bottom of the bay was cleared and the harbor was equipped. Just two years later, construction of a lighthouse began, its frame manufactured in Paris.

At the beginning of the 20th century, ships from England, Germany, Greece, and Sweden docked here. From the Skadovsk port, wool, karakul, and grain were exported. The port’s trade turnover increased with each passing year. In 1908, more than 1 million poods of grain were shipped out through the port. In addition, a steam mill and a brick-and-tile factory operated here, as well as a zemstvo school and a parish school. Most of the population was engaged in agriculture.

International Short Story Competition «ODESSSIADA»

PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENTS OF SERGEI BALTAZAROVICH

Skadovsky’s energy was inexhaustible. In 1904, he became an Actual State Councillor. During the Russo-Japanese War, on the eve of the siege of Port Arthur, Sergei Baltazarovich took part in establishing a Red Cross hospital in the Chinese city of Harbin.

From 1906 to 1912, he served in the State Council, and from 1913 to 1917 he was a member (i.e., deputy) of the zemstvo assembly of the Dnieper Uyezd and one of four representatives of the Taurida Governorate from that district. In 1915, on the Western Front, Skadovsky organized field hospitals for the Red Cross.

A BELOVED WIFE AND TRUE FRIEND

His wife, Maria, supported Sergei Baltazarovich in everything. She too was active in public life and philanthropy. In 1914, at her own expense, she established a hospital ward in Skadovsk with 39 beds for the wounded. Later, as a sister of mercy with the Red Cross, she went to the Western Front. She also assisted the wounded in the combat zone near Lviv.

Maria passed away in the autumn of 1917 in Kherson, while returning with her husband from Petrograd to Skadovsk… Her death, along with the 1917 revolution, affected Sergei Skadovsky’s health. On June 15, 1918, he died in his own home in Skadovsk at the age of 56. After his death, Sergei Baltazarovich left 20,000 desyatinas of land, as well as the estates Baltazarovka, Mikhailovka, Skadovka, Nikolaevka, Antonovka, and the island of Dzharylgach.

SKADOVSKY’S BLUE DREAM

The founder of the city had a dream — a railway connection between Skadovsk and Kherson. For him, it remained only a dream. The realization of this project could have influenced the region’s economic system, primarily through the redistribution of freight volumes among the port cities of Mariupol, Berdyansk, Kherson, and Skadovsk.

«One may assume that Skadovsky wanted the railway, which was being built at that very time, to be extended from Kherson further — to Skadovsk. After all, just six months after his appeals, a railway line appeared in Kherson. Clearly, as a man well-versed in infrastructure, he wanted it to be extended immediately. But, unfortunately, it was not to be», said Yegor Sydorovych, Candidate of Historical Sciences.

TRAGIC FATE OF THE CHILDREN

Unfortunately, the fate of many children of Serhii and Mariia Skadovski turned out to be tragic. At the end of 1919, during the civil war, members of the Skadovski and Falz-Fein families gathered together to set off by sea on the yacht Sofia II. In this way, they were trying to escape political persecution. The yacht belonged to Mariia Serhiivna Skadovska’s husband, Borys Falz-Fein, and his brother Anatolii, who lived in Switzerland. In early 1920, the vessel departed from the port of Skadovsk.

There were 12 people on board, including the crew. Soon, due to a severe storm, the sails became covered with ice, and the yacht was thrown ashore in Romania, which was controlled by border guards. The victims, frightened but still hopeful, turned to them for help.

However, the Romanians acted lawlessly: first they looted the yacht, and then killed all the passengers… The New York Times reported on this tragedy on April 20 of that same year. Among those who perished on the Sofia II were Serhii Baltazarovych’s daughters — Mariia, Olha, and Yelyzaveta, his younger son Yurii with his wife and daughter, Borys Falz-Fein, and members of the crew. Another daughter, Nina, was not mentioned.

FAMOUS RESORT

The founder of Skadovsk’s grandson, Borys Serhiovych, was the first to research the Tavria branch of his noble family. His main conclusion: it was Ukrainian, since the founder of this branch married a Ukrainian woman, Mariia Kvashenko… In 2011, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine declared the natural areas of Skadovsk a resort of national importance.

The Dzharylhach Island Nature Reserve is the pearl of the Kherson region. Here, the sea is always clean, with healing mud, numerous mineral springs, and small lakes. The shallow Dzharylhach Bay is rich in iodine-bromine compounds and hydrogen sulfide. Today, the city and the island are occupied by Russian invaders.

When copying materials, please place an active link to www.huxley.media