This edition is the first to publish a manuscript by Fyodor Vasilyevich Chelnokov (1866-1925), a hereditary industrialist and honorary citizen of Moscow, written by him in exile in 1919-1925. "Balkan Notebooks", the first part of the manuscript, describes the dramatic events of 1919: the invasion of the Red Army into the territory of Crimea leads to the so—called "Crimean evacuation" - a mass exodus of the population and the troops of the White army and the Entente. Together with his brother, Mikhail Vasilyevich Chelnokov, the former mayor of Moscow, the leader of the Cadets, and a large group of well—known representatives of the nobility and the bourgeoisie, the author leaves Russia on a British ship and ends up in Serbia, which has just regained its independence. The Chelnokov brothers are visiting Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the Russian delegation. Through Bulgaria, which was destroyed in the First World War, the author returns to Yalta — soon to leave his homeland forever, as described in the second part of the manuscript ("Berlin Notebooks"). Read more…