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NELKA
(Mrs. Helen de Smirnoff Moukhanoff.)
1878-1963
A Biographical Sketch.
by Michael Moukhanoff
1964

In attempting this biographical sketch of Nelka I am using the
memories of 45 years together and also a great number of letters as
material. Her Aunt, Miss Susan Blow, had the habit of keeping
Nelka's letters over the years. There are some as early as when

Nelka was only five years old and then up to the year 1916, the year
her aunt died. These letters reflect very vividly the personality,
the ideas, the aspirations, the disappointments and the hopes of a
person over a period of a long life. They paint a very real picture
of her personality and for this reason I am using quotations from
these letters very extensively.

Her father was Theodor Smirnoff, of the Russian nobility. Her
grandmother had tartar blood in her veins and was born Princess
Tischinina. Nelka's father was a brilliant man, finishing the
Imperial Alexander Lyceum at the head of his class. A versatile
linguist, he joined the Russian diplomatic service and occupied
several diplomatic posts in various countries, but died young, when
Nelka was only four years old, and was buried in Berlin. Nelka
therefore hardly knew him, though she remembered him and throughout
her life had a great veneration for him and loyalty for his memory.

Nelka's mother was Nellie Blow, the daughter of Henry T. Blow of St.
Louis, Missouri. The Blow family, of old southern aristocratic
stock, moved from Virginia to St. Louis in 1830. Henry T. Blow was
then about fifteen years old and had several brothers and sisters.
He was a successful business man who became very wealthy and was also
a prominent public and political figure, both in St. Louis and
nationally. He was a friend of both Abraham Lincoln and of President
Grant and received appointments from them. He was minister to
Venezuela and later Ambassador to Brazil. He was active in politics
from 1850 on. Though his brothers were southern democrats, Henry Blow
took a stand against slavery and upheld the free-soil movement.
During the Civil War he was the only one of the family to take the
side of the Union and spent much of his time getting his brothers out
of prison camps. For a time he was state senator and for two terms
was Congressman in Washington. He also served as one of the three
Commissioners for the District of Columbia.

He was married to Minerva Grimsley and had ten children. His daughter
Nellie Blow, while in Brazil with her father, met Theodor Smirnoff
who was then secretary at the Russian Embassy there. She married him
in Carondolet, part of St. Louis, where the family lived, in 1872.
They had three children, a boy and a girl, who died in infancy in St.
Petersburg, Russia, and another girl, Nelka, who was born in 1878 and
was therefore the only living child.

Henry T. Blow's oldest daughter (and Nelka's aunt) Miss Susan Blow
was a prominent figure in the American educational movement, writing
and lecturing on education, and the one who introduced the Froebel
kindergarten system in the United States. The youngest daughter,
Martha, married Herbert Wadsworth of Geneseo, N.Y. She was a very
talented musician and painter and later became a very known
horsewoman.

After Nelka's father died in Europe, her mother returned to America
and it was the first time that Nelka came here. As a daughter of a
Russian, Nelka was also a Russian subject and remained a Russian that

way to the end. After the Russian Revolution, having no allegiance to
the Soviet Government, she became what is known as "stateless," a
position which in later years she liked, for she always said that she
belonged to the World, not just one country.

But as a child her mother wanted to bring her up as a Russian even
though in many ways this was difficult, for there were no relatives
and few connections left in Russia, her mother did not speak the
language and all ties and connections were in America.

Because of this conflict of attachments, Nelka's mother and she
traveled many times back and forth between Europe and America. Her
mother gave her a very complete and broad education both in America
and in Europe. In Europe she attended a very exclusive and rather
advanced school in Brussels. Because of this Nelka spoke not only
perfect French and English, but German as well.

When she was ten years old she went to a school in Washington. She
then already showed interest and love for animals which later became
a dominant feature in her life.

have some little guinea pigs that are very cute."
She also at that age showed intellectual interests:
Washington 1888.
"I read very much now whenever I get a chance to. I think it is

Her stay in the school in Brussels was very profitable for her studies and development and also showed in her letters how much interest she took in everything.

"I know what you mean about my getting older. You think that at every different age I would be content to be that age if I did not get any older. So I was. When I was ten I thought it would be dreadful to be eleven, but when I was eleven I was quite satisfied if I did not have to be twelve, and so on. But ever since I have been fourteen I have thought it was awful and have never become reconciled to it."

"I was first in grammar, literature and physics. Do you know the
'Melee' of Victor Hugo? I have just read it and I like it so much. I
would like to see some persons who have lived and who live. It makes
me crazy to see people vegetate."