 Evgeny Smurgis (Russia)
Teodor Rezvoi (Russia)
The All-World Club of Odessans which is located in Odessa on the corner of Bazarnaya and Marazlievskaya streets (or up until not long ago on the corner of Kirov and Engels) lived through quite a large sensation on the evening of August 30th. The Odessan, Fedor Rezvoi (his passport shows Teodor instead of Fedor), announced that he was planning to cross the Atlantic solo on a rowboat in the beginning of October. At the presentation the gathered guests were given a surprise: the boat would be named “Odessa” regardless of the fact that investments by the Odessans themselves in financing the program were next to nil. The 33-year old, tall, shy, red-haired artist and designer, Teodor, himself decided to drastically change the “profession by birth” of his ancestors. And in embarking on this new “good-birth” career, Teodor was suddenly compared somehow with the “pet” of Odessa: the famous Mikhail Zhvanetski, who didn’t just “show up” at the right place at the right time.
Mr. Kenneth Crutchlow, the director of the Ocean Rowing Society (London), gave a speech before the gathered famous Odessans and representatives of the press and television. He announced that, regardless of financial difficulties, Teodor Rezvoi’s crossing will occur shortly after the start of the Dual-Crew Atlantic Rowing Races which was scheduled for October 7, 2001, out of the Los Gigantes Harbor on the Western coast of the island of Tenerife. The last race occurred in 1997. Attempts to cross the Atlantic solo on a rowboat seem to be the most worrying and dramatic in the history of ocean rowing. There are only 17 of these dare-devils representing four countries who have crossed the Atlantic: from Great Britain (10), from France (5), from the USA (1), and from Brazil (1). If Teodor Rezvoi is successful, Ukraine may become the fifth country of this extraordinary club of solo oarsmen on rowboats. Further, Kenneth Crutchlow added that Teodor Rezvoi’s Russian past is so interesting and instructive that it is a whole story in itself….
The red-haired Varangian Teodor, or just simply Fedor, the ninth generation descendant of the supplier of live sterlet to Elizaveta Petrovna’s (Empress Elizabeth) court, strongly stood out in the Odessan gathering of individuals with his light and extremely thinning chèvelúre. Only his extraordinary gentleness and shyness made him different from his forefather, Terenti Rezvoi, who was nicknamed by the Empress for his efficiency and skill (Translator’s note: “rezvoi” in Russian means “fast” as pertains to horses.). Teodor’s appearance has retained the genes of the native Russians from Ostashkov, which is located in the province of Tver. The Rezvois were very honored in this city. Terenti’s son, Peter Terentevich, began retailing groceries, provisions, and fruit in Petersburg. Catherine II herself always called the provisions supplier to her court nothing less than “my contractor.” Rezvoi was successful among the nobility as well. He married his daughter, Anna, off to a Turk within the court, who was titled by the great prince and heir to the throne, Ivan. After being captured, this former Turkish noble was given to Catherine II to be a servant within her court as a barber and shoe-shiner. The heir to the throne, who later became Emperor Pavel I, was very fond of the Turk and ordered the barber to change his name to Kutaisov. In 1799, he made him a count and then promoted him to general. The newly-titled countess at this time was raising their 14-year old son, Alexander, who was to become a general of the artillery and die at the Raev fortification during the Battle of Borodin at the age of 27. The Russian general’s portrait may be seen in the Hermitage Museum in the gallery of the War of 1812. The portrait of the countess, whose family name was Rezvoi, is the work of F. S. Rokotov and is now held in the State Artistic Museum in Minsk….
Within the Rezvoi family there were many honored professions and the generations following after the supplier of the czar’s court became more scientific and artistic. Peter Terentevich’s grandson became a scientific lexicographer and member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. A very large article was written about Modest Dmitrievich in the second edition of the Extensive Soviet Encyclopedia; however, it was removed in the last issue. Aside from him there is yet another slightly famous relative, Dmitri Petrovich Rezvoi, who was a famous Soviet geologist and drafter of tectonic maps of the Himalayas. The son of this scientist, Pavel Dmitrievich, was also a geologist and became the father of Teodor, our main character. Pavel Dmitrievich moved to Ukraine and now Teodor’s curly golden-locked son, four-year old Dmitri, has, unbeknownst to him, become the tenth generation of his Tver forefather and a citizen of Ukraine….
This wandering through this genealogical family tree may seem to some unnecessary; however, I believe that we cannot get enough of it. Many of us have many forgotten branches in our family tree and it is very important to save its trunk and lengthen its life for centuries. When looking at Teodor Rezvoi and his son you understand what wise genes are. And it is wonderful to hear simple and clear phrases such as “He takes after his grandfather…” or “He looks exactly like his father….”
It was not simple for Teodor to become a conqueror of the sea. While working as a designer on the Internet site “Ocean Rowing Society,” he watched who set out alone into the “Sea of Darkness.” In April, he was on board Frenchman Emmanuel Coindré’s boat just before his record race across the Atlantic. The chance for Ukraine to become the fifth country to bring birth to yet another famous slave of the sea is very real. Now, as it turns out, everything depends on Teodor-Feodor Rezvoi’s will and stamina. Besides just humor, the Odessans themselves are full of optimism and wild emotions alternately with their fair share of care. They will not leave that out. Ways will be found on how to take notice of or how to help in the hazardous venture of their fellow countryman and if not now, then later when the descendant of ancient Russian fame carves the words “ocean oarsman Teodor Pavlovich Rezvoi from Odessa” into the family tree. At least something will change in the All-World Club of Odessans then. And the never-ceasing sound of the ocean and the measurable creaking of oars will settle in a home framed in chestnut trees and acacias.
But we will have to wait for the start from the island of Gomera, which is in the group of the Canary Islands, and we will also have to wait for information from the satellite on how the seven-meter “peanut shell” bearing the name “Odessa” holds her course towards the island of Barbados. We hope to see his photographs transmitted in a minute’s time over the satellite and, in turn, that we will be able to send him words of support and good luck during his 100-day rowing marathon.
Another sensation which poured anointing oil on the spirits of the Odessans was the announcement that the famous Russian adventure-hunter and round-the-world sailor, Fedor Konyukhov, is right behind Rezvoi in preparing to get in his rowboat already being built in England. “Two Feodors” is not a remake of a famous film and the adventures of these two Feodors in the Atlantic will most assuredly liven up the long-standing monopoly of the Brits and French. Just wait and you’ll see “schools” of sailors from the CIS taking to the ocean. As the poet with an Ethiopian past once wrote:
«…The tongue of the Slavs' proud grandson, the Finn, and now
The wild Tungus and Kalmyk, the steppes' friend.»
By the way, Fedor Konyukhov was recently a guest of the president of Kalmykia. And one more question: Who will be the third? That is if these two are successful.
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