Three Sevastopol Addresses of V. V. Zykova (Fomina) in the Canvas of Her “Don Quixote” Life
Authors: Vakhromeeva Oksana 
Published: April 2022

The hero city of Sevastopol knows many family stories that have been carefully preserved for decades; they are located at the junction of oral history and homeland studies, and many of them formed the basis of excursion routes in the beautiful city. This article tells about the fate of Valentina Vasilyevna Zykova (Ur. Fomina, in her first marriage Kozlova) (February 23, 1887 — May 2, 1966), who lived a difficult and eventful life, not stopping at any obstacles and not fearing the storms of fate. Fomina was born into a family of Russian patriots: father, Vasily Petrovich Fomin — regular soldier, retired major general, teacher of the artillery school in Novocherkassk; mother, Anna Akimovna Chikileva came from a noble family living near Taganrog, graduated from the Smolny Institute of noble maidens. Parents raised three highly educated daughters: Evgenia Vasilievna (an excellent doctor), Valentina Vasilievna (a talented teacher) and Olga Vasilievna (impulsive nature, who had singing talent). Elder Fomins came to Sevastopol to unite the whole large family, daughters, their spouses and their grandchildren under one roof. Big toiler V. P. Fomin built a stone house № 64 in one staircase along Ekaterininskaya Street (now Lenin Street, house № 46), inside which he designed a small kindergarten, which he looked after until the end of his days. The house was located on the Sevastopol “upper city”, next to the Peter and Paul Church and Vladimir Cathedral, next to the peers of the defense of Sevastopol (1854—1855). And until now, the “handsome house” pleases the townspeople and guests of the city with its architectural design and ceremonial look. V. V. Zykova (Fomina) called Sevastopol her favorite city and believed that only in it she was truly happy. In the first Sevastopol period, she was surrounded by three generations of the family — parents, first husband, graduate of the law faculty of St. Petersburg University, B. I. Kozlov, who died of typhus in 1920, three of their sons, as well as a family of sisters. Valentina Vasilyevna got along very well with all of them. And in the troubled years, in order to financially support the household, she set up a small private cafe near the house, where celebrities who came to Sevastopol were invited to perform (there were F.I. Chaliapin, L.V. Sobinov, A.N. Vertinskiy), in addition members of a large family who had good voices spoke out. By 1923, his home on Catherine Street suffered a lot of losses, nationalization and compaction. Fomin was sued by her beautiful home. The following year, Fomina married a second-time military officer A.V. Zykov. In a happy marriage, Anatoly Vasilievich adopted the eldest sons, the younger children were born, a son and a daughter. At that time, the family moved to Maikop. The Maikop period was overshadowed by the arrest and execution of Valentina Vasilyevna’s second husband. After that, the stigma of the wife and children of the “people’s enemy” was entrenched for a long time to well-educated, educated and noble people. Having received a historical and philological education at the St. Petersburg Higher (Bestuzhev) Сourses, as a volunteer at the University of Berlin and the Sorbonne, having the ability to study European languages, all his life engaged in self-education, in the first Sevastopol period V. V. Zykova (Fomina) taught history, literature and geography in a private gymnasium A. V. Podlesnaya, located on Sadovaya Street, house number 2 (now the corner of Lyudmila Pavlichenko St. and Tereshchenko St.). Later, Zykova taught in schools in Central Asia and Abkhazia. A quarter of a century later, V. V. Zykova (Fomina) returned to Sevastopol, she lived in the family of the youngest daughter A. A. Leontyuk helping to raise a grandson. Biography of V. V. Zykova (Fomina) takes place around three Sevastopol addresses. In parallel, the fate of her close relatives is highlighted. The family archive of the Fomins — Kozlovs — Malovs — Antipovs — Salikovs — Zykovs was collected by several generations of family members; It is mainly concentrated in Sevastopol and St. Petersburg. The author of the article was in correspondence with A. A. Leontyuk since 1998, who expresses heartfelt gratitude for the opportunity to learn more about her mother — V. V. Zykova (Fomina).