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Helena Złotnicka

1886–1979

Born
10 Apr 1886, Tbilisi
Country of birth
Russian Empire, today Georgia
Died
25 Apr 1979, Madrid
facts
6
sources
1
images and files
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Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

A life in time

  1. Born · Tbilisi

    Birth, Tbilisi

  2. Child born: Princess Leonida Bagration of Mukhrani

    Birth, Tbilisi

  3. Died · Madrid

    Death, Madrid

What was it like?

The world around Tbilisi, 1886: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Helena was born the same year as Frank Lloyd, Michael Curtiz, and Victor McLaglen.

Born the same year

  • Frank Lloyd

    British film director (1886–1960)

  • Michael Curtiz

    Hungarian-American director (1886–1962)

  • Victor McLaglen

    British-American actor (1886–1959)

  • Vittorio Pozzo

    Italian football player and manager (1886-1968)

  • David Ben-Gurion

    Israeli politician, Zionist leader, prime minister of Israel (1948–1953, 1955–1963) - (born1886–1973)

  • Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

    German architect (1886–1969)

Fashion

Men's Traditional Georgian Attire

Georgian men wore a tightly-fitting kaftan called an arkhaluk, often topped with a chokha, a wool coat featuring distinctive cartridge holders on the chest. While the arkhaluk served as daily work attire for many, the chokha was considered essential for festive occasions and public appearances.

Tushin Women's Silver Ornamentation

Tushin women's traditional shirts were often decorated with heavy silver ornaments, which included modern Russian coins soldered to rings and attached to silver chains. The front of these garments was sometimes accented with black wool inserts and bright, pear-shaped patterned cotton fabric from Russia.

Music

Festival songs at Maslenitsa

During the Maslenitsa festival, Georgian girls sang songs with the refrain "kleriar-i" while swinging on swings set up under house eaves or balconies.

Street and home musicians

A traveling musician known as a minstrel would play an instrument resembling a bagpipe for a few coins (groshes) at people's homes. Meanwhile, streets and yards in Tiflis frequently became concert spaces, with people gathering on balconies or surrounding musicians to join the performance.

Getting around

River rafts and rail return

Peasants often floated goods downstream to bazaars on small rafts and, after selling the timber from the rafts, returned home by train.

Travel times between major cities

A trip from Batum to Tiflis by train took 14 hours, while the arduous road journey from Tiflis to Vladikavkaz covered 126 miles in less than 20 hours.

Daily life

Fetching water from the Mtkvari river

In Tiflis, the city did not have a piped water system, so residents relied on water carried by ox-carts, donkeys, and water-carriers from the Mtkvari River, wells, and streams.

Strict rules for schoolgirls in Tiflis

Schoolgirls in Tiflis wore standardized uniforms and were strictly prohibited from being out in public after 5 p.m. to ensure they focused on their studies.

Food

Foraging supplemented limited food supplies

During times of food shortages, families supplemented their diet by gathering wild edible plants, roots, and young vine shoots from fields and meadows.

Peasant diet focused on corn and greens

The staple diet for ordinary peasants in the late 19th century consisted primarily of corn, millet-based gomi, greens, cheese, and seasonal fruits, with meat being a rare treat reserved for holidays.

Prices and wages

Average daily worker wages in Tbilisi

In February 1914, a worker in Tbilisi earned an average daily wage of 2 rubles and 39 kopecks, with specific trades ranging from 80 kopecks for a day laborer to 3.5 rubles for a heater.

Cost of essential goods in Tbilisi

In Tbilisi, a worker could purchase one girvanka (409 grams) of various essential goods for a total of 1 ruble and 53.5 kopecks, such as bread for 4 kopecks and meat for 14 kopecks.

Work

Child Labor in Shoe Factories

At the Adelkhanov Shoe Factory in Tiflis, young boys worked alongside adults, often performing manual tasks like fetching and carrying, in a harsh industrial environment. Authorities expressed significant concern regarding the impact of these factory conditions on the health and upbringing of the large number of minors employed there.

Human Carriers Replaced Furniture Vans

In Tiflis, furniture and goods were frequently transported by teams of 60 to 80 human carriers, as furniture vans were unknown. Even heavy items like pianos were moved piece by piece on the backs of these laborers.

News and letters

Postal and telegraph relay systems in Georgia

In late 19th-century Georgia, the postal system relied on diverse human actors, including Ossetian post riders and carts traveling over poor roads. Telegrams and mail moved along the same paths, with neither being truly instantaneous since both required relaying between stations.

Time taken for telegram delivery

Telegrams sent from Vienna or Berlin to Tbilisi typically took two to three days to arrive. Meanwhile, transit telegrams passing through the Caucasus from Europe to India took six to seven days on average.

During their lifetime

  1. 1898

    1898: Spain loses overseas colonies

    In 1898, the Spanish-American War resulted in the loss of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, deeply affecting the national psyche.

  2. 1900

    1900 Work Accident Law established employer responsibility

    The 1900 Work Accident Law made employers legally responsible for workplace accidents, marking a major shift in labor rights.

  3. 1904

    Electric Trams Arrive in Tbilisi

    In 1904, the electric tram arrived in Tbilisi, replacing traditional horse-driven carriages.

  4. 1905

    Funicular Cable Car Built in Tbilisi

    In 1905, a Belgian company built a funicular cable car in Tbilisi to carry passengers to Mtatsminda mountain.

  5. 1918

    1918 flu epidemic ends urban death cycles

    The 1918 flu pandemic was the last major epidemic to severely impact urban life, after which cities began growing through natural increase.

  6. 1918

    Georgia Declares Independence as Nation-State

    On May 26, 1918, Georgia declared its independence, establishing the Democratic Republic of Georgia.

Family

Spouses

Children

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.