Monika Alexandrovich (Jakes) 1887-1973 met and married Stanislaus Alexandrovich in Drongan, Ayrshire in 1908. She also became known as Mary or Mariona.
Monika's father was German and her mother Polish. Monika was born in Lomza, Poland, her twin sister dying at birth. When she was 2, her Polish mother died in childbirth. There are many basic errors in Monika's and Stanislaus' Scottish marriage certificate, due to mutual language difficulties; Monika had migrated to Scotland a matter of only 11 weeks previously and knew no English, or indeed, the Lithuanian native tongue of Stanislaus. The maiden name of her Polish mother is recorded as Elsbieta Stazzaittena which was the best spelling attempt that Monika and Stanislaus could convey to the Scottish clerk. We believe the correct spelling would have been close to Elzbieta Statsczenie (Miss Stateczny). Her own name is erroneously recorded as Mary Yakus (Monika Jakes) and Stanislaus's as Constantin Alexandravisla (Stanislaus Alexandrovich).
Monika's father, Symon Jakes, came from Bremen in Germany. Symon was an advocate in the law courts of Kaunas, Lithuania, in partnership with a fellow German lawyer, Dromerstein. Symon remarried the widow of his law partner and his second wife brought a coaching inn business into the marriage and Symon expanded the inns from Bremerhaven to Odessa. The Jakes family followed the progress of the coaching inns and stayed in Riga, Latvia and in Estonia; Monika preferred the beauty of Odessa where she spent most of her adolescence.
Monika travelled with a female Jewish friend to the small mining village of Drongan, chosen because her stepmother's cousin was living there. Monika was avoiding the pressure to marry a wealthy Turkish suitor since her two stepsisters had both married wealthy Turks. It was a wise decision as her stepsisters and their families were killed during the Turkish Revolution.
In 1907, Monika travelled from Bremerhaven, after spending 3 months in Bremen,her father's home city with the intention of migrating to America; he maternal uncle was already living there. Most of Monika's belongings were stolen in Bremen so she travelled with what little money she had left to Britain. Monika arrived at Hull but was rejected for emigration by the Americans on medical grounds because of her glaucoma.
Monika arrived in Drongan, Ayrshire, on 31st October 1907 and within a few weeks became engaged to Stanislaus. She arrived on a freezing All Souls' Night to a bare, shuttered house because the landlady had eloped - the family folk lore is that it was with Monika's fiance. A migrant Polish family in the village took pity on her and looked after her.
Monika married Stanislaus only a few weeks later on 22nd January 1908, aged 20. Their family consisted of Franceska (our mother Frances), Jadviga (Susie), Edward, Agnesa (Agnes) and 3 children who died in infancy, Antonina, Alanah and Vincent who died aged 15 months. Stanislaus was killed in action in 1918. Another son, Joseph, was born in 1922 to another father.
The new family weren't wealthy but they paid for two of Monika's former servants to migrate from Odessa to help her out with her growing family. However, as soon as they set foot in England, the two servants kept travelling on and migrated to America.
Monika was a feisty lady and two wars against Germany had taught her to conceal her German ethnicity. When two German spies became her lodgers in 1942, she helped War Intelligence apprehend them. By chance, Monika had turned from the supper table to fetch something when her two new lodgers started insulting her in her native German, which fortunately concealed her shocked reaction. Monika reamined impassive as she was regularly insulted and cursed in German over a period of months before the lodgers were satisfied that she did not understand German. Meanwhile, Monika set about investigating her lodgers' belongings and discovered a radio transmitter in their room.
A long running subterfuge was devised by Intelligence to feed the spies with wrong information. Specially prepared radio programmes were broadcast and false reports were published in newspapers for the spies' consumption alone; Monika would turn the radio on at the appropriate time and deliver the fake newspapers to deceive the spies into thinking the media reports were genuine. The lodgers' confidence in the quality of the intelligence was demonstrated by their increasing presence at home. False maps and reports of the Luftwaffe's "successful" strikes on the wartime docks, concocted only for the consumption of Monika's two lodgers, certainly aided the war effort and ultimately saved many British lives. The ruse was uncovered when a German priest greeted her in her native German at home, the spies having believed that she hadn't understood any of their insults or conversation. None of her immediate family were aware of the dangerous situation until it was all over. Monika refused any formal recognition of her bravery for fear that she would suffer reprisals from the spies after they were released from prison.
Monika was always high spirited. She had a deep loathing of cats, the result of her childhood experiences. Annoyed with getting the blame for the breakages of ornaments instead of her stepmother's cat, she flew into a rage when the cat broke another valuable piece of china when she was home alone. Monika beat the cat with a poker and became alarmed when she thought she had killed it. The Russian winter was just beginning as Monika smuggled the cat's corpse out of the house; she walked until the falling snow became too deep. She dug a grave for the cat in a fast growing snow drift and returned home. Despite her stepmother's wailing for her missing pet, Monika enjoyed life without it. However, many months later in Spring, as the last of the winter snows melted, Monika was shocked when the cat returned home alive; the cat never broke another ornament or entered a room where Monika was present. Thus, began Monika's life long hatred of cats' and their preternatural power over life and death.
Monika narrowly avoided causing a major diplomatic incident as a young teenager. She was greatly discomfited when she was judged by her stepmother as too young to attend a dinner her parents were hosting for a very important visitor although her two older stepsisters were dining with the distinguished guest. She fumed as she was forced to watch the proceedings from an upstairs gallery. Monika directed her annoyance towards her stepmother who scandalised polite society by her avant garde penchant for cigarettes and cigars. Monika emptied the gun powder from a bullet into one of the cigars, hoping her stepmother would smoke it at the dinner table. However, nothing eventful happened during the dinner. At about 2 a.m. the house was shattered by an explosion from the kitchen; the butler had smoked the spiked cigar and blown off his hair and eye brows. It was fortunate that the cigar had not been smoked by the distinguished dinner guest - Otto von Bismarck.
A major reason for Symon Jakes giving up his chain of coaching inns was the harrassment by drunken Cossack soldiers who would demand free food and drink and steal the inn horses. Monika recounted the horror of an incident which happened in Odessa involving Black Sea Cossacks (not Dons) in the family home. The Cossacks rode their horses up from the shores of the Black Sea, up the Potemkin Steps and into her home. The still mounted Cossacks rode up the interior staircase of Monika's home, destroying belongings with each slash of their sabre. Monika's father was away on business so a servant remonstrated against the destruction; the Cossacks replied by severing his head with one stroke of the sabre.
Little is known of Stanislaus Liskowski, father of Helena. Born in Poland, he migrated with his family to London where Helena met and married Alexander Rastigaev. His occupation is given as "gardener" on Helena's and Alexander's marriage certificate. The family folk lore is that the was a wealthy furrier. Alexander was a skin dresser in 1905 so there may be some substance in this belief.
