Obituary of Eugenia K Mordwinkin

Eugenia Kalinski was born in Maykop, Russia, the second daughter of Ana an accountant and Alexei a physician on December 15, 1929. After spending 5 years in Maykop she and her family moved to Moscow where they lived for about a year in a number of tiny one room flats and other accommodations. In 1935 Eugenia, her sister and her mother (her father died in 1933) moved to Yessentuki, Russia, a city in the foothills of the Caucuses Mountains famous for its sanatoriums and therapeutic mineral water. While Eugenia and her sister attended school, their mother worked as an accountant at the Gryazelechebnitsa Sanatorium in Yessentuki. In August 1942, the German Army occupied the Caucasus Mountain Region including Yessentuki. Sensing that life under the Nazi’s would be harsh, the Kalinski family fled Yessentuki in 1943 for Austria following a route that took them through Ukraine, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. During the two year journey, they slept in school houses with straw on the floor and when necessary bought food and obtained lodging by bartering and doing tasks such as mending clothes and working in the fields. In addition to covering the 1500 mile journey on foot, they were sometimes offered rides on trucks and horse drawn carts. In Austria, the Kalinski’s were housed in the Parsch Displaced Persons Camp in Salzburg, where Eugenia met and married George Mordwinkin in June 1948. After deciding to leave Europe, the family sailed from Bremerhaven Germany to Valparaiso, Chile on the troop carrier USS General W. M. Black to begin a new life in South America. The Mordwinkin’s initially lived in an apartment in Santiago but shortly thereafter moved to a house Concepcion, Chile. After spending 13 years in Chile, the family immigrated to the United States first settling in Norwalk Connecticut and eventually in Baldwinsville, New York. Eugenia is survived by Ludmila (Raleigh, NC), Tania (Syracuse, NY), Nicolay (Boca Raton, FL) and Natalia (Phoenix, NY). Grandchildren: Peter, Michael, Paul, Michael, Nicholas, Kathleen, Alexei, Elena, Andre, Alexis and Nicole; great-grandchildren, Leah, Clara, Maddox, Sophia, Madeline, and Logan. Services: 1pm Monday, November 16 at Holy Trinity Monastery, 1407 Robinson Road, Jordanville, NY. Burial will be in Holy Trinity Cemetery. Calling hours are 2–5pm Sunday at the Falardeau Funeral Home, 93 Downer Street, Baldwinsville, NY. In lieu of flowers contribution may be made to Holy Trinity Monastery, 1407 Robinson Road, Jordanville, NY 13361.