Elisabeth Gramkau Pollonetsky

Elisabeth I Gramkau (Pollonetsky), M.D. (1920-2001)

and

Joseph Isaac Pollonetsky (1914-1965)

Elizabeth may be spelt Elizabeth, Elizaveta, Yelizaveta.

Early life of Elisabeth Ivanovna Gramkau

Elisabeth Ivanovna Gramkau was born on 2 July, 1920, in Bukhedu, Manchuria, China. On the same day, her twin sister Olga was born. Bukhedu is some distance from Harbin, Manchuria, where the family now lived. The parents had met and been married in Harbin in 1918. Bukhedu had been chosen by the mother of the twins as the best place with the best climate for her birth-giving, since it is in the mountains. However, Bukhedu had been the scene of a significant confrontation between Japanese forces and the White Army under the Cossack Major General Vyacheslav I Volkov in 1918, during a time when train-loads of refugees from Russia were moving towards greater safety in China. At this same time, the Japanese had been re-asserting their presence in Manchuria during World War I.

Their father, Ivan Petrovich Gramkau, was of a German-Latvian (and therefore Lutheran) family, and he was a successful railway engineer, in charge of the rolling-stock of the Ussuri region. He was one of the chief engineers who were planning an extension of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Their mother, Anastasia Petrovna Bulatova was of a Russian merchant family, which had previously moved to Blagoveschensk by the Amur River. As with others, they rejected the Bolshevik Revolution, and they became part of a large number of Russian-speaking expatriates living in several parts of China. Because of their personal histories and their abilities, they could both afford and know how correctly to live a life of privilege. In such a position, and in such surroundings of poverty in China, it was their responsibility to employ local people for the maintenance of their household. The personnel included cooks, maids, seamstresses, gardeners and others.

Elisabeth and Olga Ivanovna Gramkau were raised in Harbin, Manchuria, China. There, Elisabeth and Olga were mostly home-schooled through governesses and German tutors. Particular attention was paid to fostering Elisabeth's gift for learning languages. Before she was 8 years old, she spoke Russian, German and French. At 10 years of age, she learned English. At 13 years, she learned Japanese while visiting a very small village in Japan. At 15 years, she learned Chinese very quickly.

Saint Sophia Cathedral, Harbin (modern photo)

At 17 years of age, she and her sister Olga were sent far to the south to Hong Kong to study in the Diocesan Girls School, a prep-school, where she prepared for her undergraduate studies. There, she won gold medals, and she graduated at the top of her class.

Higher education

It was after this that Elisabeth began her studies in the medical school (in English), also in Hong Kong.

It may be useful to recall that when Elisabeth was studying there, Hong Kong was still a British colony.

World War II, 1941

Elisabeth's medical education was interrupted by war, and the invasion of Hong Kong by Japan.

Elisabeth joined (at nursing level) the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps, and her work was in the Bowen Road Military Hospital. It was in this hospital that she was interned in a Japanese concentration-camp, which is what it became (there were 6 in Hong Kong). Because she had less than a cup of rice to eat per day, and because the water was contaminated, she became quite ill with beri-beri. It was said that the Japanese captors saw that she was too valuable as a physician simply to be allowed to die.

It is possible that the release involved the fact that her father was Latvian.

Her father informed her by letter that it was dangerous to go to Harbin, and on his advice, she was then able to go to Shanghai to continue her medical studies (in French). The occupation ended in 1945.

After having survived this internment, Elisabeth Ivanova moved to Shanghai, where she entered the French "Université L’Aurore", from which she graduated as a Doctor of Medicine.

Elisabeth Gramkau as a youth

Marriage

It was in Shanghai that Elisabeth unexpectedly met Joseph Isaac Pollonetsky at a social gathering. His parents were originally from Lithuania but they had then moved to Shanghai.

Elisabeth and Joseph decided that they would marry.

First, however, Elisabeth worked in a hospital for a year in Ho-Nan Province, under Dr. R McClure.

After this, she returned to Shanghai, where she had very little opportunity for work, and where she lived in penury until she married Joseph.

Although from that time she was primarily known by her husband’s surname, she officially retained the surname of her parents. This marriage changed the course of the possibilities of her life as well, and they moved westwards.

Move to Israel, 1949

In 1949 (during the period of the Chinese Civil War, just before the communist revolution), the couple moved to Israel. This move coincided approximately with the establishment of the State of Israel in May, 1949.

Elisabeth had thought that it would be an easier place to live than the available alternative (Brazil), since she would not have to learn yet another language (she thought). From the first day in Israel, it was evident that speaking Hebrew was necessary, although neither of them spoke this language. Moreover, because of the recent conflicts and the newness of the state, the economy was not yet stable.

Another detail presented itself straightaway. Because theirs was a mixed marriage, the government of Israel would not recognise the marriage as legal unless Elisabeth embraced Judaism. Had she not, there would be many consequent difficulties and obstacles.

Eventually, Elisabeth was employed in the Hadassah Hospital in Tel Aviv, since she had quickly learnt enough Hebrew (not only Hebrew, but also Yiddish) ; her husband did not have her facility with language, and he worked for a travel agency which did not require it. This situation caused Joseph concern, because although Elisabeth was managing, his difficulties with the language were certain to make it difficult for him to find adequate work in Israel.

At this time, the Israeli state was on very tight rations, and life was very difficult. They therefore both resolved to leave as soon as possible.

From the perspective of Joseph, Canada proved to be the only reasonable refuge. Moreover, it was the only likely place from which Elisabeth could help her family to escape from China. It was Elisabeth who was able first to emigrate to Canada in 1954, and Joseph only a year later.

It was later that their daughter Susan elaborated on the reason for her father's choice :

 My mother's gift for languages, inherited from her father, enabled her to integrate fully into Israeli society.  My father, 
 who spoke Hebrew only haltingly, felt like an outsider and worried (correctly) that he would be limited in his work.

Move to Canada, 1954

In Montréal, Québec, Canada, Elisabeth became a "Resident" at the Reddy Memorial Hospital. Although her medical degree was recognised in Canada, it was nevertheless required that she pass the licence examination of the Medical Council of Canada, and spend a year in internship. Her second work was at the Queen Mary Veterans Hospital.

There, Joseph also found work, and later in the decade, Elisabeth and Joseph received from the Lord 2 daughters : Abigail (Abby) and Susan (in quick succession).

In 1956, Elisabeth's parents arrived in Montréal from Hong Kong, to which they had managed to emigrate with great difficulty from Communist Mainland China. At the same time, Olga Ivanovna (her sister) had decided to move to Australia with her husband and children. Both her parents went to church (her father to a Latvian Lutheran church, and her mother to Saints Peter and Paul's Russian Orthodox Cathedral.

Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral, Montréal

Bereavement, 1958

In 1958, Elisabeth's 80-year-old father, Ivan Petrovich Gramkau, suddenly reposed from a stroke.

It was a difficult shock for Elisabeth to sustain, but she persevered.

In 1960, Dr. Elisabeth I Pollonetsky was the first woman physician to obtain a clinical appointment at Saint Mary's University Hospital. At this time, also, she was the only bilingual (French-English) physician available in the outpatient clinic of this hospital.

Elisabeth wrote about her great enjoyment of her time in Montréal, and also of her appreciation of rural Québec and the Maritimes. In particular, she noted that Lac Labelle reminded her strongly of a much-beloved lake near Harbin in China.

Elisabeth also wrote that she recognised at this time how difficult all these events were to live through, in particular having begun to raise children when she was rather older than her own daughters were when they began to be parents. Yet, despite all the difficulties she faced and survived, she found it all to be a joy, and she never lost her very acute sense of humour.

Underlying this ability was a comprehension that the gifts God had given her from the beginning were useful not only for her life, but also (and very importantly) for the lives of her family, her loved ones, her friends, and the many people whose lives were touched in positive ways by her medical expertise, and by her personal example.

Move to Ottawa, 1963

In 1963, an opportunity was presented that Elisabeth Ivanovna could not refuse. She had applied, was accepted, and then moved to Ottawa, Ontario, where she became the first woman Medical Advisor to the Canadian Pension Commission (now the Canada Pension Plan).

This change occurred with her first moving alone to Ottawa in order to prepare the way for the rest of her family. It was at the beginning that she had to face the “protestant work ethic”, and the intricacies of governmental bureaucracy (about which she also expressed a humourous attitude). (The protestant work ethic is a Calvinistic doctrine which changed the voluntary doing of good works out of love into a compulsory duty which benefits both the individual and society as a whole.)

Her husband Joseph, on moving, found work with an insurance company, and her mother began to attend the Russian Orthodox Russian Orthodox Church of Saint Nicholas (now Annunciation-Saint Nicholas Cathedral). It was because of her mother's (and later her aunt's) attendance at Saint Nicholas Church that Elisabeth Ivanovna eventually found her way back into the Orthodox Christian Church. Her daughter Susan later wrote that this return had served as a major anchor for her during the rest of her life.

Saint Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, Ottawa

Elisabeth's daughter Susan recalled that, despite her many abilities, her mother did not learn to drive until 1965, and that after 6 attempts. She also later wrote about her mother :

 I remember her in her 40s, the quintessential professional woman, very tailored, always in pearls and raw silk suits, 
 in emerald greens or periwinkle blues, with co-ordinating pumps.  Elizabeth Pollonetsky (née Gramkau) was a tour de force
 and a beauty.

Further, recalling the stories about her mother's childhood, Susan wrote that she and her sister Abby

 attributed their mother's empress-like expectations to her privileged upbringing.

Bereavement, 1965

On Tuesday, 25 October, 1965, Joseph Isaac Pollonetsky suddenly reposed in Ottawa, at the age of 51. He had suffered a fatal heart-attack. He was survived by his wife and daughters, and also by his siblings Jack and Freda (Gertsenstein).

Immediately afterwards, his body rested at the Chevra Kadisha Jewish Memorial Chapel on Cuba Avenue in Ottawa.

On Wednesday, 26 October, 1965, at 2:00 p.m., the funeral services were held in this funeral chapel.

After the funeral service, his body was interred in the Jewish Community Cemetery on Bank Street South.

At the time of her widowhood, Elisabeth Pollonetsky was left with her 2 daughters, Abigail and Susan, who were 8 and 7 years old when this occurred.

A new house, 1965

In 1965, Elisabeth Ivanovna was finally able to purchase a house at an affordable price, and in the summer-time her whole family once again had visited Lac Labelle for a brief vacation. However, the dog which they had adopted in Israel died just as they arrived, and her husband had predicted that he would be next.

Elisabeth was a lover of animals, and particularly of cats ; however, the aforementioned dog had been adopted in Israel with love by her and Joseph. A King Charles Spaniel, Elisabeth named him (as only she would likely do) "Pussycat". This longtime companion died at age 13.

Elisabeth Ivanovna was active socially in many ways, some of them associated with being the mother of 2 intelligent and active daughters.

As a very active participant and then leader of the Ottawa Home and School Associations, it was as a result of her work that the Ontario Government introduced the French-Immersion method of enabling a better learning of French. Elisabeth did not need government policy to encourage her to be a proponent of multiculturalism and multilingualism (although in Canada it was bilingualism that was beginning to spread).

Immigration of her aunt, the Nun Raphaela, 1972

In 1971, Elisabeth Ivanovna was invited to participate with a local group on a visit to Leningrad and Moscow. It was then that she was able to meet her octogenarian Aunt Anna, the Nun Raphaela (Bulatova), who was quite healthy and very active in caring for her many friends. However, there was a mutual concern about her solitude, and the likely difficulties that would come when she would become enfeebled. Thus, the process began to bring her to Canada as an official immigrant.

In her late teens (in Saint Petersburg), Anna had been tonsured into monasticism as the Nun Raphaela (Bulatova). Mother Raphaela had found herself in very difficult circumstances during the post-revolutionary years in what had now become Leningrad, USSR, and she had spent more than 5 years at hard labour in a far-north concentration-and-work camp.

Having survived that, she also survived during the Nazi siege of what was then Leningrad, USSR, in World War II. During that siege, which lasted 872 days, more than 1,500,000 soldiers and civilians perished from hunger and bombardment ; and during the evacuation of 1,400,000 more people, many of the women and children died, because of starvation and bombardment. Matushka Raphaela had experienced and witnessed unspeakable horrors at that time, albeit that she had survived.

In 1972, the immigration was achieved, and Matushka Raphaela remained in her niece's home for 9 years, until her repose.

Elisabeth Ivanovna’s home was accommodating. Her mother, Anastasia Petrovna already lived with her when her mother’s elder sister Anya Petrovna (Matushka Raphaela) came to live in her home. Elisabeth Ivanovna later wrote that the 2 elderly sisters had gotten along for the first year, but then they “fought like two cats”. This fighting, however, ought not to be regarded as very negative. Sometimes, siblings who do love one another can behave in this way.

From her work at the Canadian Pension Commission, she later moved to the Ministry of Health & Welfare, until she retired in 1990. Although it was not mentioned in her memoir (there were gaps), one of her friends recalled that Elisabeth Ivanovna worked also for a time in Veterans Affairs.

By this time, Elisabeth Ivanovna was living in semi-retirement. However, as with many others, this stepping back from so much work opened opportunities for other sorts of activities. During the following years, Elisabeth Ivanovna continued to have contacts with various people with whom she had become friends in the Soviet Union.

In Ottawa, she took advice from some local persons and she qualified as an official interpreter between Russian and English. Elisabeth Ivanovna assisted some official visitors by serving as a translator (mainly English, Russian, and French) for many high-level groups of medical and scientific personnel visiting Canada from the USSR. However, she also served as a translator for groups visiting from Canada to such places as Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Siberia, Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, and other places where her ability with the Russian language was useful.

In the meantime, and in addition, Elisabeth received promotions and greater responsibilities.

Gender equality

Dr. Pollonetsky believed that women should organise themselves to achieve goals, but that they should also participate on an equal footing with men. In an interview with the Canadian Medical Association Journal in 1979, Elisabeth Ivanovna was asked :

 Do women who decide to study medicine have particular character traits ?  
 
 There followed this response : 
 
 If someone tells me, ‘this woman is a doctor’, I know I’ll respect her because she made it against the odds.  
 She will have intelligence, determination, tenacity, compassion, and strength of character.  A medical 
 education is character building for both sexes’.

This statement may well find confirmation in the lives and personalities of other physicians. An example of this can be the personality of Dr. Katherine Berdnikoff in Montréal. As did Elisabeth, Katherine grew up in China. The lives of both women were early formed in the Orthodox Christian Church, in which they both participated throughout their lives. This fact alone emphasises and increases the “character building” fruit of a medical education. One may add that, to an extent, these women (and others like them) follow in the foot-steps of the 3 well-known physicians of the New Testament period, the relatives of the Holy Apostles Paul, and Philip the Deacon : Saints Zenaida, Philonella and Hermione.

Activism, fairness

An acknowledged russophile, Elisabeth Ivanovna was seconded periodically (temporarily moved) during her active working years to serve as an interpreter within Canadian delegations to the USSR, and for visiting Soviet delegations to Canada from 1976-1990. This experience produced a perspective in her which was not likely expected by others at the time. Her life’s experience, her intelligence, and her reading enabled a very human and humane interpretation of her experiences. The following comments, reported in the “Peace Magazine” (1 October, 1986), reveal some of this :

‘All you have to do’, she says, ‘is see them [the Soviets] for what they are, not for what they are said to
be. They are totally human people. If you cut them, they’ll bleed. And they bled a lot in World War II.
They don’t wish to bleed again if they can help it’.

She is not making excuses for the Soviet government. She says the Soviet system gives socialism a bad name.
She grew up in the time of Stalin, outside of the USSR and among expatriates who were critical of the
leadership. But she says she believes Gorbachev and the new leaders are changing the USSR.

‘I do feel that the leadership they have now is genuinely different from before. Fanaticism there is on the
wane’.

She bases her judgment on analysis of current events and through contacts with Soviets on official visits.
She travels to the USSR as a translator for the Canadian government. ‘It’s a good way to get free trips’, she
says.

Pollonetsky first joined the Canadian Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (at that time called
Physicians for Social Responsibility) in 1982. ‘It happened as it always does’, she says. ‘A friend who
already belongs calls and says "you must come to a meeting”’. Since then the Ottawa chapter has grown from 10
to 200 members - 10 percent of the local physicians. They have brought in respected speakers, such as the
Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations, Stephen Lewis, author Carl Sagan, and economist John Kenneth Galbraith,
to address the members and the public, and to speak to government leaders.

‘Many Ottawa physicians don’t join’, Pollonetsky says, ‘because they’re too busy juggling professional,
academic, and personal lives. But they’re sympathetic’, she says, ‘and as many as 400 – twice the local
membership – have turned out to hear some guest speakers’. She herself is active for maternal reasons : She
has two daughters and three grandchildren. ‘I would like a world to be there when my grandchildren grow
up’, she says.

‘The peace movement is poorly represented in the media’, Pollonetsky says, and she would like to see the
formation of a Journalists for Social Responsibility group. ‘A third generation of children is being fed the
myth of the Soviet menace’, she says, ‘and this is the basis of the cold war’.

She tells the story of friends who were billeting two visiting Soviet women doctors in their home. The next
day, when the friends’ daughter told classmates about the two Russian lady doctors, another child asked, ‘Do
they have guns ?’

The hospitality of Elisabeth Ivanovna included her ability to prepare various dishes of Russian origin, but some of them with an added Harbin or Shanghai influence, such as her version of the "kulibiaka" pie. She also knew recipes for particular dishes (often desserts), which are eaten only on particular feast-days (such as Ascension Ladder pie). When she contributed to parish meals, her offering was always appreciated and enjoyed.

Her daughter Susan described her hospitality :

 Invitations to her table always promised Russian delicacies, vodka, fine wines and assorted pastries, yeast breads and cakes.

Her hospitality was not limited to her home. As a parishioner-friend recalled,

 Elisabeth had a cottage on Tenpenny Lake in Val-des-Monts, Québec, where I occasionally went with her when she wanted 
 company, or didn't feel confident going alone.  One summer when I was still working, I rented the cottage for one week, 
 and relished the peace and quiet when I drove up there after work.  Once she asked me to drive her there to find her
 Cross, which she had accidentally left there (she removed it before going swimming).  We drove up and she found it. I was 
 struck by the importance it had for her.

Bereavement, 1978, 1987

Mother Raphaela remained in her niece’s home until the time of her repose in the Lord on 19 March, 1978, after she had suffered a stroke. It is told that at the funeral, Anastasia Petrovna approached the coffin and began addressing her reposed sister with some animation. Afterwards, she is reported to have said that her sister had become proud because she would not respond to her anymore. Although this comment may reflect her state of being at her age at the time, it may also indicate a deeper dimension in their sisterly relationship.

Nine years later, on 28 June, 1987, Elisabeth Ivanovna's mother Anastasia Petrovna followed her sister in repose. They are both interred in the Pinecrest Cemetery in Ottawa, in the Saint Nicholas Russian Orthodox section. Both these funerals were served by the parish priest during those years, the Mitred Archpriest Oleg Boldireff.

Towards the end of her days, in 1995, Elisabeth Ivanovna wrote a brief autobiography. Its title is derived from a Russian proverb, which is also written in a poem by Boris Pasternak ; but the title accurately describes her life : “More than Crossing a Field”. The title itself is an indication of the matter-of-fact sense of humour that was characteristic of Elisabeth Ivanovna. Not only was the title a variant on the Russian proverb : “living life is not like crossing a field”, it was also an echo of a similar citation made by the author Boris Pasternak at the end of his banned poem “Hamlet” in his banned novel “Dr. Zhivago”. Of course, the English variant is “not just a walk in the park”.

Repose, 2001

On Wednesday, 4 April, 2001, at the Elisabeth Bruyère Health Centre, Ottawa, Elisabeth Gramkau Pollonetsky reposed in the Lord.

She was survived by her 2 daughters and their husbands and children, and by her sister (Olga Chistakoff) and her children and grand-children in Australia.

On Thursday, 5 April, her body was taken to the Annunciation to the Theotokos Cathedral (then at 55 Clarey Avenue in Ottawa), where a panikhida (memorial service) was served at 8:00 p.m. by the Archpriest Andrew Morbey, the Dean of the cathedral parish. The Temple was filled to overflowing.

On Friday, 6 April, the Funeral Service for the Burial of a Lay-person was offered at 10:00 a.m. at the cathedral by the Archpriest Andrew Morbey.

Afterwards, her body was interred in the Saint Nicholas Russian Orthodox section of the Pinecrest Cemetery.

Grave-markers of Elisabeth and family members

Pinecrest Cemetery, Ottawa

Reflections

Dr. Elisabeth Gramkau Pollonetsky may correctly be described as "une femme formidable", a suitable description that bears many positive meanings.

As was written in an obituary, Elisabeth Ivanovna lived her life to the full and, with an indomitable spirit, surmounted daunting obstacles as a prisoner of war, and as an immigrant. She later balanced the demands of a professional career, caring for aged parents, raising a family, and actively participating in community life at various levels including Home & School Associations, Canadian Medical Women's Association, and Physicians for Social Responsibility (from 1982), which became Canadian Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (CPPNW). She was co-founder and president of the Ottawa chapter of the CPPNW. She was an active supporter and fundraiser for the "New Democratic Party" (NDP) when she was in Ottawa, as she had been with its predecessor, the "Co-operative Commonwealth Federation" (CCF) while she was in Montréal.

Although there is no specific reference about it, in the course of her activities with the government and with concerns for peace and disarmament, it is quite likely that she would have encountered George Ignatieff. Although their politics were different, they had some major concerns in common.

Elisabeth Ivanovna Pollonetsky was well-known for her generosity, tenacity and determination. She was well-known for her open honesty. The tenacity, determination, and honesty could lead others to say about her that "she was a difficult woman" ; but these forthright qualities did not constitute a impenetrable barrier on her part. She was ready and willing to discuss matters. Love was involved in all things.

Elisabeth Ivanovna lived simply and without ostentation, and she was well-known for her warm hospitality. Her practice of the Orthodox Christian Faith was in the same spirit of matter-of-fact practicality. She did not talk of her Orthodox Faith as much as she lived it out. This was a contributor to her well-known love for animals, and for all living things.

In her last years, Elisabeth was often helped at home by an old friend, who was by this time herself a nun, Mother Dorofea (Mirochnitchenko), who stayed at her home frequently in order to support her.

At the time of her departure from this life, her parish pastor, the Archpriest Andrew Morbey, was with her in the hospital. He described holding her hand, and her pulse flickering "like a little bird" until it just stopped.