He was a soldier at the time, and his Russian commander gave him and his family three seats on a train. That is how they survived. His father, my great-great grandfather, could not go with them and had to stay in Kars.
A few months after arriving to Russia my great grandfather received bad news from Kars. When his elderly father was taking his horse to a spring to give it water, a Turkish solder passing by struck him in the head with his sword and killed him.
I know this story from my mom and she learned it from her mom, my grandmother.
Once out of danger, my family came to the Stavropol region in the south of Russia and settled down there. Several months later my great grandfather adopted a little Armenian boy named Semion Frains, who did not remember much, just that he lost his parents, his twin sister and older brother Arkadiy in Kars. A couple of years later my great grandfather managed to find Arkadiy, but they never saw their sister again.
I don't know the name of the Russian commander who gave my ancestors train tickets, but he saved my family members’ lives. God bless his memory!
