CSWS Research Matters From a Boarding House in Tianjin to a Home in Eugene The Extraordinary Story of Antonina Riasanovsky and Her Family by Jenifer Presto Associate Professor, Department of Comparative Literature Few people in Slavic Studies have not heard to Eugene. Her fiction, which she published under of the Riasanovsky family, which was a veri- the penname “Nina Fedorova,” did much to secure table intellectual dynasty in twentieth-century the stability of the Riasanovsky family during its America. Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, the most emi- initial years in the Pacific Northwest. Her story, nent member of the family, taught Russian and which is even more remarkable than that of her European history at UC Berkeley from 1957 to 1997 sons, was the focus of my CSWS research, which and wrote numerous books including A History was generously supported by the Mazie Giustina of Russia, which was first released in 1963 at the Fund for Women in the Northwest. height of the Cold War and still remains in print sixty years later. His younger brother, Alexander, Continued on page 2 also had an impressive academic career. He taught history at UPenn for some thirty-five years and co-authored Readings in Russian History, which were often assigned in tandem with his brother’s influ- ential textbook. Both brothers, who were born in Harbin, China and emigrated from Tianjin, China to Eugene, Oregon as children, were members of the interwar genera- tion of Russian and East European immigrants that shaped the Slavic field in America. As prodigious as the Riasanovsky brothers’ talents were (both had illustrious undergradu- ate careers at the University of Oregon that earned them Rhodes Scholarships), we can speculate that “Riasanovsky” might not have become a household name in Slavic had it not been for the entrepreneurial literary activities of the family’s matriarch, Antonina Riasanovsky, who worked as a teacher in Harbin prior to the fam- ily’s move first to Tianjin and then Antonina Riasanovsky and Her Home in Eugene, The Sunday Oregonian, January 19, 1941. CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WOMEN IN SOCIETY CSWS.UOREGON.EDU WINTER 2023 CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WOMEN IN SOCIETY 1201 University of Oregon Eugene OR 97403-1201 Research Matters Research Matters is published three times per year by the Center for the Study of Women in Society. For more information, call (541) 346-5015, or visit our website: csws.uoregon.edu An equal-opportunity, affirmative-action institution committed to cultural diversity and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. This publication will be made available in accessible formats upon request. © 2023 University of Oregon 2 Research Matters Winter 2023 The Family takes place in a board- that appealed to a broad reading public inghouse, run by a Russian woman at the beginning of World War II. Of par- together with her teenage daughter and ticular interest to me is how she cannily An overview of Antonina elderly mother, that provides refuge mediates between national and inter- Riasanovsky’s trajectory reads very for individuals of diverse backgrounds national concerns in order to make her much like a Hollywood film script. (British, Chinese, Jewish, Romanian, work legible to an American audience Finding herself in Tianjin in 1938 amid and Russian) in the British Concession and exportable to a global one. Equally Japanese bombings, Antonina, along of Tianjin in 1937 during the Second integral to my analysis is how she uses with her husband, Valentin, and their Sino-Japanese War. Although the novel gender to her advantage, readily embrac- young sons, left for Eugene via Victoria, employs the setting of the pension ing her female authorship and a matri- BC. Attracted by the familiar sound utilized earlier by Nabokov in his own lineal narrative of exile that resonated of the name “Eugene” (she had a sis- debut novel, Mary (Mashen’ka, 1926), with the female readership that drove ter named Eugenia), she had decided to epitomize the precarity of Russian book sales and that was eager for stories the family should settle in the col- émigrés in Berlin, The Family gestures about women in contemporary history. It lege town. (The fact that her husband toward a prosperous future for the fam- is my hope that recovery of this forgot- was a prominent scholar of Chinese, ily of Russian exiles in America and ten bestseller might lend further depth Mongolian, and Siberian law, no doubt, contains copious praise of Americans and nuance to our understanding of also entered into the decision.) A year and U.S. institutions. The text devotes Russian-American literature—one that after their arrival and thanks to the ample space to the daughter’s relation- encompasses not only art for art’s sake language classes she had taken at the ship with, and eventual engagement of the likes of Nabokov but also middle- YMCA in Harbin, Antonina managed to, an American serviceman in China. brow literature and popular fiction. to write a novel in English entitled In spite of the fact that her fiancé must The Family, which was awarded a Needless to say, I am most grate-return to the U.S. with his regiment, $10,000 prize sponsored jointly by The ful to CSWS for the opportunity it has the promise of life in America is kept Atlantic Monthly and Little, Brown and afforded me to acquaint myself with the alive by the letters she receives from Company. The text, which appeared in unlikely success story of this woman him in Berkeley, California, where he 1940, sold 50,000 copies and, accord- writer and her Family. Among the many is attending college. If realization of the ing to Publishers Weekly, was the tenth pleasures this project has given me was American dream ultimately eludes the most popular fiction book of the year. the chance to reflect on my own begin-Russian characters in The Family, such (Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the nings in Slavic Studies, when I first was not the case for Antonina. With the Bell Tolls occupied the fourth spot and cracked open her eldest son’s magiste-prize money she received for her novel, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath rial history. At the time, as a first-year she was able to purchase a family home the eighth.) In fact, Riasanovsky’s novel college student on the East Coast, I had at 1848 Moss Street in Eugene and to created such a sensation that a sequel no inkling of the tome’s dramatic put down roots in America—a fact she was optioned and it was adapted for backstory. Were it not for CSWS, it is readily disclosed in an interview for The Broadway. Translated into Chinese, doubtful that I would have been able Sunday Oregonian. Russian, and a host of other languages, to adequately explore this fascinating the book enjoyed a global readership By examining The Family alongside chapter in Russian-American literary and was esteemed by none other than publishers’ archives, press releases, and cultural history. n Vladimir Nabokov, who in 1940 arrived book reviews, translations, and author in the U.S. from Hitler’s Europe. interviews, I attempt to show how Jenifer Presto is an associate professor of com- parative literature. She received a 2020 CSWS Antonina Riasanovsky crafted a novel faculty research grant for this project.