Moisei's brother Alexandre Anisimovich Arenberg was lovingly called
“Uncle Sasha” by his relatives. He was a very interesting person,
honest, of ready sympathy and kind. Born in 1878 in Tiraspol, he
lived most of his life in Odessa. Before the Revolution of 1917 he worked as
a reporter and journalist, while at the same time representing in Odessa and in
the whole of Russia the interests of the French newspaper “Figaro." During these years when his journalistic activity flourished,
Alexander met and interviewed many who took their honorable place in
Russian culture and history: writers Bounin, Kouprin, Korolenko, Gorky,
regisseur Stanislavsky, bass singer Shaliapin, participants of
the historical Beilis process, prominent Russian and foreign
political figures, etc. Alexandre once said: “ If I wished, I could
find today in libraries some reflections of my meetings. But this is not
everything and not what is most important. What is important is not
only what is printed, but more so my personal impressions of my
interlocutors. Especially valuable today could have been what was
put on paper in my notebook, but due to the conditions that existed
at that time, didn't reach the typesetter. But alas, in the kettle
of the nervous editorial life, I was unable to look into the future and
appreciate the meetings for their real merit.”
In the 1920s, Alexandre was a reporter for the Odessa newspaper
Moriak, where works of the outstanding writers of that time, e.g.
Babel and Kataev, were published. There he came to know Paustovsky
whom he befriended for many years. In the novel “Time of Great
Expectations,” Paustovsky describes Uncle Sasha: “Came the reporter
Arenberg, a thick-set man with laughing eyes. He heatedly rejoiced
over any news. He was excited by the very running of life, by the
peripetia and details of its movement, by all its changes,
independent of what this could bring: misfortune or good
fortune. This was for him an important question as well, but of
secondary importance.” |