Found fantastic story about Boris: ОДЕССИТ ИЗ КАТМАНДУ

Since I don’t understand Russian I took the liberty and translatede everything (thanx to Google) in to English so all you Boris fans out there have a chance to get a little insight in this caracter’s life…

In case you have forgotten – I posted this story about Boris 1½ ago where I link to the unique footage From Saturday Night Live 1977 and the radio interview from 1961. These two pieces are fantastic.

— o O o —

ODESSA FROM KATHMANDU (TRANSLATION BY GOOGLE – I’LL WORK ON IMPROVING IT – SO HAVE PATIENCE)

Have these people Is it not true, mankind well?
Shakespeare Nepal?
It is somewhere in Africa?

—

From the conversation in the plane Delhi-Kiev

Only a few decades ago, when only a few could get lost in the mysterious kingdom in the mountains, Himalayas closed for the foreigners were so far that result and contemplative, that seemed a paradise.

Roerich and V. Sidorov, Shambhala and Everest, birthplace of Buddha, Gorkha and khukri, Sherpas, yaks and yetis … Who does not know these clichés?

Far from being a forbidden country, most recently, in the 60 years, Nepal has become the last haven for the last romantics. In addition to the hippies, who found in Nepal, the Shangri-La, Kathmandu could meet Mother of the World, at least two of Joan d’Ark, and even a few Napoleons one … Lenin, who submitted: I – Lenin Nepal. And my uncle – Stalin.

Esoteric Society scores were arriving in Kathmandu for the study of sexual habits (behavior) of monkeys on the sacred hill of Swayambhunath, the scientists write volumes about the dietary habits of yeti.

But it was later.

And the beginning was the Name. And the name was – Boris. With the accent on first syllable.

It was known and called him to the Emerald Valley. Without a large exaggeration to say that this name is open to foreign tourists for centuries closed Nepal. For many years it has been repeated thousands of travelers and movie stars, princes and rock climbers, but it also has the subtitle of the book Tiger for breakfast (Tiger for Breakfast, 1966), the famous French explorer Michel Pesselya who studied Bhutan, Sikkim and Tibet. Her hero was not a king, no prince or the Dalai Lama, and the owner of Royal Hotel in Kathmandu Odessa-born Boris Lisanevich.

After completion of the Odessa climbing expedition to Dhaulagiri (8167 m), organized from Odessa-climber and President of Bank Porto-Franco “Miroslav Torosyan, I am one of its members, wandered through Tamela, tourist” ghetto “in Kathmandu. “Hello, Rushen – appealed to me the seller in the bookstore. – This is a book about Boris from Russia.”

And there happened a miracle discovery. In addition to the books by Michel Pesselya seller showed me “The mountains is young” (“The mountains are still young”), Chinese writer Han Syuin and “My kind of Kathmandu” (“My Kathmandu), British artist Desmond Doig. So for me an unusual life story unfolded odessite Boris Lisanevicha. But do not exaggerate if the authors? I went on the trail of Boris. Two weeks searches in Kathmandu, I reviewed the photos from his archive, talked with many people who knew him personally. These were his wife, Inger, and his son Alexander, keeping photoarchive father, his closest friends. His name occurs in the books of famous climbers and travelers, all guidebooks on Nepal. I am very sorry that I was not able to meet with Boris Lisanevichem during his lifetime, but this meeting – let them in absentia – was to take place. For those who wander through the world, inevitably doomed sooner or later meet, if not to him personally, with many of his friends, who bear the imprint of an amazing personality of Boris. He was one of the few people who fully possessed the greatest gift – the art of living. And the whole history odessite Boris Lisanevicha – is an adventure both in time and in space. According to Boris Nikolayevich Lisanevichu: “Our family lived in Odessa. I had three brothers, I was the youngest. Our house was in Odessa on the outskirts of the city, between the racecourse and the Cadet School. Those two places have played a more important role in my life in Odessa . My great-grandfather, Lieutenant-General Grigory Lisanevich, distinguished himself at Borodino, his portrait was in the Military Gallery of the Winter Palace. Father Boris, Nikolai, was known in Russia konezavodchikom and athlete. And, while Boris has never liked to parade the titles of his family (unlike so many of our fellow citizens, inventing a spreading family tree), family coat of arms and dozens of photos saved his mother, Maria Alexandrovna, showed fairly prosperous family life Lisanevichey in Odessa before the Revolution. Paradoxically, but sincere, and not without humor, was the answer to the question of Boris about this way: “I owe everything to the Russian Revolution. If not for her – I would have repeated the path of his brothers: he served in the Imperial navy, and then bred to race horses in our family estate Lisanevichevka on the farm near Odessa. Boris was born on October 4, 1905, at 9 years was determined in Odessa Cadet College, with its rigid discipline. Three years later, the revolution and civil war, with its almost phantasmagoric power change in Odessa – red, white allies, Denikin’s forces, Makhno … “barricades littered the town, on each were waving colorful flags. They were shooting from all sides. In one of these indiscriminate shootings, I was wounded, “- remember Boris. My childhood was symptomatic of his later life. Lisanevichey family had to endure the hardships of that time – hunger, disease, loss of eldest sons. Their distant relatives, Madame Gamsakhurdia (who knows, not a relative if she the next president of Georgia and not lies not here, another intriguing story?), Head of the ballet school and company of the Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater to save the boy, Boris takes the ballet school. Slender , a strong and musically gifted Boris a year of study has become ballet dancers. “The most amazing thing – he remembered – that no revolution or civil war is not cooled thrust from Odessa to the opera and ballet. Lisanevich participated in many performances with the troupe to escape from hunger, went in boxcars on a tour across Ukraine. “Famine, typhus and the revolution sooner made me understand the relativity of all values … when the gold service could only get a loaf of bread” – remember Boris. and indifference to money left to him for life. He could in one night lost all his savings thanks to its legendary generosity or risk player. Came in 1924. During the presentation of the opera “The Prophet” Meyrbeera director pyrotechnic effects surpassed himself: in the final act of the opera burned not only the scenery of the castle, but the entire theater. Due to this fire, Boris can not under the plausible pretext to go to France, where he was waiting for a contract with the theater, “Alhambra” and where he obtained a passport refugee, known as the Nansen passport. “This fact in the end proved to be the cause of my stay in Asia, but when I barely managed to escape from Russia, I could not imagine where this flight will take me.” But “really raised the sail … Paris, Charleston and short skirts, Montparnasse, surrealism and cubism … And the Ballet Russe Diaghilev, whose genius lifted the art of dance reached. Grigoryev and Balanchine invited Boris to show at the Theatre Sarah Bernhardt. “The view was very Diaghilev. Never before have I played a double pirouette, but before I took off Diaghilev. And was accepted. Thus began a new life. The whole world was before him. London, Paris, Rome, Monte Carlo, America … Boris dancing in the ballet “Prince Igor,” “Petrouchka,” “Parade”, “Carnival”, “Firebird”, “Tricorne” …His friends are Cacto, Derain, Matisse, Stravinsky, Serge Lifar. Five unforgettable years … August 19, 1929, Monte Carlo. “It ended the era – died Diaghilev. I’m being asked to report this sad news of Anna Pavlova. She fainted in my arms.” Together with Vera Nemchinov Boris on tour in South America, concludes a two-year contract in Buenos Aires. With Argentine visa and ticket for the steamer Boris goes to a restaurant in Monte Carlo to say goodbye to old friends of the troupe Chaliapin, where he meets Keira Sherbachev, soloist. Love at first sight, the contract is sent, and again, this time with his wife – brilliant tours in Italy, London, Paris … 1933. Boris accepts an invitation to tour in Southeast Asia – India, China, Burma, Java, Ceylon, Shanghai, Bombay … And the island of Bali. “I could not believe that a sense of harmony and beauty that I felt only on the stage, could exist in the real world. I was fascinated by the Orient.” Thanks to the invitation of his friends, he becomes a supporter of the royal hunting tigers, leopards and rhinos. In the jungles of Indochina, Boris holds three unforgettable months. He has eight leopards, tigers, 6 and 40 buffalo. “I hunted in the wild tribe of mine, famous for its brass guns with poisoned arrows. My squire was a sinister-looking inmate convicted of killing his wife and Tiffany’s. I smoked opium – a gift from the King of Cambodia.” Visit Angkor shocked Boris: “His charm is beyond description.” It was time to return to Europe. But where? After all, he – a man without citizenship and passports, wandering again. And in India it can get a British passport. And Boris is in Calcutta. Here, with the help of his influential friends, he founded the famous “Club 300”. The club opened in 1936 in a luxurious palace, once built a rich Armenian Philip for his bride, who had run away with a simple soldier the day before the wedding. The first band consisted of two pianists and one … drummer. From Nice arrived famous chef Vladimir Khaletskaya, a former Russian officer, a famed restaurant dishes Boris – soup, pate of grouse, beef stroganoff and Bombe a la Boris. This was the first Anglo-Indian club and the first in which women were allowed. Maharaji princes and diplomats, British officers and members of royal families, the pilots and the famous explorers, industrialists and businessmen – all of these people know Boris as a hospitable host of the aristocratic club of Calcutta, where East and West meet. Sense of humor did not leave the owner of the club ever. In 1947, Boris organized the first scientific expedition to study the stars (in Hollywood), calculated at 3 months.In addition to his participation in the expedition three fabulously rich and beautiful Maharaja. Her fund amounted to 70 thousand dollars. Major expenditures were incurred in the article “Bouquets” and after 2 months the expedition was forced to shut down its “job”.

Here begins his longstanding friendship with a fearless pilot Prince Emmanuel Golitsyn, with the Maharaja Kuch Bihar, with the Nepalese General Mahabir. In this club emigrant Boris first met disempowered Rana Nepalese King Tribhuvanom. He arranges secret meetings with the King, Nehru and takes an active part in the return of King Tribhuvan to the throne. (With a force of its charm a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, and possessing vast information on the situation in Asia, Boris Lisanevich could not call to his attention a number of secret service. It is known that for a long time the Indians regarded him as a British agent, the Americans – a Russian, Russian – American. Was it the Asian Kim Philby or Lawrence of Arabia? Boris himself only smiled at these questions: “I rather like the Marco Polo.” – VK)

After the war, Boris and Kira visited New York. Cyrus is in America, opened a ballet school. In 1949, the wife of Boris is a young beauty-Dane Inger Pfeifer. In 1953, together with his wife and sons, Misha and Alexander at the personal invitation of King Boris arrives in Nepal, a country where women are adorned with flowers lingas (phalluses), and the erotic carvings on the temple serves as their protection from lightning, a country of snow peaks and pagodas tigers and roses, palaces and the gods … Here, all the gods – people and animals, rocks and trees. Where even a “Namaste” – Nepali greeting, roughly means: “I welcome the god in your face.” “Only a cliche to describe the Kathmandu city, which had more temples and shrines than houses and more gods than people. City where nevarskie girl betrothed to a tree Bel, and therefore will never be widows for marriage with a man – a second-hand marriage, as this and the only man – only a tree. The first night I met a leopard on the streets in Kathmandu. (Only 3 years ago, the son of Boris Lisanevicha Alexander shot the leopard near his mother’s house, which is located on the outskirts of Kathmandu. – In . K) for the Kathmandu Valley, I opened the Asia Kipling, a mixture of China and India, sent into the landscape, to which pales Switzerland – Boris remembered. – Exotic and beauty of this country forever won my heart. “ Fascinated by the beauty of the Emerald Valley, Boris was quick to appreciate the enormous possibilities of tourism in Nepal. The first climbing expeditions have attracted world attention to the snow-ice massifs of Annapurna, Dhaulagiri and Everest. But in 1954, to get to Nepal was as difficult as to penetrate into Tibet – prevented a long and complicated formalities, lack of roads, restrictions on issuing visas. In talks with his Nepalese friends, among whom was the Prime Minister, Boris tries to get them interested in the prospects of tourism Nepale.V response, they just smiled: “Why do foreign tourists to Nepal?” What will they do in a medieval country, where there are no phones, skyscrapers and Museums? “. Then Boris came upon the idea of opening a hotel that would attract future tourists. But in the valley was no kerosene, gas, electricity. Curfew in force – a legacy of Rana regime. Almost all products have been imported from abroad. This forced Boris to grow vegetables and fruits, known in Nepal – carrots, spinach, strawberries – on site, open a bakery with a Russian stove. It was necessary to train personnel to wear shoes, wash your hands and do not give customers the water from the “little white sources” as they called restrooms. In August 1954 Royal Hotel – the only kind in a radius of 450 miles from Kathmandu – was opened. His guest was struck not only the building, near the entrance to which they “welcomed” the stuffed tigers and a crocodile with open jaws, but also the owner. “deep voice with an obvious Russian accent. Huge hands. Dazzling open smile. Eyebrows Mephistopheles” – because it describes Michelle Pessel. Finally, through persuasion and the use of its extensive ties Boris is not only made the King of visas for the first tourists, but also persuaded him to take them himself. And in March 1955 the magazine “Life” the first dedicated 4-page spread to Nepal. “The first group of Western tourists visiting the mysterious and distant Nepal. Located in the heart of the Himalayas, in the last 200 years, Nepal was virtually closed to all foreigners. But recently, Boris Lisanevich, a British citizen of Russian descent, was able to rent a palace in Kathmandu and convert it to the Royal Hotel. All the equipment – from pots to flush toilets – was delivered by air. Then, thanks to the efforts Lisanevicha was received royal permission to visit Nepal for several groups of agents Thomas Cook. Agency experts believe that the country’s huge tourism future. “For those few brief lines were many. What price Boris breach the centuries-long policy of isolation, to persuade the warring ministries, to persuade the King Mahendra to allow the entry of the first tourists who bring in equipment for the hotel – on the This can only guess. Inger recalled that he had not time to despair, and only his ability since childhood to make the improbable and overcome any difficulty supporting him. King Mahendra, stunned tourists looked first for his country and the enthusiasm with which they bought souvenirs and works of art directly on the veranda Royal Hotel ordered to issue visas to all interested – and now tourists can obtain visas at the airport Tribhuvan. Royal Hotel, thanks to the efforts and the superhuman power of Boris, is the center of social life and tourism in Nepal. Almost every day B. Lisanevicha was filled with meetings and events: Kliment Voroshilov and Chou En-Lai, Prince Akihito and J. Nehru, Soviet cosmonauts … Yes, the Soviet Embassy in Nepal, paying tribute to the culinary art and the popularity of Boris (and despite his past) asked him to arrange a reception for Tereshkova and Nikolayev. And Boris has surpassed himself, taking his countrymen. The famous welcome Queen Elizabeth II, on which the Queen named him “my best Russian-British subject, too, lay down on his shoulders. “You hope to talk with him alone? – Inger marveled at that time. – Over the past 15 years I spent with him only 2 pm.’

In 50-60 Kathmandu is the capital of the world climbing, mountaineering and the inner sanctuary in Nepal – bar Yak and Yeti in the Royal Hotel, where the start and end all alpine expedition. At the hotel verandas weathered and strong people talking about snow ridges and glaciers, on the routes and avalanches. They Boris younger soul. Himself an athlete and scholar, he completely gave himself at the disposal of the leaders of the expeditions, sharing his knowledge and customs of the country, helping to get permission to climb, as the translator of French and Swiss expedition, “forgetting” some of their unpaid accounts .. . “I have always lost money on cruises, – said Boris – the climbers returned from the mountains exhausted, but after a week in the Royal Hotel I return them to normal shape.” – But, Boris, so we’ll never get rich – chided him as a wife. – Do not worry, dear, for all this we will be rewarded in Paradise Valley. Living in Kathmandu, he was close to all the tragedies and successes of many expeditions. His hospitality and generosity have earned legendary thanks to many famous climbers and travelers, all became his friends. This is indicated by the photos that next to him – E. Hillary and Tenzing N., R. Lambert, and N. Direnfurt, M. Herzog and J. Franco, D. Roberts and K. Bonington. In his casket kept the stones from almost all peaks of Nepal. “This, from Dhaulagiri, brought my old friend Direnfurt, this, with Everest – Bishop, with Makalu – Franco, with Jeanne – Terran …” – Boris showed his treasures. “They are more dear to me than the skins of tigers and leopards.” In his apartment, which was on the roof of the hotel, a golden Buddha from Tibet was on the piano alongside photographs of Queen Elizabeth II and King Mahendra, with their autograph, but also kept a huge collection of LPs – from Stravinsky’s music to folk dances of his homeland of Ukraine. “When I climbed the narrow spiral staircase to Boris, I never knew whom I encounter in the living room – it could be Agatha Christie or Francoise Sagan, Prince Carlos, or Hillary” – recalled his close friend, the painter Desmond Doig. In his collection was stored unusual rifle “Alka Seltzer”, firing bullets with sleeping pills and intended for hunting yeti, Bigfoot (the law of Nepal prohibits his murder). We have very few people remember that in the 50 years the whole world worried about a mystery of beings. His fame is not fading. Jean-Paul Belmondo, charmed Kathmandu and Boris, removes the film about him. (A friend of Boris and Jean-Paul French Bernadette Vasso, with whom I met, joined me on the phone with Paris and I heard from Belmondo: “Finally, someone interested in Boris and my film about him. I really want to see Odessans him at the first opportunity pass to Odessa. “- VK), Ingrid Bergman gives him equipment for the farm, Robert McNamara, World Bank president, struck by the personality of Boris, gives him credit for the construction of five-star Yak and Yeti. This hotel opened in 1977, but as a result of intrigues partner Boris angrily refuses to participate in the management of the hotel. In 1978 he opened a restaurant “Boris” on the street with a poetic name “32 butterfly, in 1982 – the restaurant” Boris “at Durbar Marg, which is frequently visited by the King of Nepal. Another restaurant “Boris” opening his sons Michael and Alexander. In 1985, Boris was gone. He died a man, surrounded by the same legends as Mount Everest, the man who has lived 10 lives instead of one. Carefree and at the same time passionate and daring. Playboy and an artist and collector. The narrator and administrator. He did not yield analysis, and this undoubtedly was the cause of his legendarity. At the cemetery the British embassy in Kathmandu, where the rest Boris, I took a picture of a modest tombstone, which bears the coat of arms and the inscription “Boris Nikolayevich Lisanevich. He was born in Odessa on Oct. 4. He died in 1905 in Kathmandu on Oct. 20. 1985” The greatest monument to Boris Lisanevichu, native of Odessa who became a part of Nepaliany is foreign tourism in Nepal, whose father he is. “What in your life you especially like and appreciate?” What leads you? ” – Asked him once. Boris, pointing to the distant mountains, jungles and temples of Kathmandu, said: “All this – the game. Only one thing can cost something in this life – how many people you make happy.” Victor MAPLE