Photographs relating to Wassili Wassiliew

Photographs of Wassili Wassiliew's time in Germany during and after the Second World War. There are pictures and postcards of towns, people he knew and was associated with, bands and musical groups he worked with, photographs taken on the voyage out to New Zealand, and of people in the displaced persons camp at Pahiatua. There are also a number of portraites of Wassili Wassiliew. Most of the photographs come from the period 1944 to ca 1953

Wassili Wassiliew was born on the 30th of May 1916 in Nizhnedevisk, Russia, a town west south west of Voronezh. His father was Vladimir Wassiliew, and his mother's name was Nadezhda (maiden name Massalitinova). He studied at the Moscow Conservatoire of Music. He was a soldier in the Russian army at the time Hitler invaded Russia. Somehow he managed to defect to the German army where his musical abilities were used, so that by 1945 he was one of a group of musicians located in Berlin. As the Allied armies invaded Germany, Wassili and his collegues left Berlin and the threat of the advancing Russian army and made for the British Sector. There they contacted a British officer who took them under his protection and established them as entertainers in the Britsh army of occupation. A document among his papers dated 17 August 1945 states that he is a member of the D P Concert Party attached to 7th Armoured Division and has been authorised to wear a British uniform. Between 1945 and 1947 documents show that he worked in a number of different places such as Flensberg and Luneburg. By 1947 he was located in Hanover where he remained until he sailed for New Zealand in 1950. In 1951 he married another settler, Galina Ranten, from Lithuania, a professional ballet dancer. In 1953 they set up the Galina Wassiliewa School of Russian Classical Ballet in Wellington. Wassili's role in this was on the musical side. In particular he formed, led, and conducted the orchestras brought together for the public ballet performances produced by Galina and performed by her students during the 1950s and 1960s. These were large enterprises staged in the Opera House, the St James Theatre or outside in the Botanic Garden. On several occasions productions were also toured. Wassili's other interest was photography, and as well as recording his wife, and her students, he also photographed many of the Russian ballet and other dance groups touring New Zealand in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1966 his ballet photographs were exhibited with ballet costumes and stage designs by Raymond Boyce at the NZ Display Centre, Cuba Street. He was also NZ photo-reporter and critic for the London based magazine "Ballet Today". (Information on Wassili's life in Russia and prior to 1945 is from his birth certificate and supplied by friends, Ian and Katherine Hastings).

Quantity: 133 b&w original photographic print(s). 5 colour original photographic print(s). 5 b&w photo-mechanical print(s).