Solomon (Sosyk) Gutnov

Solomon Gutnov was born in 1854 into the family of Misirbi Gutnov.

He was born and lived in Dzivgis until 1907, when he and his family moved to an apartment in Vladikavkaz. A few years later they built a small house on the outskirts of Vladikavkaz (on the former Podgornaya Street, opposite the school).

Solomon and Gadzi had five sons and two daughters.

The eldest, Eugen Gutnov (Ossetian: Elbyzdyko Gutnov; known in Germany as Eugen Gutnoff), lived in Vladikavkaz, then in St. Petersburg, and in 1912 left for Germany and settled in Berlin.

The second son was Kirill Gutnov (Kylci Gutnov). Right after arriving in Vladikavkaz he took a job as a delivery boy at a dry-goods shop, rising to shop assistant by the time of the revolution. After the revolution, influenced by Eugen, his father went to work at a printing house. He started as a typesetter and, by the time of his arrest in 1937, was a proofreader there.

The third son, Nikolai Gutnov (Nogi Gutnov), worked as a cobbler his whole life.

The fourth, Zanchora Gutnov, was killed by a stray bullet at the age of 17 during the Civil War, while walking down the street.

The youngest, Elbrus, left for Berlin to join Eugen in 1922, enrolled in an arts and crafts school, and later in the graphic arts department of a higher art school. In late 1927 he returned to the USSR and began working in Moscow. Elbrus's biography is covered in Evgenia Gutnova's memoir "Perezhitoye" ("What I Lived Through"); the correspondence between Eugen and Elbrus was published by Dmitry Gutnov in "Bibliophile News No. 17."

In his old age Solomon Gutnov served as an elder of the Vladimirskaya settlement. Thanks to his wisdom he often helped resolve family disputes. He was frequently invited to sit at the head of the table at family celebrations, wakes, and weddings.

Zefira Butaeva tells the story of Solomon Gutnov’s family in “Grandfather.”