Eugen Gutnov (Gutnoff) and Gappo Baev — Ossetians abroad: correspondence
In the summer of 1921, the Russian Delegation in Berlin informed the publisher Eugen Gutnov, known in Germany as Eugen Gutnoff, that Gappo Baev was trying to find him. Baev, the former mayor of Vladikavkaz, had fled Soviet rule and was stranded in Constantinople in poverty. That news gave rise to six months of correspondence: from July through December 1921, Eugen and his wife Frida worked step by step to secure a German visa for Baev, sent him money, books, and magazines, and paid his debts. In January 1922, Baev arrived in Berlin and joined Gutnov’s publishing house. The surviving documents also reveal what followed: after the almost familial invitation, serious disagreements over work arose between teacher and pupil.
Twenty-three letters and postcards from 1921 are held in the V. I. Abaev North Ossetian Institute for Humanities and Social Studies Research Archive (T. A. Tsomaeva collection) and were published by Svetlana Darchieva. Three further documents—a petition for permission to enter Germany, a fragment of an undated letter, and a letter of 6 June 1922—were published by Vittorio Springfield Tomelleri from the Gappo Baev papers in the Berlin State Library. The two publications are brought together below in a single chronology.
Citation: Darchieva, S. V. “A ‘Gutenberg’ from Ossetia in Berlin: The Correspondence of E. A. Gutnov and G. V. Baev (1921).” Proceedings of the North Ossetian Institute for Humanities and Social Studies, 2026, issue 60 (99), pp. 164–195. DOI: 10.46698/VNC.2026.99.60.007. Full article (PDF).
Additional documents: Tomelleri, Vittorio Springfield. “Pages from Gappo Baev’s Life Abroad: New Evidence.” Current Issues in Philology and Pedagogical Linguistics, 2025, no. 1, pp. 207–228. DOI: 10.29025/2079-6021-2025-1-207-228. Full article (PDF).
Teacher and Pupil
Georgy (Gappo) Vasilyevich Baev (1869–1939) was an Ossetian public figure, educator, journalist, and translator, one of the founders of Ir, the first Ossetian publishing house, and the long-serving mayor of Vladikavkaz. Eugen Gutnov met him as a teenager, when he began working as an ordinary typesetter at a Vladikavkaz print shop. Baev, who already had publishing experience, guided the young typesetter and helped him master printing and book production. Gutnov remembered this throughout his life. “In my life I am not as grateful to anyone as I am to you; yes, to you alone I owe everything, and to no one else,” he wrote to Baev in 1921. Baev, in turn, called Gutnov “my pupil.”
In 1908, Gutnov left for St Petersburg, where he studied and worked at the Ministry of Finance print shop. In 1912, he was arrested for taking part in disturbances and was barred by court order from living in Russia’s central provinces. Rather than return to Ossetia, he moved to Berlin—the birthplace of Johannes Gutenberg—to continue learning the printer’s trade. There he worked as a typesetter in a small private print shop, married the proprietor’s daughter, Frida Lemke, and inherited the business after his father-in-law’s death. In May 1919, Gutnov opened a Russian print shop in Berlin; in June 1921, he began publishing under his own name. His publishing house became known in Russian Berlin that same year with the appearance of the almanac Spolokhi and the Spolokhi Library series.
Five Months of Effort for a Visa
Baev, who rejected Soviet rule and feared arrest, moved to Tiflis in March 1920 and to Constantinople in 1921. In fleeing the Bolsheviks, he lost everything: his land, his home in Vladikavkaz, his personal archive and library, his position, and his standing in society. “I spent 1920 in Tiflis in great poverty, and 1921 in Constantinople in still greater poverty. Several times I was close to death,” he later recalled.
On 16 July 1921, the Russian Delegation in Berlin told Gutnov that Baev had been asking after him. Gutnov replied that same day, and from then on he and Frida set about obtaining Baev’s visa. The effort took five months and led the couple through the passport department of the German Foreign Office, the chamber of commerce, the Red Cross, the police, the housing authority, and the German consulate in Trieste. Gutnov immediately reported every step to Baev in Constantinople. At the same time, he sent him money transfers, copies of an orthographic dictionary he had published for Baev to sell, issues of Spolokhi, paid outstanding debts, and offered moral support.
In a petition to the Foreign Office’s passport department dated 25 August 1921, Gutnov presented Baev as a leading specialist in printing whose services were indispensable to the management of the publishing house. He vouched to the police for Baev’s political reliability and financial means and, to simplify matters, listed him as a close relative—“for the authorities only,” as he warned Baev in a letter. Baron Woldemar Yakovlevich Uexküll, a “faithful friend of the Ossetian people,” also helped: on 7 November 1921, he sent a letter of recommendation from Merano to the German consulate in Trieste, assuring the authorities that Baev was not a Bolshevik and was “a great admirer of the German people and their culture.”
Baev had no money for the journey. Gutnov twice asked him not to sell the gold watch inscribed “To Attorney-at-Law G. V. Baev from Little Kabarda” and promised to send the necessary funds. Yet on 24 December 1921, Baev sold the watch for forty lire after all—enough to buy passage on the steamship Remo, bound for Europe. In January 1922, he arrived in Berlin, moved in with the Gutnovs, and helped Eugen with the magazine Spolokhi and the publication of books by Ossetian authors. Between 1922 and 1925, eleven print runs of books published jointly by Gutnov and Baev were sent from Berlin to North Ossetia.
After His Arrival: Different Expectations
Before Baev’s arrival, Gutnov addressed him as a teacher and almost a member of the family, promised to receive him “as our father,” and at the same time expected an experienced manager for the publishing department. Once they met in Berlin, these personal and professional expectations came into conflict. Gutnov expected Baev to enter at once into the daily work of the print shop, prepare a preface for an edition of Kosta Khetagurov, and run the trade and industry section of Spolokhi. Baev, meanwhile, spent much of his time in libraries, enrolled at the university, and resumed his scholarly pursuits.
On 6 June 1922, Gutnov wrote him a long and severe letter. He reminded Baev of the assistance with his journey and finances, listed promises that, in his view, had not been fulfilled, and warned that his material support would end unless Baev took part in the firm’s work. No reply from Baev appears in the publications examined here, so Gutnov’s accusations cannot be treated as a complete and uncontested account. The letter itself nevertheless clearly conveys his disappointment and shows that the disagreements had become personal as well as professional.
Vittorio Springfield Tomelleri connects this conflict with the disappearance, beginning with the September 1922 issue, of the trade and industry section of Spolokhi for which Baev was responsible. The documents do not, however, establish a final rupture: archival evidence indicates that Baev continued working for Gutnov until the print shop closed in 1924. In a memorandum written in 1925, he described Gutnov’s publishing work as having played “a most beneficial role” in the development of Ossetian writing and in awakening interest in Ossetia in Germany. In a later essay on Adolf Dirr, Baev likewise recalled that early in 1922 he began publishing Ossetian-language books in Berlin with Gutnov’s support.
Letters and Documents (July 1921–June 1922)
Gutnov’s letters were written on his publishing house’s letterhead; Frida’s letters in Russian were handwritten. Gutnov’s signature varies from letter to letter: “Elbas,” “Elbas-Duko,” and “Yelbas,” derived from his Ossetian name Yelbyzdyko; “Duko” and “Dziborka” were names used for him in the family since childhood. The Ossetian lines with which Gutnov ends some of the letters come from Kosta Khetagurov’s poem “Chi dæ?” (“Who Are You?”). In the additional documents published by Tomelleri, the pre-revolutionary Russian spelling has been modernised; the undated text is reproduced only in the surviving fragment.
Gutnov to Baev. Berlin, 16 July 1921
Dear Gappo!
This very minute the Russian Delegation here informed me that Vladikavkaz Mayor and Attorney-at-Law G. V. Baev has been asking after me! I certainly did not expect such joy from the Russian Delegation. I shall thank them from the bottom of my heart. And now to business: I should very, very much like Gappo to come here to Berlin, and my wife insists upon it too. I have been married for two years—to a German woman. I have my own print shop. I handle great works—that is, I print great works. For God’s sake, Gappo, I am happier than I would be to meet my father or brother. I am so sincerely grateful to Gappo forever. Gappo, I am no longer that foolish boy; now I too understand everything and know whom I have to thank.
I shall not write much. I await your reply. I receive nothing from home. Four months ago I learned that, all in one week, one of my brothers, my sister, and two of her children had died. It is all so tragic, but I shall tell you in person!?
Sincerely yours, Elbas.
Ozdan læg næ dæn… Æz raiguyrdtæn khokhy, næ khædkul skæt… — “I am not of noble birth… I was born in the mountains, our timbered shed…”
Frida Gutnov to Baev. Berlin, July 1921
Dear Mr Gappo!
Just as my Zhenya keeps rejoicing at this good news, so do I. I implore you to come to us. Here you will find a homeland too. I have heard so very much good about you, and I shall be most happy to see you.
Heartfelt greetings, Frida Gutnov.
Baev to Gutnov. Constantinople, 17 August 1921
The letter was written in German; Russian translation by A. V. Darchiev.
Dear Eugen!
Just before the war, I received your last letter from Berlin. And now, together with the information from the Russian Delegation in Berlin (156 Uhlandstrasse), I received your letter with enormous joy. You are still full of energy and enterprise. I am very glad that you have founded a publishing house, and I wish you success.
I was particularly pleased to learn that I can take charge of your publishing house. You know from our days in Russia that I was engaged in publishing books there, including, as you must know, the Ossetian-language Bible and so forth. I contemplate this work with great pleasure and am even ready to propose several projects, for here, at the Union of Writers and Scholars, we discussed many literary ideas that it may now be possible to put into practice. The local German consulate has informed me that permission for my entry must be obtained from the Foreign Office there. I hope this will present no difficulty, [and so] in my thoughts I am already entirely with you. Please write or telegraph as soon as you receive word of the entry permit.
Until we meet. My warmest greetings to you and your wife. Yours, Gappo.
Gutnov to Baev. Berlin, 19 August 1921
Dear Gappo!
This is already the second letter I am sending, and I have still received no reply. The Russian Delegation in Berlin told me that G. V. Baev was looking for me. You can imagine what joy this brought me, and my wife was especially delighted.
For God’s sake, send a few words quickly. Reply, so that we may establish contact.
Yours, Elbas-Duko.
Gutnov to the German Foreign Office. Berlin, 25 August 1921
The document was written in German; the Russian translation was published by V. S. Tomelleri.
Petition for Permission for Mr G. Baev to Enter from Constantinople
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I respectfully request permission for the Russian citizen Georgy Baev to enter Germany. He is a lawyer, the former mayor of Vladikavkaz in the Caucasus (until the Bolshevik Revolution), and a member of the Association of Writers and Scholars in Constantinople. Mr Baev is Ossetian by nationality and an Orthodox Christian (Greek Orthodox) by faith. He currently resides in Constantinople.
I, Eugen Gutnov, proprietor of a book-printing establishment (Berlin S. 14, Dresdnerstr. 82–83), urgently require a qualified specialist to manage the publishing department of the print shop. Mr Baev was my tutor in Russia; I know his considerable experience in publishing and regard him as the person best suited to manage my publishing house. My publishing house issues scholarly works exclusively in Russian. A Russian dictionary has recently appeared, in particular, but difficulties arose during its preparation that urgently require the attention of an experienced specialist.
I guarantee that Mr Baev will not engage in political activity in Germany. Moreover, he will not become a burden on the city, since I shall provide him with accommodation—he will share my two-room flat with me—and with all necessary means of support.
I respectfully ask you to consider my petition and grant permission to enter.
Yours faithfully,
I shall, of course, immediately meet all expenses, including the cost of notification by telegram.
Berlin State Library, Manuscripts and Early Printed Books Department, Nachlass Georg Gappo Baiew, folder VIII, file 2, fols. 35–35v.
Gutnov to Baev. Berlin, 27 August 1921
Dear Gappo!
I received your letter yesterday, and today the petition was already submitted to the Auswärtiges Amt through the chamber of commerce, since the latter carries considerable weight in this matter. I enclose translations of your letter and a copy of the petition to the Auswärtiges Amt. I expect that you will be notified by telegraph and, I believe, granted permission to enter. Make inquiries there at the Ger[man] Consulate attached to the embassy. Thus my publishing house cannot manage without you, and I thank you for your readiness to help me and to agree to take over its management.
That is how matters stand! I hope you and I will accomplish good things together! My warmest greetings!
Yours, Elbas-Duko.
Gutnov to Baev. Berlin, 28 August 1921
Dear Gappo!
Today I went around the Sov[iet] offices—but without success. I so want to help my brothers and parents, but it is all in vain. There is no possibility at all. I went to the Red Cross as well, and they can do nothing to help either.
And so they are all slowly dying out without ever receiving help… That accursed war—these are all its consequences. Had there been no war, there would have been no Bolsheviks either…
I already have a business request for you—a publishing matter. Find out from the booksellers there how many copies of my dictionary they will take and on what terms. My dictionary has caused quite a stir in the book market here—I am the only one to have undertaken a dictionary of this kind. And it is already selling very well.
The first copies came from the bindery today, and there are already many orders. Please act—we must become accustomed to German conditions: first and foremost, everyone must be a businessman, and only then a man of letters, eng[ineer], tech[nician], officer, and so forth. That is almost the German’s motto, and he is right!
In short, you will soon be here, and then you will see it all in practice. I sent one letter through the Red Cross, since I did not wait for you to answer, but that does no harm. My wife and I had just been away for fourteen days near Berlin, at a small resort. It was very pleasant. I recovered a little—that is, I rested.
Well, when you arrive, we shall talk!
De ’zær ual khorz! (“And for now, a good evening to you!”) Yours, Elbas-Duko.
Gutnov to Baev. Berlin, 3 September 1921
Dear Gappo!
I received your letter with the zemstvo’s petition. I immediately sent it on to be added to the papers at the Min[istry] of For[eign] Affairs. So far you and I have come together splendidly, and everything is proceeding as it should. I am waiting for the permit, and then we shall wait for you! I informed you of the steps I had taken. Did you not receive it?
For now, goodbye! Yours, Yelbas-Duko.
Gutnov to Baev. Berlin, 7 September 1921
Dear Gappo!
I have just received your third letter. So far I have sent you four letters and one postcard. Everything between us is taking shape as it should. The petition was submitted through the chamber of commerce to the Min[istry] of For[eign] Affairs. The first stage is compulsory, and it was passed successfully. The petition is now at the fin[al] stage. My wife has already been there, but matters are evidently not decided so quickly. My case rests on the fact that I cannot manage without you and need you in my publishing house. Everything has been marked urgent. I declared that I wished to summon you by telegram. I think it will succeed. And if it does not, I shall seek other paths and possibilities, but for the present I intend to do everything properly and in the best possible way. It greatly pleases me that I shall be able to help you and finally draw you out of the eastern darkness (even though it is the East!). I am especially glad that I can come to you in a difficult and impoverished hour just as you once came to me… but I shall never forget that time. For now, I am in your debt. And that debt remains eternal. In short, you and I are son and father = one with another! We are everything that human imagination can conceive, in the purest sense of the word! In soul and body I am an Ossetian—iron!
Here we shall create something together! My wife has heard you described in the best light. She has heard quite enough about you. She will welcome you as the most precious person in the world to us. She and I breathe as one person. She is already preparing the room where you will live—with us, of course. She is petitioning every office for permission for you to enter. In a word, you will be a member of our family. The three of us will breathe and live together!
And so, when you come… here, I think, you will see a vast field for activity. Life must seethe, not suffocate.
Sincere greetings from my wife. Perhaps you will receive the answer before this letter. Yours, Elbas.
Gutnov to Baev. Berlin, 19 September 1921
Dear Gappo!
I thought it would be easier to obtain a visa for you than it has proved in practice. It has become a little stuck in one place, but everything possible is being done. They wanted to send all the petitions to Sofia, supposedly because, under the decree of 2 August [19]21, all Russians are now placed on the same footing as other foreigners and German missions have been empowered to decide such questions (of visas) locally. I assume there is no such representative in Constantinople. But if we submitted the petition in Sofia, you would have to travel through four countries, encountering obstacles everywhere and suffering a great delay. I am trying to obtain it here; perhaps I shall succeed. You, for your part, should apply to the consulate. In short, I am attending to it. Everything is already being done. And there is a mass of work for you! Only come—we are waiting!
Here you have a little family close to you, consisting of two souls. We shall create a comfortable life. Life must be created and built; one must take much from life. Do not despair. I have had many failures, but of course I have never suffered blows like yours. I passed through failures and once again strode firmly forward. My path was barred everywhere; I was cast aside like a foolish boy, like a useless man, but I take revenge on no one! I follow my road firmly. In my life I am not as grateful to anyone as I am to you; yes, to you alone I owe everything, and to no one else. I have known a bitter and even very meagre life, but even as a twelve-year-old child I knew that I was striving toward the light and that no one would be able to bar that light from me. Do I intend to flatter anyone? No! I love everyone with a pure human love.
Dear Gappo, be at peace: everything that can possibly be undertaken is being done. You should not have failed to tell me earlier that you needed material assistance; by now something could have been sent.
Yours, Elbas.
Postscript by Frida Gutnov: My wife has been struggling for a whole hour now, wanting to scribble a few words to you in Russian, but nothing comes of it. She is taking care of everything for you and sends you her sincere greetings! Heartfelt greetings from your Frida Gutnov. Until we meet in Berlin!
Frida Gutnov to Baev. Berlin, September 1921
Dear Gappo!
Your letter made me very happy. I am very grateful to you. I cannot say it as I should like, because I do not know Russian. But I also believe that all words that come from the heart will always find their way!
Our little hearth awaits you! Yours, Frida Gutnov.
Gutnov to Baev. Berlin, 20 September 1921
Dear Gappo!
Today I received your letter sent on 14 Sept[ember], so it spent five days on the way. The steps you have taken for the benefit of our common cause, for yourself, and for my family moved me deeply. Today I received permission from the local housing authority, which has no objection to your entering and staying in my flat; the next authority is the police, and I think we shall succeed there too—but the principal one is the Auswärtiges Amt. I shall go there myself to press the matter. I was also glad of your admission that you had no money. I went to the post office today, but they do not accept transfers. I shall try through the bank. I shall do everything I can. I shall send the books tomorrow. You are right: an agent without samples is not a proper agent. For God’s sake, Gappo, do not regard anything we are doing together as a humiliation. You are dealing with a man who is very close to you in his heart, eternally grateful to you, and praying for your health. I sympathise with you in everything from the bottom of my heart; you have lost your position, property, friends, and family—you have lost everything, but you have not lost me and my wife. We shall set aside a corner of our corner for you, and that will be good; and we shall work together, work for the good of culture and humanity—that is, we shall strive to create something for our poor people.
If there is any way to save your gold watch with its inscription from the Kabardian people, I shall do everything. I found the address of Baron Woldemar Yakovlevich Uexküll. He lives in Upper Bavaria. I wrote to him about you yesterday and sent the letter by express train. I await his reply. Perhaps he has connections that will help obtain the visa here.
The first issue of Spolokhi will appear in mid-October or early November. It is my publication, purely literary and non-partisan. Dear Gappo, I am certain that you will be here—if not now, then a little later—and together we shall create an enormous enterprise. I. N. Dyakov, the mayor of Kyiv, is also here; he too has a publishing house and bookshop. There is no shame in that! One can only be proud.
But one question is gnawing at me: tell me frankly and honestly, without embarrassment, are you in great need of money? Shall I send you some? The [magazine’s] editor will be A. Drozdov, a young and well-known writer of fiction. He is talented. As you see, there is a field of work here. But we must press on so that permission is obtained sooner. My wife sincerely clasps your hand, and I send my deepest greetings as well!
Yours, Elbas-Duko.
Gutnov to Baev. Berlin, 26 September 1921
Dear Gappo!
I received your letter sent on 18 Sept[ember]. It moves me greatly that you have taken up the work so eagerly. The day before yesterday I sent you 500 marks and twenty dictionaries. Sell the latter; I need nothing for them. I am now awaiting permission from police headquarters, and then I shall go in person once more to the Min[istry] of For[eign] Affairs. Arrange matters so that afterwards we shall have contact with Ossetia, and above all with the Caucasus as a whole. There is as much work as you could want, enough for several clerks; you can dictate to two or three of them.
Do not sell the watch. I shall send you money. I sent 500 mar[ks] through the bank.
Frida is offended simply because her feelings for you are of the purest, most familial kind, and therefore she would rather hear simply “Frida.”
The police asked how you were related to me; I answered that my mother was your cousin. That is how it must be. Bear it in mind. For the authorities only.
Russian publishing in Germany is still developing. Fiction is the most plentiful. There are fewer scholarly works. There is very little in specialised fields (little demand). Take an interest in publishing; it is a fine and civilising enterprise.
Greetings from Frida. Yours, Elbas-Duko.
Gutnov to Baev. Berlin, 2 October 1921
Dear Gappo!
The visa business keeps dragging on: it has now passed through as many as four offices and must still pass through another four or five. It turns out not to be as simple as I thought. But there is hope that we shall obtain permission. It will take several more weeks. Have you received the money? Have you received the dictionaries?
Spolokhi will appear at the end of this month. A non-partisan magazine. Great Russian writers are contributing. It ought to succeed! Perhaps you can create a market for the magazine there. I have already sold [the dictionary] in every other country: America, China, Japan, England, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and all the Balkan states except Turkey and Greece. It is doing well. There is no other dictionary, after all.
Baron Uexküll, it turns out, lives in Italy, and he too will contribute material in German. He was delighted by my letters and writes that he would be very glad to see you at his home in Italy while you are passing through. He loves the Ossetians dearly. He closes his long letter (in German): “Awaiting your reply, a faithful friend of the Ossetian people sends you greetings,” W. Ixkull.
And how is your health? I have never even asked, though it is so important. Write quickly and tell me everything. Sincere greetings from Frida! Yours, Elbas-Duko.
Gutnov to Baev. Berlin, 5 October 1921
Dear Gappo!
I received yesterday the letter you sent on 26 September and today the one sent on 25 Sept[ember]. I see that on the 25th you wrote without agitation, whereas on the 26th you were very agitated. First, to avoid any misunderstanding: the newspaper Vremya is sent to you by its editorial office on my instructions, and I have nothing whatsoever to do with publishing the newspaper. I merely print it for the usual fee. You are needlessly upset about this. Second: Spolokhi means the Northern Lights, or else distant summer lightning, and so it must not be confused with other ideas. The magazine will be non-partisan, and therefore will contain no polemical articles.
But why should you and I be agitated? You need calm. You will probably come here, and then we shall talk in person as friends and relatives. In these days of your persecution, our intention is to give you some relief, to soften things for you generally, not to make them harder. I see and feel that our letters are crossing. I have sent you four letters, 500 mar[ks], twenty dictionaries, and a packet of envelopes. Money for the journey will be sent once we receive permission. Suits and other things are 75 per cent cheaper here. We shall arrange everything here together. We sympathise with you from the bottom of our hearts and are exerting ourselves, but it is bureaucracy that drags all this out.
Sincere greetings from Frida as well. Yours, Elbas-Duko.
Frida Gutnov to Baev. Berlin, 12 October 1921
The letter was written in German; Russian translation by A. V. Darchieva.
Dear Gappo!
I thank you with all my heart for your kind letters. I feel happy and proud that you think of me too. I too should like to write to you often and at length, but my Russian is not yet fluent enough to describe freely what I think. And so this time I shall have to torment you a little with a letter in German.
I have known you, dear Gappo, for as long as I have known my Eugen. Not a day passed without Eugen telling me about you, his parents, his brothers and sisters. Of you, dear Gappo, he spoke with the greatest pride as a benefactor of his people, and with immense love and gratitude … <lacuna> the noblest and finest representatives of his people.
We consider it an honour that our modest dwelling will become your home, and we look forward to it with the liveliest joy. We are making every effort to hasten the issue of your entry visa. Applications of this kind, however, must pass through many government offices and then through many individual departments before a result is obtained. But one must not lose patience, and you, dear Gappo, may be certain: where there is a will, there is a way. We shall obtain the entry permit without fail. Tomorrow I shall go to police headquarters again, inquire about the state of the matter, and ask once more that the process be expedited. As soon as we receive a favourable answer, Eugen—and possibly the Foreign Office as well—will notify you by telegram. Only do not grieve or lose heart, dear Gappo. Once you are with us, our task will be to make you forget the difficult and sorrowful time. And we shall gladly fulfil that task.
Next time I shall write in Russian. Until our joyful meeting in Berlin, I send you many heartfelt greetings. Yours, Frida.
Gutnov to Baev. Berlin, 13 October 1921
Dear Gappo!
I received your letter of 4 October [19]21 the day before yesterday, but I was very busy and could not reply quickly. I cannot and do not wish to answer your letter point by point, because I am waiting for the visa; when I receive it, you must come here without delay. There is much to do! I shall say only one thing (and take no offence): I invite you as a relative—my mentor and the person closest to me in Europe—to whom I owe everything; but do not think, Gappo, that I am inviting you into some failing enterprise! The business is growing, and the two of us alone (my wife and I) built it up. No other devil helped us in our work. I employ only typesetters, printers, and their other assistants. My wife and I direct the whole enterprise, and we are its sole owners!
I work only with the bank, where I receive credit. My firm enjoys confidence. It has a good reputation. In a word, we are on our own! You will be the most welcome person among us, and we shall work together. It is difficult to work with Lunacharsky’s assistants; I did so, but have broken with them. I recognise no dictatorship over myself!
I am not wasting a minute. I am waiting for the visa now, and so I shall not write much. Warm greetings, yours, Elbas Duko.
I have received another letter from my brother at home. They are living very badly there, but how can I help them?…
Gutnov to Baev. Berlin, 21 October 1921
Dear Gappo!
We have now obtained the permission of the local authorities, and at the insistence of the Min[istry] of For[eign] Affairs it has already been sent to Trieste, Italy, to make it easier for you to come here. The German consul in Trieste will inform you of his decision, for your fate—whether you enter Germany or not—is in his hands. These are the new rules: consuls decide independently once the permission of the local authorities has been obtained. I sent it to him yesterday. If anything important arises, my telegraphic address is Irondruck Berlin. I advise you not to travel to Prague, otherwise all our efforts will be wasted. We think you will soon be here. Life here is four or five times cheaper than there!!! I shall send money for your journey, and from here we shall pay the debts you have there. I vouch for it! Thus I await the consul’s reply, and then your arrival.
Yours, Elbas-Duko.
Gutnov to Baev. Berlin, 24 October 1921
Dear Gappo!
And so I now await your answer. Why are you no longer writing? Permission from the local authorities has been obtained and sent to the German envoy in Trieste. You will surely obtain his permission there as well. You must not travel to Prague. There is war there now! And it would ruin everything.
How much does the journey cost? Have you not inquired? I shall pay your debts from here. Life here is four or five times cheaper. Dear Gappo! We are sincerely glad that we have managed to obtain permission and that we shall surely see you here with us! Frida and I have just decided to send you 5,000 marks (five thousand) at once, and I think that will be enough for the journey.
When you travel through Trieste, call on Uexküll; he will be glad. And so, Gappo! Khorz ual bairai! Uastyrdzhi dyn fændag radtæd! (“Be well! May Uastyrdzhi grant you a road!”)
Yours, Elbas-Duko.
Gutnov to Baev. Berlin, 1–2 November 1921
Dear Gappo!
Yesterday I received the enclosed letter from Gruzenberg. I hope this will bring you joy as well. So the Trieste (German) embassy has still not sent you word. Everything now depends on that envoy. Forgive me—not the embassy, but the consulate! Everything depends on him! I sent him petitions twice and asked him to reply by telegram, but so far there has been no answer. I am also at fault before you… I promised to send 5,000 mar[ks] but have not yet done so; I shall send them tomorrow morning. I think that will be enough for the journey. You have somehow stopped writing… No money… I understand. I feel it. The magazine Spolokhi has gone on sale. Tomorrow I shall send you several copies. Sell them as you see fit. I need nothing for them. But I think you should be here soon. Only through Italy! And so, dear Gappo, we clasp your hand and await your speedy arrival!
Yours, Elbas and Frida.
(added the following morning) Dear Gappo! Yesterday evening at home I wrote the letter above. I have now received at the print shop a letter from the German consul in Trieste asking me to send him 100,000 mar[ks] so that you can be notified by telegram of your departure—that is, that in Trieste you will receive permission to enter Germany. My wife is now going to the bank to transfer money to you and to the consul. So, until we meet very soon. I clasp your hand. Yours, Yelbas.
Gutnov to Baev. Berlin, 4 November 1921
Dear Gappo!
We received your postcard of 27 October, but I think that by the time you receive this letter you will be in a different frame of mind. Set out quickly! I have just written to Uexküll so that he can somehow arrange for the two of you to meet. It is a great pity. Two packets of ten copies each of the orth[ographic] dictionary were sent to you by post, as was one packet of canned food, and you received none of it. Three times I sent you Spolokhi (twenty-five copies in all); I think you will still receive them. Before your departure, be sure to establish firm contacts so that we shall have a representative there! It is essential! And so this will be the last letter; now we shall wait for you here.
Yours, Elbas and Frida.
Be sure to write while you are travelling, so that we know how your journey is going. Send a telegram from the German border so that I can set out to meet you somewhere.
Gutnov to Baev. Berlin, November 1921
Dear Gappo!
I have just received a card from you. I had begun to think that perhaps something had happened. For God’s sake, be careful in everything. I am very surprised that obtaining [the visa] is taking so long.
Do not stay too long with the baron. My wife has already prepared a corner for you in our room. In short, everything is in order. I fully expected you by the holidays. Would you perhaps write another little letter to Andrei, asking him to give some advice to my beloved little brother Elbrus? On his own initiative, he is learning the turner’s trade at the Vocational School. But I should like to prepare him for the graphic arts and profession. Our great future undertaking!! I ask you to do everything you can!
We are waiting for you! I wish you a safe journey. Yours, Elbas and Frida.
Gutnov to Baev. Berlin, undated, before January 1922. Fragment
Tomelleri reproduces only this fragment of an undated letter written before Baev’s arrival in Berlin.
Well, dear Gappo, as you can see, I am already making such a request of you, but it is precisely in difficult times that we must respond to one another—especially in difficult times. And you and I, I am certain, shall be here in Germany; compared with this nightmare, one might call this place a paradise! You did not deserve what you have now experienced and endured, and my wife and I shall take you into our home here as our father!… We have already set aside for you one of our two rooms, and we are proud that we are able to bring you some happiness. We await you impatiently!
Berlin State Library, Manuscripts and Early Printed Books Department, Nachlass Georg Gappo Baiew, folder VIII, file 2, fol. 11v.
Gutnov to Baev. Berlin, 6 June 1922
Dear Gappo!
This time I have nevertheless decided to write to you about what I have repeatedly intended to discuss with you, and for which purpose alone I invited you on Friday. You, of course, guessing the subject of the conversation, decided that it would be better not to come! I shall be completely frank! Do you remember, Gappo, the letters you wrote from Constantinople? I think you do! Your letters were full of fire… You thirsted for work! You strove to reach the world city of Berlin so that you could begin working from here… You wanted to help me! You wrote that I was doing splendidly by inviting important people into my enterprise, supposedly on the American model!… You promised to create a large office capable of moving my enterprise forward… You promised to attract many more things and many more people here!…
But at the beginning of January this year you succeeded in reaching Berlin. We did everything we could! I sympathised with you for having found yourself in such destitution and tried in every way to come to your aid. Everything that had to be done was done! After several weeks I asked you to help me with the enterprise, but you said that you did not yet know Berlin and needed to look around. I kept meeting you halfway, yet I could see no end to it. I repeatedly asked you to write a preface to Kosta—only two pages. You have been promising it for three months now; I ordered Ossetian type and had punches specially made, all at enormous expense. Yet in three months you have still been unable or unwilling to write the preface. I asked you dozens of times to take an interest in my enterprise, if only because we were all living together. I gave you the opportunity to work independently on Spolokhi; the work, although altogether no more than a single day’s labour, has now gone on for a full month… You go from library to library. For scholarly purposes you want to attend the university, and you have enrolled there! You inspect pavements, municipal buildings, churches, barracks, and everything else that has nothing whatever to do with publishing or editorial work. In short, you occupy yourself as people do when they are living on money they have earned. You look upon me merely as a cash cow!!!
Lately you have even been coming to the print shop only on Fridays to collect money. I see clearly and distinctly that I am a stranger to you and entirely alien! My wife and I earn our daily bread by the sweat of our brows!
You look upon us as complete strangers and even try to emphasise this at every opportunity. You do not think at all about where the money is to come from; it is simply supposed to fall from the sky. Can all your excursions through institutions provide you with bread? Five months have already passed, and even now you do not think of starting work—that is, work that provides bread. For some reason other people are expected to be cash cows. Is it not time to think about this? Visiting palaces and beautiful buildings as a profession ought to have stopped by now; it is time to begin serious work—work!!!
I know of no other city like Berlin where there is no work for a person seeking it!… We ourselves have so much work that my wife and I labour more than twelve hours a day; I do not understand why such work does not suit you. There are many people in Berlin who once held positions even higher than yours and now work almost as servants. Why, a Bavarian prince works as a proofreader in a print shop; why should you not work in publishing, even as a proofreader, if you are incapable of anything else? The trade and industry section of Spolokhi, even if calculated by the line as an article, is worth no more than 600 marks! And the whole job takes two days!
One little article—and then cuttings from Berlin newspapers, which is positively improper even in the eyes of the reader… My partner has left the publishing department without giving any reason. I must now think seriously about whether I shall continue the trade and industry section; even if I do, I shall pay only what is due for it: no more than 150 marks for an original article of one printed page. I intend to make the cuttings myself, and therefore I suggest that you give the matter serious thought.
Dear Gappo, you are neither old nor ill; think and put yourself in my position too. My whole family at home is starving—my parents, brothers, and sisters—and I must help them without fail, so I cannot take on too heavy a burden. Besides, my wife and I have seen nothing but work; surely we too would like to rest for a couple of weeks or, at the very least, have the moral right to think about our future life.
It was very difficult for me to express this letter and my heart aches, but I can state categorically that if you do not take an interest in working for the firm, the assistance will end.
Think—might I be even a little bit right!?
Yours, Elbas.
Berlin State Library, Manuscripts and Early Printed Books Department, Nachlass Georg Gappo Baiew, folder VIII, file 2, fols. 38–38v.
© Publication of the letters: Darchieva, S. V. “A ‘Gutenberg’ from Ossetia in Berlin: The Correspondence of E. A. Gutnov and G. V. Baev (1921).” Proceedings of the North Ossetian Institute for Humanities and Social Studies, 2026, issue 60 (99), pp. 164–195. DOI: 10.46698/VNC.2026.99.60.007. The documents are held in the V. I. Abaev North Ossetian Institute for Humanities and Social Studies Research Archive (T. A. Tsomaeva collection). Russian translation of the letters written in German by A. V. Darchiev.
Additional documents: Vittorio Springfield Tomelleri, “Pages from Gappo Baev’s Life Abroad: New Evidence,” Current Issues in Philology and Pedagogical Linguistics, 2025, no. 1, pp. 207–228. The documents are held in the Berlin State Library, Manuscripts and Early Printed Books Department, among the Gappo Baev papers (Nachlass Georg Gappo Baiew), folder VIII, file 2.
Context for the later collaboration: Vittorio Springfield Tomelleri, “From the History of Ossetian Writing: G. V. Baev’s 1925 Memorandum,” Proceedings of the North Ossetian Institute for Humanities and Social Studies, 2021, issue 39 (78), pp. 147–182; and “Zur Kaukasiologie in Deutschland: Gappo Baev und Adolf Dirr,” Kwartalnik Neofilologiczny, 2025, vol. LXXII, no. 1, pp. 187–230.