The following was written by Kit Gorohoff, the oldest son of Michael Innokentevich Gorohoff

My mother, born on Gomel, Russia, was the oldest of three children, with a younger brother Andrew, and a sister, who died at the age of two of diphtheria. When my mother was three or so, the family moved to Harbin, Manchuria. My grandfather had accepted a teaching job there, at the Komerchiskaya Uchilishcha, (school). The Russian government had obtained a concession from the Chinese government, allowing the Trans-Siberian railroad to run a line through Manchuria to Vladivostok, greatly reducing the travel time to the Far East. Harbin was a major junction, as it is on the Sungari River, which was a major water transportation link in Manchuria.

To educate the children of the railroad staff stationed in Harbin, schools were established, along with the other railroad infrastructure. By all accounts life there was pleasant, in spite of the weather, since they had a large house, Chinese servants, and association with the prestigious school, which was apparently a K-12. My grandfather taught Russian language at the school, which my mother and her brother attended. The effects of the Revolution on life in Harbin are not clear, but since it was at the other end of the country, and a civil war intervened, it took some years before the family decided to leave.

They arrived in Vancouver, Canada, via the Empress of Russia, April 20, 1927. The were able to leave with some assets, since they bought farm property in Eastern British Columbia, near the little town of Windermere, at the head waters of the Columbia River. It appears that they knew very little about farming, and the property had no water supply in the summer, in spite of the proximity to the Columbia. They lost the property, and moved back to Vancouver.

My mother had received a scholarship to Pomona College, in Claremont, California, through a close Harbin friend, Mary Vesey. In spite of my mother’s concerns about the adequacy of her command of the English language, she accepted the scholarship, and spent 1928 going to college there. She greatly enjoyed her stay there, judging by her later reminiscences, and continued to correspond with school friends all her life. She was unable to continue, even with the scholarship, due to family financial problems, and came back to Vancouver. She met my father at a Russian community event, I believe, during the next year or so. My father had been required to learn to dance while a midshipman, and was, in his day, a pretty dapper fellow.