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Klebansky Family
Shneyer
Zelman Klebansky was born in Kovno
in 1833. He married Sheyndel Anna Nelken in 1862 or 1863.
In 1865 he officially changed his name to Samuel. Archive records show he traveled
extensively while his family lived in Vilna and later, in Vienna (Austria).
Samuel
Klebansky arrived at Tiflis in 1885.
Why
Tiflis? and Why in 1880s?
Few
events influenced the decision to seek a better place to live and raise the
children. The Expansion of Russian Empire to the West did not go peacefully.
The two revolts of 1870s to restore the Commonwealth state were brutally
suppressed and the episodes of civil unrest continued up until 1880s.
At
that time Mr. Winner negotiated the contract with a local administration to
establish a warehouse and gun stores in Tiflis. Winner needed a reliable
person to run his business in an entire region. He met his good old friend
Samuel on his way to Moscow and offered him to become an official
distributor of gun powder, ammunition, and firearms, and represent the gun
powder manufacturer Winner in the region of Caucasus.
Samuel
Klebansky settled in Tiflis with his beautiful
wife and 7 children in the late 1880s.
The
family story says that to afford the move Samuel sold the family treasure -
the Stradivarius violin.
The business was going well and the family in
Kovno decided to send Samuel’s grand-nephew Isaak
to Tiflis to join the business in 1905. In Tiflis Isaak married Rachel Smayenok. Their son Grigory worked as a correspondent for GruzInform in 1970-1990s.
Photo: Grigory Isaakovich Klebansky (1940s)
At the end of XIX and beginning
of XX centuries Tiflis was a vibrant rapidly growing city, an important
transportation hub with booming economy and decent schools with a classic
academic program. Boys had received primary education in one of the
Tiflis Gymnasiums. In 1905 Lazar Klebansky
graduated from the 2nd all boys Gymnasium of Tiflis. From the local newspapers of that time,
we can learn that Klebansky family was among the
patrons on the Nadezhdensky orphanage. Maximilian and Grigory
(both born in Vilnius) continued their education in Medical School and
graduated in 1896 and 1900 accordingly.
They both had the good fortune to practice dentistry for many years
- Maximilian in Tiflis and Batumi, Grigory – in
Tiflis, while their older brother Aleksander ran the medical supplies and
equipment distribution company.
 . 
Photo: Maksimillian
Klebansky
Photo: Dr.
Grigory Samuilovich Klebansky (d.
1945)
The dental office of Dr. Grigory Samuilovich Klebansky
was located at Elizavetinskaya St. 46. After all these years the mark of where
the sign used to be is still visible at the main entrance.
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