Mikhail Nomikos active in maritime trade was wealthy enough to pay for the higher education of his two younger daughters - Maria and Anna, which at that time was affordable mainly for the Russian aristocracy. At the end of the 19th century Maria Nomikos got higher education as a librarian and Anna - in medical science. Maria married her cousin Diamandopoulos, grandson of Iannis Nomikos. They lived in Sankt-Peterburg very wealthily and Maria did not work. They did not have children. Anna graduated from a higher educational institution for women in medicine that was opened in 1872 in Sankt-Peterburg. Anna specialized in pathologonanatomy and was among the first women in Russia who became a professor of medicine. Her husband Smislov was a chief engineer in a large plant in Sankt-Peterburg. They had two sons. When the revolution of 1917 happened, because of the immediate threat for his life Smislov emigrated to Czechoslovakia with one of the sons. The health condition of Anna at that moment was not allowing her to join them, and she remained in Russia with the other son.

Anna, the daughter of Mikhail Nomikos

But probably Mikhail Nomikos was not able to pay for the higher education of his oldiest daugter Agrippina when she was finishing gymnasium in Rostov with a golden medal for her excellent achievements. She got a special permission from the Russion authorities to work as a home teacher. The special permission was needed because she was fulfilling all the requirements to be a teacher except of the Russian citizenship, being a daughter of Greek citizen (Santorini and the other Cyclades Islands were united to the Greek State in 1832.). She began to work as a home teacher in the family of a very wealthy Russian merchant who was a widower with three daughters. His name was Mikhail Mikhailovich Gorbunov, and his merchant activity was wheat trade. Soon afterwards Agrippina married him and they had six more children together - Mikail, Leonid, Konstantin, Maria, Elena and Ksenia. The family had a German governess.

Mikhail Mikhaylovich Gorbunov Elena, daughter of Mikhail Gorbunov and Agrippina Nomikos

Elena is my grandmother, and that is how I know this story. She married an Armenian, and their son Georg married also an Armenian. They were my parents. I married a Greek and from 1993 live in Greece.

N. S.