the episode glossed for his children as a voluntary resignation. Poltoratzky was one of the wealthiest men in Russia. He owned seven large estates, at least two houses in Moscow, and various smaller properties and investments. All this wealth had been accumulated in a mere two generations, as both his grandfathers were commoners ennobled to the rank of potomstvenniy dvorianin (hereditary untitled gentleman), Piotr Khlebnikov for service to Russian literature, and Mark Poltoratzky for his singing voice. All Serge Poltoratzky's paternal uncles married into the titled nobility. His only aunt married Alexey Olenin, the first director of the Russian Imperial Library. His mother's brother emigrated to the US, and the family lost touch with him during the 1796-1801 reign of Tsar Pavel I, who banned all foreign correspondence. Poltoratzky married in 1831, but within a few years his wife mysteriously disappeared, having been last seen leaving their Moscow house on foot. In 1843 he became engaged to Ellen Sarah Southee, 16 years his junior, and the daughter of an English gentleman farmer. She was related to poet Robert Southey. Later that year Poltoratzky's first wife was legally declared dead, his mother died, and his second marriage took place. From 1843 Poltoratzky made his home at Avchurino when not engaged in literary travels. There he and his wife had three daughters and two sons, the eldest of whom died in infancy. After the accession of the reform-minded Tsar Alexander II in 1855, many of the legal impediments to landowners’ freeing their serfs were removed. Poltoratzky took advantage of these changes to free his thousands of serfs between the years 1856 and 1859. In addition, he gave them land, livestock, tools and other goods to help them become self-supporting. He also advised the Tsar's Emancipation Committee, which was developing the terms of serf emancipation that would be enacted in 1861. In 1859 Poltoratzky discovered that two of his estate managers had massively defrauded him. The men were tried and convicted, which might have enabled Poltoratzky to gain legal redress from the debts incurred on his behalf, but he did not pursue this possibility. Around the same time it became known to the imperial government that Poltoratzky's English wife had never converted to the Russian Orthodox church, and furthermore, that their children were being raised in the Anglican church. While this was perhaps technically legal, so soon after the Crimean War it was