In the portrait created by artist Vladimir Gau, Natalia Nikolaevna Pushkina (Goncharova) is depicted, recognized as the first beauty of Russia and the wife of the great poet. In the photograph next to her is her great-grandson from the Goncharov line, Konstantin Dmitrievich Goncharov.

This boy became the last legal owner of the Polotnyany Factory, taking charge at the age of eight after the sudden death of his father, Dmitry Dmitrievich Goncharov, a well-known industrialist and philanthropist. Konstantin was a contemporary of the 20th century and by the time the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia, he was 17 years old.

Fragile and slightly big-eared, he still wore a gymnasium cap. Like his father, Konstantin was very much loved by the factory workers, as the Goncharov family did a lot for the people. He could not come to terms with how the Bolsheviks were destroying his native land. Saying goodbye to his mother and loved ones, he set off to Novocherkassk, where the White struggle began and the first Volunteer detachments were forming. This was in early 1918, in winter.

Kostya Goncharov disappeared without a trace, burned in the flames of the new Russian Troubles. Did he manage to reach the Whites? Or was he killed at one of the railway stations? This remains unknown. A little Russian swan, a descendant of the famous Goncharov family and a relative of Pushkin...