My father’s arrest brought me a lot of pain, but besides all, my schoolmates and I started thinking about life. I used to be a common pioneer before, but then my friends and I started thinking and I began to write poems. I believed my father and neighbors to be innocent people as well as many other people who were disappearing at the time. We discussed this with my friends and somebody must have reported on us. As a result, Emmanuel Korzhavin was expelled from school and so was I. We were accused of criminal thoughts. The school principal was particularly emphasizing that I was the son of an enemy of people [29] and was politically unreliable.
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Displaying 38161 - 38190 of 50826 results
Lazar Sherishevskiy
In summer 1941 mama wanted to send me to a pioneer camp. He told me she had made all arrangements, but then the war began. We evacuated with my mother’s enterprise: mama, grandma, Aunt Maria and I.
We went to Stalingrad [present Volgograd, about 1000 km south of Moscow] in September 1941. There were numbers of people evacuated from Western Ukraine and Moldavia that had been recently annexed to the USSR. I saw religious Jews wearing black hats and payes. I didn’t talk to them, not knowing the language they spoke. We were accommodated at a stadium. The town authorities suggested that people went to kolkhozes [30] to work and live there. We joined one group and went to a big village of Basovy Khutora near Kursk. They grew water melons. We were accommodated in local houses and I noticed there were no icons or crosses in them.
In autumn 1943 was recruited to the army. There were 2 recruitment periods in 1943: in summer boys, born in 1925, and in autumn – the ones, born in 1926, were recruited. I stayed in a reserve unit and then was sent to the frontline forces for 3 months. Our 1st Guard Mine Brigade fought near Nevel near Pskov. [About 450 km west of Moscow]. Later this front was named the 1st Pribaltiyskiy front. Our ‘Katyusha’ units [The 82mm BM-8 and 132mm BM-13 Katyusha rocket launchers were built and fielded by the Soviet Union in World War II. The launcher got this unofficial, but immediately recognized in the Red Army, name from the title of a Russian wartime song, Katyusha.] were moving along the front line relocating continuously to avoid aircraft targeting. We incurred minor losses. Our unit consisted of 8 firing platoons and one intelligence. I served in the intelligence platoon. I was responsible for identifying the enemy location. I had a stereo telescope. We crawled to the spot dragging a wooden box with a telescope, then install and fix it and do the survey. Once a mine exploded nearby. The splinters broke my box and one splinter injured me in the shoulder. I stayed in hospital 2 weeks.
I was arrested in spring 1944. It all started in the reserve unit near Gorkiy, when the KGB [31] special unit [responsible for checking political reliability of the troopers. There were special departments in all civil offices, army units and in prisons] reviewed my personal information and found out that my father had been arrested. They also took away from me my notebook of poems where I wrote about the hardships of life in the army. They arranged for an informer to become my friend. His name was Yevgeniy Frolov, my co-tenant in the earth hut. He also wrote poems. I was 18 and innocent and was glad to make friends with someone like me. He wrote poor poems, though. The rest of my fellow comrades were common village boys. They were not bad, but uneducated for the most part. This man started talking to me about collectivization [32], arrests, i.e., tried to provoke me to express my thoughts. He talked provocatively of the regime and then wrote his reports, actually presenting the situation as if I was saying whatever he told me. These reports were then presented as evidence of witnesses. I read them getting familiar with my case. These ‘witnesses’ wrote everything they were told by the investigation officer. Some of those guys, who were uneducated, just signed what the officer gave them. I found this out many years later, after rehabilitation. The prosecution officer interrogated some of these ‘witnesses’. He asked one : ‘Is this your signature?’ ‘Right.’ ‘ Here you write that Sherishevskiy had similar talks with other military men.’ ‘What talks? – Similar, - sad the prosecutor. ‘What does it mean?’, - asked the witness. ‘But this is what you said!’ ‘What I said! His is what the officer wrote and told me to sign this! I am a soldier and he is a major. If a major order a soldier, this soldier must sign’. However, talks with agent Frolov were the most exposing. In late March 1944 the special department finalized its work. He brigade headquarters arrested me. Our division officer and a major from Moscow were waiting for me there. They declared I was writing anti-Soviet poems and that I was the son of an arrested man and that I was an enemy of the Soviet power and arrested for this reason. And they presented the evidence reports to me. They invited witnesses to the earth hut, interrogated me and issued minutes. They also presented to me somebody else’s poems cursing Stalin– they were illiterate poems. They were written to read the text from a mirror reflection, but the signature under them was no reflected writing, and it belonged to me. Major Kuzmin asked me whether it was my writing. I said I didn’t write it. He stated that it was my signature. I said I didn’t sign it. He them showed me my intelligence reports and asked me whether this was my signature. I said it was. ‘And under the poem?’ ‘No’. ‘But they are alike.’ I said: ‘They are, but I didn’t sign this’. They also gave me a mirror to read the poem. It was cursing Stalin, but helplessly in terms of literature. I said I didn’t write such poor poems and they can find mine in my notebook. They took away my notebook with poems and letters from friends. They put me in a pit and I was kept there looking disgracefully. Then they transported me to Moscow. The major from Moscow and the major – head of our special department convoyed me. They had my poems and a thick folder with minutes of interrogations and my papers. Frolov, the informer, also went with us. They had their boots, buttons and badges polished and looked very decent before going to Moscow. Frolov looked proud and had a look of dedication to the cause that he served. There were also 2 gunmen guarding me.
What they wrote was sufficient to take me to a tribunal that sentenced me to 5 years in a camp and 3 years of limitation of my rights. I was convicted for anti-Soviet talks. He sentence started as follows: ‘Feeling anger to the Soviet power for his father’s arrest Sherishevskiy had wrong and critical thoughts, did not trust authorities, condemned their actions and had anti-Soviet discussions and is sentenced thereof’. Then it continued: ‘For anti-Soviet propaganda expressed in anti-Soviet discussions with the military and decadent poems qualified under Article 58 Item 10 part 2, he is sentenced to 5 years in a camp and 3 years of limitation of his electoral rights with no confiscation of property due to having no property’. This was the only difference of my sentence from others – stating that I had no property. Mama didn’t know about me. I wrote her from the front, but then I disappeared for 3 months. I was put in prison on 22 March, and on 12 May I was exiled.
Director of the plant was an NKVD [33] major – Abramzon, a Jew and there were civilian technicians and engineers. This was the way the empire worked – it wanted its technical work resources to wear NKVD uniforms. I will always be grateful to the civilian engineer Zakhar Gurevich, a Jew, who worked in the design office of the construction department. He took my letters past the censors and sent them for me. There were many Jewish prisoners. There were Russian and other nationalities. I will tell about two Jews I met in this camp. They were workers and had been sentenced under political convictions. One of them was Abram Fux, a high-skilled gauger. He had been released, but then imprisoned again – NKVD needed his logistic skills. Another Jew was Zelik Polonskiy from Chernovtsy. He was a high-skilled bricklayer. All incentives for good work in the camp were stomach-related. They gave additional bread or cereal, called ‘cream-dish’ for good work. Zelik’s photo was on all boards for distinguished workers. He came from Western Ukraine. His mother tongue was Yiddish and he spoke fluent Ukrainian. There are lots of talks that Jews do not like workers’ professions, but these two were highly qualified workers. Here were no anti-Semitic moods among prisoners, though there were routinely matters of arguments. The management of the camp was still ‘contaminated’ with Jewish elements: major Abramzon, Colonel Zfas, also a Jew, deputy director of the camp, and there was a number of Jews among key personnel. They didn’t distinguish between prisoners, though. They didn’t dare. Medical chief Boris Feldman, major of medical service, did have a better attitude towards Jewish prisoners, though.
I heard about the end of the war one night in the barrack in 1945. The radio was on day and night. An officer rushed to our political barrack to find out whether we, anti-Soviet elements, were not mourning after Hitler, ‘our dear chief’. We didn’t mourn, we were happy. We were hoping for amnesty. There was a day off on 9 May and fireworks in the evening.
I took part in amateur concerts writing reprises and songs. There was a cultural education unit in the camp. A civilian was in charge of it. There was also an ensemble of prisoners from Moscow region. There were professional musicians there. They toured to camps in Moscow region giving concerts. In early 1947 their truck was hit by a train and many prisoners died. I was invited to the ensemble to be in charge of the literature unit. In spring 1947 I was assigned to this ensemble. We rehearsed during the day and went on concerts in the evening. I didn’t always go to concerts. I got to know that there was a camp near the Krymskiy Bridge in the center of Moscow. There was a number of camps in Bolshaya Kaluzhskaya, present Leninsky Prospekt – it’s called Academstroy: all scientific institutes, big houses and the University were built by prisoners. Solzhenitsyn [34] was a parquet floor worker there. By the way, in his book ‘Archipelag Gulag’ he described a concert of our ensemble in his camp. We staged play and concerts.
My grandfather worked at the factory before he became a Soviet activist after the revolution of 1917. He joined the Communist Party and held official positions in Bogorodsk. He was manager in some offices and a shop superintendent at his factory.
My father’s brother Teviy Sherishevskiy was born in 1886. He became fond of revolutionary ideas, when he was young. At the age of 19 he took part in the revolutionary uprising in 1905 [leading ultimately to the 1905 revolution], was arrested and spent 10 years in the czarist exile. Unfortunately, I don’t know any details of his exile, but I know that he was involved in hard work in Siberian mines. His living conditions were unbearable and he was in irons, but he never complained about it he said he met wonderful people there driven by revolutionary ideas and ready to give their lives for them. He was released by the revolution of 1917, the newly established Soviet regime released all political prisoners. He became a member of the association of political exiles.
My father Veniamin Sherishevskiy was the youngest son of his father Aron Sherishevskiy. After finishing cheder my father could study at a gymnasium with his older brothers’ support. My father was well educated: he knew Hebrew and Yiddish (they spoke Yiddish in the family), and French and German. After finishing his gymnasium he took an accounting course and went to work as an accountant. In 1913 he was recruited to the czarist army and served in Siauliai at the border of the Russian Empire and Eastern Prussia. When WWI began, my father’s unit relocated to Eastern Prussia in August 1914 where they took part in a fierce battle. They suffered a terrible defeat: general Samsonov shot himself after the battle, many Russian officers and soldiers were captured. My father was in captivity for 5 years. The captives lived in barracks in a camp. There were English and French prisoners, and my father mastered his French and German in the camp. He said there was no national segregation in the camp. He was just another Russian prisoner for them. Germans sent prisoners to some farm works.
When my father returned, he was mobilized to the Red army. My father took part in combat action fighting against the White army [8] near Kiev. He returned home in 1920.
My father went to work as an accountant in Mostootriad, a bridge construction and renovation company. Later he went to work at the instrumentation plant ‘Leninskaya Forge’ where he worked as an accountant till he perished.
My parents got married in 1924. I don’t know how they met – they never mentioned it. I, their only child, was born in 1926. They were not religious and had no Jewish wedding.
My maternal grandfather Yefim Finkelstein came from Mazyr town in Belarus. [about 600 km west of Moscow] He had a secondary education and was a timber specialist. He worked in timber companies and even wore a uniform cap with leaves on it.
My grandfather died, when I was small, and I don’t remember him that well. He was buried in the Jewish Lukianovskoye cemetery in Kiev. After his funeral my grandmother followed the mourning ritual [Shivah].
In autumn 1905 during a pogrom [10] in Kiev, when my mother was 9-10years old, the family took shelter in a basement, where the pogrom makers didn’t reach them, but they broke into their apartment and robbed it.
My grandparents were very religious. They lit candles on Saturday and had silver stands for them. They often went to the synagogue and had old prayer books. My grandmother prayed every Friday. On Friday morning she covered her head, lit candles and prayed. On holidays and on seder my grandfather put on his old kitel and yarmulke, lit candles and broke bread or matzah over the wine and recited a prayer. They had kosher silver crockery stored separately and only used on Pesach. They had all necessary accessories for rituals. They celebrated all holidays and gave me Hanukkah gelt on Chanukkah. Hey ordered matzah for Pesach and I stole a piece according to the ritual and posed traditional questions. We had delicious traditional food on Pesach, delicious Haman ears [hamantashen] with poppy seed filling on Purim.
My grandfather had finished a gymnasium and had fluent Russian, but he spoke Yiddish at home.
Being a pioneer [11] at school where we were taught to be atheists, I tried to convince my grandparents to change their views, but without success, I guess.
In 1941 my uncle went to the Territorial army [People’s volunteer corps during World War II; its soldiers patrolled towns, dug trenches and kept an eye on buildings during night bombing raids. Students often volunteered for these battalions], though he was over 50 years old. He perished in 1942.
My mother finished a gymnasium for girls in Kiev. Golda Meir [13] studied there as well 5 years later. There was a 3 or 4 % [14] admission quota for Jews in those gymnasia, but there were also private gymnasia, and my mother must have finished a private one. My grandfather could afford to pay for her studies.
My paternal grandfather Aron Sherishevskiy and grandmother Malka (I don’t know her maiden name) died in Kiev in the early 1920s, before I was born. They came from Belarus. They were poor – I think my grandfather was a tanner or a shoemaker.
They were religious. I saw their portraits that were lost later. They looked like orthodox Jews: my grandfather wore a yarmulka, payes and a beard and my grandmother had a kerchief on.
Their children, including my father, went to cheder. My father’s brothers went to work, when they grew older, but my father managed to continue his education.
Isaac finished a Chemical College in Leningrad and became a scientist in chemistry. He published scientific works in Russia and abroad. Isaac was also a good musician. He lived in Leningrad and perished during the siege [4].
After finishing the gymnasium my mother entered the higher course for girls at the Legal Faculty in Kiev University. He finished the course in 1917. She studied the czarist laws that were cancelled after the revolution. So mama went to work as a librarian.
,
1917
See text in interview
My parents spoke Russian at home and switched to Yiddish, when they didn’t want me to know the subject of their discussion.
. I remember the famine in 1932 and 1933 [17]. Terrible famine. My father received rationed food at the plant. I remember taking four and some other products home on sledges. My parents bought me white bread at the market paying crazy money for it. Mother and Father received rationed bread, black with green shimmer. My cousin brother Abram received some black bread rations at the shipyard. Papa earned 600 or 700 rubles at the time – this was a good salary and he was a valued employee at his plant.